Article Obama:The Tide Turning?

From the great conservative mag that is Newsweek :hihi:

I have two questions and this article is a great discussion starter IMO.

Why is his approval rating so high?

Why should I have faith in his leadership and his plans?

I don't plan on responding to this thread. I want to hear real and honest defense of this, and I am trying to come at this with an open mind. I don't want to hear any "blame the right" arguments, I'll give the benefit of the doubt on that and take it off the table. I want to hear why he is the man for the job, and why I should have faith in his plans. I am looking forward to hearing the responses. Thanks! :thumb:

 

Thanks for responding Red. I didnt plan on responding because my point was not to start a debate, but get to hear from "supporters" reasons to "get on board"...I'll leave the word "faith" out...:grin:

Amigo, my "blame the right" point was simply, okay for arguments sake I'll give you that. Let's say the right is COMPLETELY to blame for the shape this country is in. What is it about Obama's plan that you and others like. And explain to me how you think it will work. That's all. This is not a trap...I just want to hear from the other side, and not peck back and forth.

I thought I was doing what a good a conservative christian was suppossed to do, be silent! (I'm kidding) :rofl:

 

If you ask Red to pass the salt, he'll argue with you.:hihi:

I am skeptical of the Stimulus plan because I simply believe that throwing money at the problem is not the answer. I hear talking points on both sides of the issue and choose to believe the conservative arguments against the plan. Mostly what I hear from the left are efforts to pin this on Republicans and little else. Yesterdays Wall Street rally was the 1st good news sinced the election and, honestly I hope it signals confidence in the administration but I doubt that it will be sustained.

Meanwhile, the Chinese and Iranians are beginning to test Obama's mettle. Lets see if he has a big stick to go with his soft speaking.

 

I'm skeptical of it because it doesn't create enough immediate jobs and influx of cash to the economy. Not to mention the pet projects. Should we spend our way out of this thing? Not any more than we absolutely have to but let's have something to show for our money, like infrastructure. As far as automakers go....bankruptcy.

 

I wonder if a revival of projects such as WPA and CCC would be beneficial at this time. Infrastructure being a concern in many parts of the country, there should be no shortage of projects that would help communities, as well as providing jobs for those who need them. Then again, as long as there are programs that pay folks to sit on their hands at home, perhaps unemployment figures would not change all that much.

 

We all laugh about many of these 'make work' projects, but I went to Carlsbad Caverns a few years ago, and walked down and enjoyed the underground LIGHTED displays. There are rats down there and all the electrical wire was in pipe conduit and that would have been a big job. It was done by the WPA or CCC. The economic impact on Carlsbad NM is still enjoyed today, 80 years after the WPA.

As far as the stimulus, I wish it had more bridge building in it. The general case is that when a major market like housing dies, it starts a down cycle in he economy. The laid off home builders can't pay their house note, and default. Then the bankers get in trouble and they lay people off. Those laid off folks don't eat out or go to movies, or buy new cars. and all those industries lay people off. The cycle feeds on itself and nobody knows when it will end, destroying big parts of american industry.

The individuals won't spend, business is not spending. State and local govt. is losing revenue due to home values depreciating and they are laying off folks so they can't spend.

Something has to stop the down cycle before growth can begin again. The only person or thing that can spend is the federal govt. because they have a printing press.

There are negative consequences of printing large sums of money, mainly the value of the dollar will ultimately fall and inflation will return (which is the case for owning gold).

The problem is that there are worse negative consequences of doing nothing and simply allowing the down cycle to take out and destroy big components of the economy.

We have two alternatives, bad and worse, so we have picked the simply bad one, printing money, allowing the dollar to fall (its been going up the last 6 months because everyone else's currency is worse than ours, we are the least bad), and inviting inflation at a later date.

 

That's the difference between Democrats and (traditional) Rebublicans. The Obama option is not necessarily the lesser of 2 evils in the long run.

 

You would have to make that case. The republicans had the presidency the last 8 years, with control of both houses of congress for 6 of those 8 years. Look what it got us.