This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Guest Post: Obama Will Lose In 2012
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
Obama Will Lose in 2012
Predicting that Obama will be a one-term president is easy: Americans vote their pocketbooks.
There is nothing remotely ideological or personal in my prediction that President Obama will lose the 2012 election. Both parties are equally out of touch with reality in my view, and both suppport the same things: a global Empire, an increasingly intrusive Savior State, a shadow banking system which is no longer under the control of State institutions (rather, the banks control the institutions), and various crony-capitalist cartels which fund political campaigns and partner with the Central State's bloated, unaccountable fiefdoms. The only visible difference between the two parties is slight variations in the relative growth rates of the most-favored cartels and fiefdoms.
President Obama seems like a nice guy. Many people said the same thing about George W. Bush. While a likeable personality is a plus in a media-obsessed society, American elections boil down to this: Americans vote their pocketbook, and their pocketbooks will be a lot lighter by November 2012.
President Obama has several key flaws which have doomed his presidency.
1. His leadership style is one of consensus and compromise. This works OK in a caretaker setting in which there are no crises and no demands for bold changes of course. Unfortunately, this era is defined by structural crises, and a leadership based on gaining consensus and compromise is basically a rudderless one in this environment.
2. He does not understand economics or finance, nor is he secure about making decisions on financial topics. As a result he deferred to the "experts," who just happened to be Wall Street cronies and insiders who easily swayed the President with their hobgoblin stories of financial meltdown and ruin if we didn't "save the banking sector from losses."
3. His grasp of history is poor. The same can be said of most presidents, but Obama failed to grasp the historic opportunity to set a new sustainable course for the nation's banking and financial sectors, and thus for its economy. He opted instead to save and protect the corrupt and embezzlement-based banking sector from losses, and he continues to do so with "extend and pretend" policies.
In a similar fashion, he has allowed the National Security State and the Global Empire to expand without any limitations.
4. He has no visible core beliefs beyond a vague sense that the Federal government and its extension, the American Empire, are forces for good. His policies can be boiled down to: support and expand the Savior State and its many fiefdoms, support and expand the Global Empire and National Security State, and allow the banking system and its Power Elites to set the agenda and control the oversight agencies and institutions.
His signature accomplishment, the "Obama-care reform" of the nation's sickcare system, simply extends the power of existing cartels and fiefdoms and delivers an ever-larger slice of the national income to their coffers. In its basic parameters, the "reform" could easily have been supported and passed by socially liberal Republican presidents such as Richard Nixon. There is nothing remotely progressive or radical about "pooling" insurance cartels and wet-paper-bag bureaucratic tests of "the most effective treatments."
These are simply technocratic layers added to a bloated, corrupt, venal and destructive system that already costs twice as much as those of our advanced-economy competitors.
In addition to these flaws, he has made fatal policy errors which doom the economy to implosion by November 2012. All of his administration's policies can be distilled down to these three points:
1. The banking sector is the most important foundation of the economy. The Central State and its proxy, the Federal Reserve, pumped some $14 trillion (by some measures, $23 trillion) in cash, credit, guarantees and backstops into the banking sector and its cloaked twin, the Shadow banking System.
Meanwhile, little to nothing was done for the cash-strapped consumer or citizenry. Why?
2. The "problem" is lack of credit and "confidence." If the State and Fed flood the banking system with credit and "restore confidence" by goosing the stock market, then people will start borrowing and spending again, and everything will be "fixed."
This presumes demand is strong, and all that's needed is credit for people to satisfy their thirst for more goods and services.
Meanwhile, back in reality, people realized they didn't need a third car, fourth TV, 17th "cute blouse," 23rd pair of shoes, etc., and now that their home is worth less than their mortgage (or their remaining equity is minimal), they can't really afford the luxury travel, boats, etc. they enjoyed when they thought their house would keep rising in value forever and tapping that rising equity was painless.
Demand is slack because everyone who could afford more crap already owns more crap than they need or even want. The percentage of the populace who would like more stuff cannot afford more stuff. Their household incomes and wages are declining, and their expenses for essentials are rising.
The Fed's largesse to banks (free money in unlimited quantities) doesn't reach them; all it does is boost assets held by the top 10%.
3. Boosting the assets of this top 10% (or 20% if you include those who have equity of some sort beyond the $2,500 in their IRA) will cause a "wealth effect" that will "trickle down" to the lower 80% as the top 20% buy more Coach handbags, enjoy fine dining at tony upscale restaurants, etc.
