Barack Obama!

[Calliope]

Mr Rudd is going to America to hold talks with Mr Obama on the financial crisis and Afghanistan. American officials say the success of the talks hinges on whether the Oval Office can find an interpreter proficient in Ruddspeak in time for the visit.

 

[MrBurns]

What a complete and utter waste of time, these guys do not listen to the real experts or they do and then massage it to get votes.

Rogers was right same as Schiff, these companies should be let go and then rebuild whats the point of propping up failures ??? so they can do it again ?

 

[Julia]

Mr Rudd is going to America to hold talks with Mr Obama on the financial crisis and Afghanistan. American officials say the success of the talks hinges on whether the Oval Office can find an interpreter proficient in Ruddspeak in time for the visit.

Maybe offer your services, Calliope? I reckon any of us here would do a pretty efficient translation job.

 

[Julia]

Saw an interview with Jim Rogers last night he blasted past and present Fed Reserve chiefs and Presidents for not understanding whats going on, Japan tried the bail out trick and it DOESN'T WORK.

The present strategy will only make things worse and they will get much worse.

Don't suppose we can expect anything more from KRudd, he's way out of his depth.

Go here -

http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/

look at the right hand side see videos, Jim Rogers interview, stupid web site doesnt show direct links - worth a look - really...........

I just don't understand why - with the widespread acceptance that this policy has failed so utterly in Japan - the strategy is being continued.

 

[MrBurns]

I just don't understand why - with the widespread acceptance that this policy has failed so utterly in Japan - the strategy is being continued.

Julia, I guess they just don't feel they can let companies like GM fail because of the unemployment consequences and the thousands of other business that rely on them.

From a purely economic viewpoint they should be allowed to fail, as Rogers said someone else better will come along to fill the gap but it's just too hard to let that happen politically.

It does have the real possibility to make things worse though because you're just propping up someone who has failed and the money will run out sooner or later. Are GM going to start selling more cars because they are being propped up ? No.

I think Rogers summed it up pretty well but to do what he says is just in the too hard basket I guess.

 

[Aussiejeff]

Julia, I guess they just don't feel they can let companies like GM fail because of the unemployment consequences and the thousands of other business that rely on them.

From a purely economic viewpoint they should be allowed to fail, as Rogers said someone else better will come along to fill the gap but it's just too hard to let that happen politically.

It does have the real possibility to make things worse though because you're just propping up someone who has failed and the money will run out sooner or later. Are GM going to start selling more cars because they are being propped up ? No.

I think Rogers summed it up pretty well but to do what he says is just in the too hard basket I guess.

The loss of face for World Leaders (and our beloved Asian & Western pollies in particular) if they let Mega-companies "too big to fail" to actually do just that - would be excruciatingly unbearable.

Gawd! Think how much their egos would be dented - let alone their non-existent next election chances.

No. AFATAC it's far, far better to just stick their heads up their collective bums and hope for the Rest Of The World to collapse first - then they can claim "See! It wasn't our fault - it was the Evil Global Financial Crisis that did it!"

They don't fool me one little bit.

 

[noirua]

Mr Rudd is going to America to hold talks with Mr Obama on the financial crisis and Afghanistan. American officials say the success of the talks hinges on whether the Oval Office can find an interpreter proficient in Ruddspeak in time for the visit.

More likely that President Obama sees Prime Minister Rudd as the only English speaking useful contact in the Far East. His sway with China makes him punch above his weight. So don't underrate our man of the moment.

 

[electronicmaster]

Mr Rudd is going to America to hold talks with Mr Obama on the financial crisis and Afghanistan. American officials say the success of the talks hinges on whether the Oval Office can find an interpreter proficient in Ruddspeak in time for the visit.

Keven Rud better not have any dumb ideas from the last stimulus laws. I found some info on what is written in that TARP V2 stimulus. Pray that it never comes here.

Here it is:-

 

[Doris]

Please give us some idea of measures we can use to assess his success in the enormous task ahead of him.
gg

I'd say when rednecks finish high school, the middle class has increased and people eat food instead of fat.

The integrity of his campaigning and Budget & Package is so boringly transparent! Same old rhetoric.

