The Coming Disillusionment

Like most people, I think Obama will win handily tomorrow, although the popular vote may be closer than polls predict. I have no personal dislike for the man; I think he is genuinely thoughtful and civil, even if most of his policies are standard Democratic boilerplate.

I do wonder, however, if Obama is setting himself up for a great disillusionment. Of course, every politician promises more than he possibly deliver. But few are as messianic as Obama has portrayed himself (although he has thankfully toned down the more grandiose rhetoric since the primaries). What are his voters going to do, when four years from now:

The midwestern factory workers with no marketable skills will still be working in dying industries, either in or on the verge of unemployment.

The rich vs. poor gap will not change, no matter what redistributive policies Premier Pelosi cooks up.

American troops will probably still be fighting somewhere.

Most of our energy will still come from foreign oil.

The climate will still be in "crisis," although I bet we'll see a de-emphasizing of the more alarmist studies once Bush is out of office.

The healthcare system will be a mess.

I'm sure there are many others. Or am I being too cynical?

Yes.

Why not be positive and get on board for change.

Hopefully thousands of those guys you mention will be working hi-wage union jobs manufacturing useful things like solar energy and wind energy equipment and new hi-tech cars.

And everyone will have health care.

I am sure you dont want to make your contribution to America as a naysayer.

Once again, I ask.....what is Sherm smoking?

Once again, it's a peace pipe.

And I once again urge the diehard rightwing obstructionists to reconsider and work togethor for constructive change.

What's in the pipe?

sodbuster wrote:
Hopefully thousands of those guys you mention will be working hi-wage union jobs manufacturing useful things like solar energy and wind energy equipment and new hi-tech cars.

UMMM Sherman, I hate to be the one to break this to you but for years, midwesterns have been getting paid (I won't say working) hi-wage union manufacturing jobs and as a result, GM, Ford and Chrysler are all about out of business.

That's what you get when you allow the union in.

Thanks.

sodbuster wrote:I am sure you dont want to make your contribution to America as a naysayer.

I do. I want to make Rush look civil. Maybe I can get my own talk show.

Stephanie wrote:Once again, I ask.....what is Sherm smoking?

The same "wacky" stuff the Democrats have been feeding him from his very 1st day as a State employee.

Back in those days it was part of one's "job requirement" if they expected to keep their job. Now days most employees are protected by Civil Service Laws ....... but the old timers were so throughly brainwashed due to "fear" that they have never been able to re-adjust their thinking, .... to take their "rose colored glasses" off and see things for what they truly are.



.

And the back peddeling starts...

Naming the staggering list of problems he inherits in his decisive defeat of Republican John McCain — two wars and "the worst financial crisis in a century," among them — Obama sought to restrain the soaring expectations of his supporters late Tuesday night even as he stoked them with impassioned calls for national unity and partisan healing.

"We may not get there in one year or even in one term," he said. "But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there."

source

As noted above, Obama started back peddling last night and now the media has started making excuses for him as well.

New crises, both foreign and domestic, are also likely to pop up in this rapidly changing world. Times have changed dramatically since Labor Day . The global financial crisis has greatly expanded Washington's role in the economy, even under a conservative Republican president. That lame-duck president will host a gathering of world leaders on Nov. 15 in Washington to discuss overhauling the architecture of global economic governance, another challenge that Obama will inherit.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy shrank in the third quarter, the first contraction in seven years, and every sign suggests that it will worsen in coming months.

That may force Obama, like most new presidents, to trim his wish list in the face of changing circumstances. Presidents-elect often realize quickly that programs developed months before are now obsolete, said former Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Frenzel of Minnesota .

Yet the new, young president who ran on hope and a vision of change has some cards to play.

"There will be a honeymoon period. He'll have 100 days, maybe as long as four to six months," historian Robert Dallek said. "But that will all end pretty quickly if he doesn't create some sense of forward motion," for the nation and for himself.

source

I bet he won't be backpeddling on this.

As for tax policy, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, in a piece in the Orlando Sentinel, warns that "in the guise of a 'middle-class tax cut,' Obama is adding a tax in order to create a new welfare program that will add to the annual $400 billion that we currently spend on our welfare system."

"According to the Tax Policy Center, each year Obama will take $70 billion from the 2 percent of small businesses and individuals who create more than 16 million jobs and will send checks for almost $100 billion to more than 40 percent, or approximately 60 million Americans, who pay no taxes at all," she wrote.

Obama calls this transfer of wealth a "refundable tax credit," not income redistribution.