Unfortunately, this may help boost Coach's profit margins, but the vast majority of the "trickle-down" consists of low-paying retail clerks and busboys.
In other words, the "wealth effect" is bogus, a charade deployed to defend the pillaging of the economy via financialization and Fed intervention.
4. Pushing the dollar lower in a "beggar thy neighbor" currency war is the best way to boost the U.S. economy. Apparently no one in the President's team looked at financial history to identify the nations which grew rich and powerful by debasing their currency.
In a perverse blowback to this misguided policy, corporate profits earned overseas were certainly goosed, but so were import prices, one of the reasons (along with the Fed's easy-money quantitative easing) for rising costs to consumers.
If you set out to design a policy that impoverished 80% of the citizenry and channeled a larger share of the national income to the top 10%, then this is precisely the set of policies you would pursue.
Nothing important has been fixed; nothing important has even been addressed. The institutions of governance are captured and corraled by the monied Elites to the point that the government has lost control of its own institutions, which now rule as quasi-independent fiefdoms. The citizenry, bought off on the cheap by stale Bread (rapacious student loans, food stamps which offer the veneer of normalcy, extended unemployment benefits so no angry mobs form, etc.) and dazed and distracted by the Media Circus, keep quiet in their complicity, while the Power Elites revel in the freedoms offered by a caretaker Administration.
If President Obama had fought for fundamental structural reforms and lost, he would still have support. Yes, Congress holds the pursestrings, but let's not forget the President appoints his own staff and advisors, and wields great power via Executive Orders. He could have submitted a 5-page Financial Reform Bill and promised to veto anything else. If the Power Elites watered it down, then he could have vetoed it and gone directly to the public. But he did none of these things.
Courtesy of correspondent George B., here is a chart of public and private debt over the past decade, from the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Notice that all the Administration and Congress have done is boost Federal debt to replace the "missing" private debt (missing because incomes are declining, housing equity has crashed and the consumer overborrowed for a decade).
This is mindless Keynesian policy on auto-pilot. As I have reported before, the Federal Government is borrowing and spending some $6 trillion in a mere four years, almost doubling the nation's debt, and all that's been accomplished is the Power Elites' share of the national income has risen and GDP has flatlined.
The structural dislocations and imbalances remain firmly in place; a financial sector dependent on fraud has been "saved," and an economy sick with an addiction to rampant financialization has been given plenty of smack to keep it from going through a desperately needed withdrawal.
The Keynesians have no answer as to when the economy will "recover" without the Central State borrowing 11% of GDP every year to prop up its various cartels and fiefdoms. They have no answer because they have no understanding of the imbalances, the fraud, the financialization or of the feudal partnership of the State and crony-capitalist cartels.
Obama has lost his "progressive" base, because he's done nothing remotely progressive. He has lost the middle because his Administration has overseen their gradual impoverishment at the hands of Financial Power Elites. He has offered them phony facsimiles of reform slicked down with the tiresome "soaring rhetoric" of a con artist so besotted with his own story that he actually believes the BS himself.
He can count on the public-union vote and a few of the State fiefdoms he's enriched and enlarged at the expense of the common good, but as the addict (the economy) goes downhill, slowly destroyed by the ever-larger doses of smack administered by the Fed and the Central State, then the consent of the governed will be irrevocably lost--not just by President Obama, but by the entire Status Quo.
The President is now a candidate hoping to scoop up a cool $1 billion to blow on another long, greasy media blitz, but I would be surprised if he rakes in much from the commoners and serfs straining to keep the wheels of their household finances turning. He will of course collect big bucks from various crony-cartels and contractors who have benefited from his bogus "reforms" and unstinting support of the banking sector, but his true-believer supporters will be thinned down to a few Elites, die-hard Democratic hacks and the delusional by mid-2012.
His opponents may fare little better unless they are willing to tackle the dominance of crony cartels, government fiefdoms and Financial Power Elites whose fat fingers remain firmly on the throat of the fast-expiring nation.
»
- 24308 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
I sure hope so.
Itd be quite funny for his opposing party to use the 'Change' slogan all over again. Quite fitting.
OT (screw Obama; puppet of criminals)
Arnie Gundersen 4/3/11 Video: Chlorine 38 & Telerium 129 - Newly Released TEPCO Data Provides Evidence of Periodic Chain Reaction at Fukushima Unit 1
they'll all be in the lifeboats before 2013, nor could they care who gets the reins. Obama was just a droid inserted to get the final dirty work done. We would never do anything capricious to the first black man president for putting the final touches on the Titanic. But still a public hanging has more appeal than the guillotine.