Listen to the man himself answer your question:

"I know they're (special interests and lobbyists) gearing up for a fight as we speak.

My message to them is this: So am I!"

The Senate will pass this $3t budget - even if it takes until April.
Who's the daddy?

 

[electronicmaster]

I'd say when rednecks finish high school, the middle class has increased and people eat food instead of fat.

The integrity of his campaigning and Budget & Package is so boringly transparent! Same old rhetoric.

Listen to the man himself answer your question:





The Senate will pass this $3t budget - even if it takes until April.
Who's the daddy?

It is evil I say

Oh, I think Obama has spent $4T already by the way. Its those little side walk deals that had escaped us all.

 

[Julia]

Julia, I guess they just don't feel they can let companies like GM fail because of the unemployment consequences and the thousands of other business that rely on them.

From a purely economic viewpoint they should be allowed to fail, as Rogers said someone else better will come along to fill the gap but it's just too hard to let that happen politically.

It does have the real possibility to make things worse though because you're just propping up someone who has failed and the money will run out sooner or later. Are GM going to start selling more cars because they are being propped up ? No.

I think Rogers summed it up pretty well but to do what he says is just in the too hard basket I guess.

Yes, Mr Burns, I completely appreciate the political motivations.
I guess I just occasionally indulge in wishful thinking that governments would simply act in the long term interests of the country they represent, rather than short term political favour.
Sigh.

 

[Aussiejeff]

Looks like the world's stock markets have lost faith in BO's Gawd Almighty Plan already...

Let's hope our Great Leader KRudd can talk some sense into him.

 

[Calliope]

The time has come for both Rudd and Obama to show if they have the ticker to stop being politicians and start to act like statesmen. American has produced many statesmen and Australia very few. Rudd, like Howard before him, has the handicap of his comic-book looks, and no boring politician can aspire to be a statesman.

Obama on the other hand, can look the part and talk the part. His problem is that he has never done anything, and the public have largely accepted him on trust based on his rhetoric and promises, and Bush's unpopularity.

If he can't throw off the baggage that got him elected and start making some of the hard and unpopular decisions about what to prop up and what to let fail, the future is bleak.

 

[MrBurns]

The time has come for both Rudd and Obama to show if they have the ticker to stop being politicians and start to act like statesmen. American has produced many statesmen and Australia very few. Rudd, like Howard before him, has the handicap of his comic-book looks, and no boring politician can aspire to be a statesman.

Obama on the other hand, can look the part and talk the part. His problem is that he has never done anything, and the public have largely accepted him on trust based on his rhetoric and promises, and Bush's unpopularity.

If he can't throw off the baggage that got him elected and start making some of the hard and unpopular decisions about what to prop up and what to let fail, the future is bleak.

He wont do it, he's not experienced enough to make calls like that.

 

[Doris]

I guess I just occasionally indulge in wishful thinking that governments would simply act in the long term interests of the country they represent, rather than short term political favour.
Sigh.

In his first five weeks, in his first budget and in his first address to Congress, Obama has made clear he's plowing ahead with his ambitious, big-ticket campaign promises. At the same time, he's trying to reverse a recession he inherited, by rescuing the banking, housing and financial sectors.

He wants to free the country from its foreign oil dependence, improve early childhood schooling, curb global warming, withdraw troops from Iraq, overhaul tax laws, fix transportation arteries, rehabilitate the U.S. image abroad and even find a cure for cancer. This week, he'll hold a health care summit to start a massive overhaul he hopes to complete in 2009.

Julia turn on Jim Lehrer's Newshour on SBS today at 4:30pm to hear Obama 'agreeing with you' - as he says:

I think that we are at an extraordinary moment that is full of peril but full of possibility, and I think that's the time you want to be president.

I think there's a sense that right now we are having to make some very big decisions that will help determine the direction of this country, and in ways large and small the direction of the world for the next generation.

And I won't lie to you. I wish that they weren't all having to be made at once.
It would nice to be able to stage them on one another.

 

[Green08]

Obama on the other hand, can look the part and talk the part. His problem is that he has never done anything, and the public have largely accepted him on trust based on his rhetoric and promises, and Bush's unpopularity.