America Will Lose (again) In 2012
Why?
Campaign Contributions Are Bribery.
Bribery Is Illegal.
Campaign Contributions Are Not Illegal.
is it illegal when everyone participates? Like everyone running a stop sign...the only ONE to get nailed is the one that was at the right place but at the wrong time
More bearish speculation of an inevitable drop in the markets.
The Obama admin and the federal reserve are in perfect harmony now. Why change it? As long as there is cooperation, QE or some other stealth program will contiune to insure the illusion of prosperity is preserved. If people vote their pocketbooks, then they wont want to risk change.
He is right that people vote their pocketbooks: therefore Obama WINS in 2012, because even the tea party will be compromised, because an obama reelection means silver and gold will continue to climb.
Obama will pull votes from the PM toting tea party and libertarian alt media aspects, because they own gold and silver.
You're out of you fucking mind, and just as out of touch as Odrama.
+3.14159....
Obama's idea is to crash America, to tear it down, to "fundamentally transform The United States of America." Operative word: fundamentally. He's let Congress off the leash and set the central government against the very idea behind this country, limited government, government permanantly held in check by checks and balances, rule of law rather than rule of men. To get in touch with Obama, read the masterpiece of the genre is D'Sousa's The Roots of Obama's Rage. He has a giant chip on his shoulder against the western world in its entirety. His cabinet and most of his actions reflect that entirely. Letting Congress get away with cutting a mere 1% of the budget, projecting gigantic deficits for a decade, when the Treserve is already borrowprinting about half of expenditures, isn't just Kabuki. The real story here is of the order of George Soros's dreams, of Reverend Wright's dreams, of Alinsky's dreams and most importantly of Obama's Dreams From My Father.
Why did you jump to the top and randomly insert this incoherent tripe? Even scrolling right past this comment is going to make everyone just a little bit dumber.
and the wrong place to be in will be the US...
Two pages of posts, and not one mention of general betray us.
ZH commentary has gone down the shitter.
Ok, I'll bite. Please elaborate.
General Petraeus, sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic, took time out of his busy schedule to criticize a Florida pastor's decision to burn Korans. Said it endangered our troops, contributed to terrorist recruitment, and just generally caused lots of hurt feelings and psychological boo boos. He took his bully pulpit and used it to spit on America and grovel at the feet of people who hate us.
So much for the 1st amendment.
Fatal flaw in the main post:
"If you set out to design a policy that impoverished 80% of the citizenry and channeled a larger share of the national income to the top 10%, then this is precisely the set of policies you would pursue."
Which is exactly why Obama will be re-elected in 2012, because the bottom 80% don't equate to shit when it comes to choosing "leaders". Besides, like the Republican option will be any better! Ha! America loses, that's all. Simple done and dusted.
The only people who seem to have a clue about who actually runs or rather, ruins our country are the Internet surfers and we are a growing legion. It has become blatantly obvious the TV talking heads work in concert with the international banking cartel and are merely their employees. I just thank God the USA is virtually bankrupt so the children of those who aided in bringing about the collapse of the US will suffer greatly in the destruction of our country.
"It's a plutocracy, stupid", even aljazeera knows the score:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/20114391843209245.html
"I hope he fails."
Did you agree with that statement uttered in 2009?
Of course we hope Obama fails to enact his vision of America. It would be a vicious tyranny.
"The 10 major banks, which control 60 percent of the economy, determine how our legislative bills are written, how our courts rule, how we frame our public debates on the airwaves, who is elected to office and how we are governed. ...They engaged in massive fraud and deception that wiped out an estimated $40 trillion in global wealth. The banks are the ones that should be made to pay for the financial collapse. Not us."
Published on Truthout (http://www.truth-out.org) There is no way to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs. Civil Disobedience is the only tool we have left. Monday 4 April 2011by: Chris Hedges, Truthdig, Op-Ed [3]
The phrase consent of the governed has been turned into a cruel joke. There is no way to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs. Civil Disobedience is the only tool we have left.
We will not halt the laying off of teachers and other public employees, the slashing of unemployment benefits, the closing of public libraries, the reduction of student loans, the foreclosures, the gutting of public education and early childhood programs or the dismantling of basic social services such as heating assistance for the elderly until we start to carry out sustained acts of civil disobedience against the financial institutions responsible for our debacle.
The banks and Wall Street, which have erected the corporate state to serve their interests at our expense, caused the financial crisis. The bankers and their lobbyists crafted tax havens that account for up to $1 trillion in tax revenue lost every decade. They rewrote tax laws so the nation’s most profitable corporations, including Bank of America, could avoid paying any federal taxes. They engaged in massive fraud and deception that wiped out an estimated $40 trillion in global wealth. The banks are the ones that should be made to pay for the financial collapse. Not us. And for this reason at 11 a.m. April 15 I will join protesters in Union Square in New York City in front of the Bank of America.
“The political process no longer works,” Kevin Zeese, the director of Prosperity Agenda and one of the organizers of the April 15 event, told me. “The economy is controlled by a handful of economic elites. The necessities of most Americans are no longer being met. The only way to change this is to shift the power to a culture of resistance. This will be the first in a series of events we will organize to help give people control of their economic and political life.”
If you are among the one in six workers in this country who does not have a job, if you are among the some 6 million people who have lost their homes to repossessions, if you are among the many hundreds of thousands of people who went bankrupt last year because they could not pay their medical bills or if you have simply had enough of the current kleptocracy, join us in Union Square Park for the “Sounds of Resistance Concert,” which will feature political hip-hop/rock powerhouse Junkyard Empire with Broadcast Live and Sketch the Cataclysm. The organizers have set up a website [5], and there’s more information on their Facebook page [6].
We will picket the Union Square branch of Bank of America, one of the major financial institutions responsible for the theft of roughly $17 trillion in wages, savings and retirement benefits taken from ordinary citizens. We will build a miniature cardboard community that will include what we should have—good public libraries, free health clinics, banks that have been converted into credit unions, free and well-funded public schools and public universities, and shuttered recruiting centers (young men and women should not have to go to Iraq and Afghanistan as soldiers or Marines to find a job with health care). We will call for an end to all foreclosures and bank repossessions, a breaking up of the huge banking monopolies, a fair system of taxation and a government that is accountable to the people.
The 10 major banks, which control 60 percent of the economy, determine how our legislative bills are written, how our courts rule, how we frame our public debates on the airwaves, who is elected to office and how we are governed. The phrase consent of the governed has been turned by our two major political parties into a cruel joke. There is no way to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs. And the faster these banks and huge corporations are broken up and regulated the sooner we will become free.
Bank of America is one of the worst. It did not pay any federal taxes last year or the year before. It is currently one of the most aggressive banks in seizing homes, at times using private security teams that carry out brutal home invasions to toss families into the street. The bank refuses to lend small business people and consumers the billions in government money it was handed. It has returned with a vengeance to the flagrant criminal activity and speculation that created the meltdown, behavior made possible because the government refuses to institute effective sanctions or control from regulators, legislators or the courts. Bank of America, like most of the banks that peddled garbage to small shareholders, routinely hid its massive losses through a creative accounting device it called “repurchase agreements.” It used these “repos” during the financial collapse to temporarily erase losses from the books by transferring toxic debt to dummy firms before public filings had to be made. It is called fraud. And Bank of America is very good at it.
US Uncut, which will be involved in the April 15 demonstration in New York, carried out 50 protests outside Bank of America branches and offices on Feb. 26. UK Uncut, a British version of the group, produced this video guide to launching a “bail-in” in your neighborhood.
Civil disobedience, such as that described in the bail-in video or the upcoming protest in Union Square, is the only tool we have left. A fourth of the country’s largest corporations—including General Electric, ExxonMobil and Bank of America—paid no federal income taxes in 2010. But at the same time these corporations operate as if they have a divine right to hundreds of billions in taxpayer subsidies. Bank of America was handed $45 billion—that is billion with a B—in federal bailout funds. Bank of America takes this money—money you and I paid in taxes—and hides it along with its profits in some 115 offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes. One assumes the bank’s legions of accountants are busy making sure the corporation will not pay federal taxes again this year. Imagine if you or I tried that.
“If Bank of America paid their fair share of taxes, planned cuts of $1.7 billion in early childhood education, including Head Start & Title 1, would not be needed,” Zeese pointed out. “Bank of America avoids paying taxes by using subsidiaries in offshore tax havens. To eliminate their taxes, they reinvest proceeds overseas, instead of bringing the dollars home, thereby undermining the U.S. economy and avoiding federal taxes. Big Finance, like Bank of America, contributes to record deficits that are resulting in massive cuts to basic services in federal and state governments.”