Obama was elected on more than Bush's unpoplarity.

Mr Burns, this is a rather ambiguious comment. "He wont do it, he's not experienced enough to make calls like that."

Please define whom you regard in the USA political arena as "experienced enough". Without the need for consultation.

No President has had to arrive in office with the unbelievable load of problems in any countries history. Don't even go there with similarities. The tech-age's impetus on fast information, rumours, camoflague is a major contributor.

 

[Doris]

Obama on the other hand, can look the part and talk the part. His problem is that he has never done anything, and the public have largely accepted him on trust based on his rhetoric and promises, and Bush's unpopularity.

Obama was elected on more than Bush's unpoplarity.

Mr Burns, this is a rather ambiguious comment. "He wont do it, he's not experienced enough to make calls like that."

No President has had to arrive in office with the unbelievable load of problems in any countries history. Don't even go there with similarities. The tech-age's impetus on fast information, rumours, camoflague is a major contributor.

Calliope, Obama has set the wheels in motion on a range of long-festering problems.
Voters demanding immediate results may not see it that way. Others may balk at his broad expansion of government.
As I have always asserted, he has the intelligence to make decisions and he has surrounded himself with experience.

Hey Green08! Good to see a friendly face!

Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said late last year: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."
He argued that the turbulent conditions opened doors for big changes in long-neglected areas.

Obama is of course a solid student of history and has sifted the grain from the chaff in his predecessors:

Franklin D. Roosevelt - during the Depression and a worldwide war - seized on the public's angst to:
- overhaul the banking and financial system, plow money into public works and create Social Security.

Lyndon B. Johnson took advantage of intense social unrest to move ahead with his Great Society programs.
- anti-poverty measures and a civil rights agenda granting blacks their first real entry into the political system.
- launching education and transportation initiatives. Medicare and Medicaid are among his legacies.

Ronald Reagan faced sky-high inflation and a growing Soviet threat. He used the public's anxieties over the Cold War and the economy to win support for an expanded military even as he limited the size of government, instituted across-the-board tax cuts and promoted supply-side economics.

If the recession doesn't turn around in the coming years, Obama will be accused of focusing too much on the long term.
He recently acknowledged that his re-election prospects could suffer if the economy fails to rebound.

All I can say is that I trust Obama will explore and consider all avenues and what can be done best will be done.
But I don't see us coming out of this recession until after we're in it... and 6-12 months after they're out!

 

[Green08]

Doris, did you see in the Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday, I think it was the News Review. The KKK? The sad thing about this process is that they are burning effigies on nooses of Obama - as he is black.

These rednecks are increasing in numbers since his inauguration.

Many Americans carry on how 'forward thinking' they are. The lack of policy to irradicate this group is nausiating. Racism is alive and well in the USA. Great counrty to aspire to - not.

 

[MrBurns]

Doris, did you see in the Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday, I think it was the News Review. The KKK? The sad thing about this process is that they are burning effigies on nooses of Obama - as he is black.

These rednecks are increasing in numbers since his inauguration.

Many Americans carry on how 'forward thinking' they are. The lack of policy to irradicate this group is nausiating. Racism is alive and well in the USA. Great counrty to aspire to - not.

Dont they have any racial vilification laws over there ?

 

[gav]

Doris, did you see in the Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday, I think it was the News Review. The KKK? The sad thing about this process is that they are burning effigies on nooses of Obama - as he is black.

These rednecks are increasing in numbers since his inauguration.

Many Americans carry on how 'forward thinking' they are. The lack of policy to irradicate this group is nausiating. Racism is alive and well in the USA. Great counrty to aspire to - not.

Acts like this are disgusting, but surely they would be a very small minority - otherwise Obama would not have been voted in. When you combine all races, Obama won 66% of the votes.

43% of white people voted for Obama
69% of Hispanics voted for Obama
63% of Asians voted for Obama
Yet 96% of black people vote for Obama. Why is that?

But I guess "you have to be white to be racist"

The Ethnic Vote Goes to Obama in a Landslide
http://www.theroadtothewhitehouse.net/2008/11/ethnic_vote_results_2008_presi.html