The big banks and corporations are parasites. They greedily devour the entrails of the nation in a quest for profit, thrusting us all into serfdom and polluting and poisoning the ecosystem that sustains the human species. They have gobbled up more than a trillion dollars from the Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve and created tiny enclaves of wealth and privilege where corporate managers replicate the decadence of the Forbidden City and Versailles. Those outside the gates, however, struggle to find work and watch helplessly as food and commodity prices rocket upward. The owners of one out of seven houses are now behind on their mortgage payments. In 2010 there were 3.8 million foreclosure filings and bank repossessions topped 2.8 million, a 2 percent increase over 2009 and a 23 percent increase over 2008. This record looks set to be broken in 2011. And no one in the Congress, the Obama White House, the courts or the press, all beholden to corporate money, will step in to stop or denounce the assault on families. Our ruling elite, including Barack Obama, are courtiers, shameless hedonists of power, who kneel before Wall Street and daily sell us out. The top corporate plutocrats are pulling down $900,000 an hour while one in four children depends on food stamps to eat.
We don’t need leaders. We don’t need directives from above. We don’t need formal organizations. We don’t need to waste our time appealing to the Democratic Party or writing letters to the editor. We don’t need more diatribes on the Internet. We need to physically get into the public square and create a mass movement. We need you and a few of your neighbors to begin it. We need you to walk down to your Bank of America branch and protest. We need you to come to Union Square. And once you do that you begin to create a force these elites always desperately try to snuff out—resistance.
Jeez, aren't those guys liberals though?
calltoaccount, sorry you were junked. Good post and if I was in SF that day, I'd join you.
~Misstrial
Published on Truthout
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Same guys who did the cigarette stunt awhile back?
Amen to that bro, if I could be in Joo York then I would be
OT,
May be the same thing that is killing the Pine Forests..........
The Four Horsemen damn sure appear to be riding.
http://www.secondopinionnewsletter.com/scripts/previewArchive.aspx?AID=651
Obama will not loose if they put the appropriate counter-canditate or maybe Sarah Palin or sum1 else will run a 3rd party
I think the elites want to milk the 'Obama' till it's dry
Agree. He is the Powers That Be's go to guy, a docile, compliant creature happy to sleep in his master's wet spot.
loose. canditate. sum1 3rd party.
You fucking cretin
Way to stay on top of those typos cretin, I mean Kunt.
Only a guy who looks black could have ever pulled it off . . . even with the soaring oratory.
I Agree, especially if Obama runs on a Pro-Entitlements and the Republicans continue down the big entitlement cuts policy. There are 78 to 84 Million retired Americans which makes up the biggest voting block. I doubt any retiree would vote for the candidate that for big entitlement.
obama will be president again in 2012
why you ask?
easy....electronic voting machines will vote for you in exactly the way they are programmed to....once again the margin will be essentially statistical noise....but the "O" will win by that slim margin
it doesnt matter that he is a useless pawn
thats already 'priced in' as y'all like to say
Voting machine software and Hugo Chavez connection?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/washington/29ballot.html
http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/06/diebold-voting-machine-hacked-in-four...
Diebold Voting Machine hacked in 4 minutesj
More hacking here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4FPuLNjvAc
who gives a shit?
I care Mr. Bush because there are soldiers in the field and they were the most qualified and capable people I ever knew, that is still true today and they happen to have the highest suicide rate in our history. To say how this makes me feel would land me in jail of course--and "the fact that it is additive now" due to Libya only adds fuel to the fire of my particular variant of "i have a phucking dream, too." Now would someone please explain "what the phucking agenda was" and "to the extent there ever was one it's not now completely destroyed."
Here is the deal, sir, as far as I understand. Our country's military was used for defense, but is now used for offense, as in to secure (steal) other people's natural resources (oil). Some moral and intelligent soldiers and sailors eventually figure this out, and they end up committing suicide.
Sad but true.
So who got the Iraqi oil? And how do you explain our problems with Islam since 1794?
If they are moral and intelligent, suicide should not be their answer.
Right. After being ass-raped for decades(generations?) by the best Government money can buy, the stigma is kinda gone and the pain is a dull noise in the background. I'm not waiting for the deck chairs to move or for the band to ask for my vote on requests, getting it done myself and flying as low under the radar as possible.
"Change, Your Diaper." There won;t be a 2012 election the way thigs are going!!!!
I hope for change! In my pocket! Pre-1964 dimes and nickels of course.
Love this guy...
http://dealbreaker.com/2011/04/michael-steinhardt-wants-to-know-how-long...
nice post
I'm on board with the "there will be no 2012 election" proposal... we're long overdue for a false flag (or not, see: Fukushima) attack on the country which will allow PD 51 to be enabled ensuring that Obama is "P.F.L." President For Life.
I feel the PTB are starting to run out of time to get their agenda passed and everything Barry has done points to us being embroiled in a massive war, or clamping down hard on the serfs with a brutal police state. People are awakening to the criminality of the fed, war fires are being stoked all over the world. Dont ax dont tell was repealed to institute the draft and provide a jobs program.
I hope i'm wrong.... God help us all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TQZjF2HAog&feature=player_embedded#at=178
Min. Louis Farrakhan
ITS A FIXED GAME...
The Min. be makin some good money with his GAME.
And the "Brother Malcom" schtick? Pretty good for a guy who was probably involved in his demise.
The logic is unassailable -- but the end conclusion is most probably wrong.
Obama is Wall Street's man, their usual lackey in the Oval Office. They ran Dole to give Clinton, their other guy, a second term.
They'll probably run Bachmann, Palin, or that Mittsy dood, to give Barry a second term.
And he does understand: he is focused on that future Goldman Sachs' partnership, or -- like the entire Clinton family -- working on behalf of the jobs offshoring industry to make a fortune, although there really aren't all that many American jobs remaining to be offshored.
"change" is too small for any of these guys!
I hope so too
Are You Better Off Under the Obama Administration?
See full article from DailyFinance:http://srph.it/hjlkIY
I hope so too
Are You Better Off Under the Obama Administration?
See full article from DailyFinance:http://srph.it/hjlkIY
I hope so too
Are You Better Off Under the Obama Administration?
See full article from DailyFinance:http://srph.it/hjlkIY
I hope so too
Are You Better Off Under the Obama Administration?
See full article from DailyFinance:http://srph.it/hjlkIY
This analysis focuses on Obama's faults -- and is correct in it's assessment of those faults. But the claim that "he will lose" fails to account for potentially identical flaws in any Republican candidate.
In all likelihood, we will be asked to vote for one of two candidates who are equally beholden to Wall Street, and who lack a sound knowledge of history.
Bashing Obama for his lack of a spine in tackling Wall Street is easy (and justified). But claiming that this is a *comparative* weakness is a bold claim given the Republlicans' historic soft spot for the banking system.
The government controlling banks, or banks controlling government: two sides of the same counterfeit coin!
Bingo!
More and more people are starting to figure out that President Obama wasn't put in office because of the promises he made on the campaign trail. Those are just the tall tales told to help win an election.
The very reason he was chosen by the elites is exactly because he is NOT an expert on economics, financial markets, etc. The fact is he delegates power to the elites who actually write the new laws that are then given back to Congress to quickly vote on before they have a chance to read it or much less comprehend their true impact.
If President Obama had been doing any of the things this article is encouraging him to do, then he wouldn't have been selected by the elites in the first place.
There's only one "party" in power in our country and it's not a political party. They merely use politics as a means to an end. They use it to divide and conquer us and to divert the attention of the unwashed masses away from them at the top of the pyramid.
I couldn't agree with you more. My hatred for Dubya knew no bounds, but Obummer has had the odd effect of diminishing greatly that hatred. There's not much daylight between the two, which leads me to think that they are simply spokesmen for the plutocrats. I firmly believe they are shown the Zapruder film quickly after they are elected, and little items like the Umbrella Man & the movement of JFK's head up & back are pointed out. Perhaps the Pres elect even gets to see the missing frames.
I just can't hate these presidents that much, because I believe they don't have that much power. I think Obummer must take some little, almost imperceptible joy when he gets to select the sandwich & beverage he has for lunch. That's about he extent of control he has over his life, IMO.
French guns hired by the mob out of New Orleans shot Kennedy.
The [fatal] shots fired from the grass (behind most spectators), the gunman exited through the train yard immediately behind it. Rifle was stashed in a switch box in that yard. Presumably recovered after the fact.
No one has been able to explain the fingerprints recovered on Oswald's rifle that weren't his, not to mention Oswald was hung out to dry by the CIA for botching a plot to kill Castro. Most don't even know that Oswald was CIA, too.
What is there to trust in a government that continually lies to it's people about trivial economic indicators?
The truth hurts more than lies and invisible hands don't [can't] operate where there is truth. It is that simple.
French guns hired by the mob out of New Orleans shot Kennedy.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Oh brother ...
you my friend are one of the very few people who understands how things work. i wish more people could do that. maybe in a few years, if the internet is still free and legal, the masses will wake up.
"The very reason he was chosen by the elites is exactly because he is NOT an expert on economics, financial markets, etc. " (and because he's a University of Chicago -- the Chicago school -- guy!
Well articulated, well said.
Politics and religion are for confusing the mentally-lazy rubes --- the rest of us will always follow the money!
Thank you.
Obama will raise close to a billion dollars.
He is supported by the inner city poor. He is also supported by the elites. throw on top the unions and you have a winner. Add a pinch of the minority vote.
The rural can not defeat him. The middle class can't defeat him.
He will have a 4 month campaign fundraising head start.
Please show me a charismatic articulate leader in the republican/tea party or independent.
And the real bugger of it is that, should you be given an attractive, viable third party candidate, all that would do would be a split in the conservative-leaning vote sufficient to give the Democratic candidate the win, similar to '92 with Ross Perot.
Sorry about the run-on sentence...
These are persuasive arguments, and they are all correct assertions that imply an Obama victory, especially if one also counts the fact that his entire cabinet is staffed by wall street.
However, I can't stop thinking about that evasive demographic of independents who have been the real deciders in each of the last 3 presidential elections. The independents are less pliable, and tend to reject a lot of media spin. Spin is all Obama can throw at this shitty mess, and independents won't buy it, imo.
Personally, I think we're fucked no matter who wins. Maybe we should start a write in campaign for Anonymous. At least they take delight in gutting the status quo when they can.
"However, I can't stop thinking about that evasive demographic of independents..."
While you're contemplating that, Matte_Black, keep in mind that Obama has kept on Robert Gates as SecDef. And what are Gates' qualifications for that job:
Special Advisor to VoteHere (of Bellevue, WA), a voting machine software company (cryptographic software patches to "secure" voting machine software) and lobbyist on behalf of that H.A.V.A. legislation which ensured that individual states' attorneys general are responsible for all elections in their states.
I think that may have some weight in the matter.
Although this might sound outlandish ... what I'd like to have is the power to issue an "anti-vote". That's right, I vote against a particular candidate and it negates someone elses vote for him.
Let's face it, this 'voting/democracy' thing is to a large degree a facade. With Billion dollar campaigns and spin minesters the game is rigged.
At least with an 'antiVote' one could have an option beside voting for twiddle dee / tweedle dum.
AntiVote ... change you can believe in.
Voters have an attention span of way less than 4 years. If life sucks, vote for the other guys.
Popo has it and gets junked. Weird place.
A president cannot know everything - he must get advisors and trust their advice. Obama chose unwisely.
On health care, the claim that he picked the wrong route is denied by the continuing opposition. His plan starts with what is achievable and moves to what is required. If followed it will bring the US into line with developed countries on cost (where it is now way high) and outcomes (where it is now way low).
On war, Obama could not simply walk away from two stupid wars.
Obama may not have done everything correctly. There is no way McCain and Palin would have done any better. There is little chance any GOP opponent in '12 will do any better.
Obama may not be the best president. He is better than all the alternatives.
There is definately a contingent of characters here that are incapable of rising above their own mindsets and assessing the merits of a post on purely its own merits....
I once got junked for posting e^(i pi) + 1 = 0.... that one still baffles me
I'll steal a phrase: That is a unknown unknown.
You can neither prove nor disprove a future event. Opinions/speculation should be prefaced with IMO, or IMHO.
"Obama may not have done everything correctly."
But that's the point, ye of zero attention span and even less kowledge.
HE HAS DONE EVERYTHING CORRECTLY, according to his backers. He has appointed a 100% neocon, bankster, Wall Street lobbyist, pharmaceutical lobbyist, Monsanto lobbyist administration.
The prize (as the Nobel Prize for sending those trillions all over the planet to replace the banksters' junk paper) is his.
$400 billion backdoor bailout for the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry, the "financial reform" which allows for those mighty and massive foreign exchange, and proprietary trading loopholes (will somebody please stomp that IMF clown, Simon Johhnson, at MIT, for continuously spreading lies about that legislation?), Obama has gone after, and jailed, more whistleblowers than all previous US presidents combined.
One of his very first appointments, Diane Farrell from McKinsey, has had more effect in getting more American jobs offshored, and disemploying more Americans, than any other single individual in America!
Geez, dood, you really don't know jack about stuff, do you, brainless brent123????
And what about the campaign promises and that hopey changey BS ?
We wuz robbed, literally.
As for 2012, I'm praying for a Bernie Sanders / Ron Paul ticket.
The only thing requiring Obama to quadruple down in Afghanistan was consistency with his own hyperbolic rhetoric.... Oh, I forgot, there is also his hatred of the US military. The mission there is victory interruptus. The goal is a very difficult one made impossible by namby pamby rules of engagement and a preannounced withdrawal date. Obama announced to both the soldiers and the enemy that the enemy will win, and may harass and kill and maim our troops during the open season defined by the predefined length of the surge, using methods they wil get to know in advance thanks to our projecting our rules of engagement, nevermind prosecuting our own soldiers for shit as small as punching an actual known terrorist...an illegal combattant with NO rights under the Geneva conventions.
That's my take, Popo. The whole enchilada will ride on who his GOP opponent is, and if he/she can win independents.
I am a moderate independent pragmatist, and I voted for Obama, but I agree with basically all the points made in the original post. However I won't vote for a creationist, or an islamophobe, or a birther, or religious fundamentalist, or any other wingnut. And neither will a majority of the country.
Yep....
"Piers Corbyn: MAJOR EARTHQUAKE DANGER PERIOD 6-9th April IMMINENT" - http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=7496
wow interesting.......
Yes, of course he will lose.
(and I voted for him)
No, he won't.
Because Republicans are the majority in Congress now, and this Republican-led Congress is going to authorize a debt ceiling above 100% of the GDP (14.6 trillion).
Doing this, Republicans can no longer pose as "fiscally responsible" in 2012. So, they won't win the elections. Obama will.
Go for Gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5N3p2we_og
GOLD NEW ALL TIME HIGH!!!!
Hilarious. Who is he going to lose too? The Donald?
Palin? Newt? They are all flawed.
Paul, bitchez.
This would be a logical, sensible candidate for the Republicans to nominate vs. Obama, but Paul isn't beholden or in thrall to financial/corporate/military interests, so it's not going to happen.
jesse ventura = ron paul not on the republican ticket.
Jeb Bush 2012.
Jim Demint
I think if the GOP organizes behind Herman Cain they could beat Obama.
Don't see anyone else that would compete for the urban vote.
Otherwise....4 more years....and things we'll be so fucked we'll end up with a total wingnut.
Brraaaappp!
Did that smell good?
Georgy Tire-Biter!
I'd vote for Gary Johnson, but he'd never get elected.
Him or Palin would be my picks. Neither has a chance.
I'd like to know who is going to defeat Obama. Obama may be able to raise $1 Billion for his campaign. If the GOP is going to win, they had better nominate someone who can actually win. That someone is not named Palin or Paul. No chance. Romney may be their guy.
How lame is it to junk someone for asking a question?
Tell us, junkers. Who will the GOP nominate who can win in 2012?
If I had an arm left to saw off my other arm I would so I guess I'll stick with a leg. I guess your question is the $64 question but Romney? Obama-lite? Can't stomach him. Palin, that'll inflame the Left/Dems. Paul, as stated above, doesn't play ball with the money men. Huckabee, a bit scary on the religious issues?. Bush, f' me! Christie, won't run...oh, this isn't getting better. Any others?
I think we agree. There doesn't appear to be any really good candidate on the GOP side. I don't know who they have that can win.
Tim Pawlenty? (Not that I'd vote for him!)
John Galt FTW (but we all know that he won't run!)
Sorry, but out of the two dozen or so Republicons tryin' to toss their hat into the ring, I see two dozen or so semi-empty skulls. Better question: Is there a Decepticrat willing to give Obamatron a good primary fight?
Obama gets reelected. He already has 15% of the voter base locked up and can easily raise over $500M for the campaign. That means he only needs to convince (or buy) 35% + one vote for another term.
Put a fork in it, this one is done before it even starts.
He will be able to raise much more than $500 million. Some believe $1 billion is possible.
All but the most myopic can see that President Obama is anti-American and most Americans are not okay with that.
Most Americans are myopic.
All very logical. To bad the sheeple don't vote logically. Baaaaa!
No.... disagree...we will not vote with our pocketbooks....Ron Paul will be the next President of the United States
maybe but for how long? If he can't be bought, he'll be shot.
If the money in our pocket books becomes worthless, we might vote like the Germans did back in the 30's.
All good analysis , but.....Obummer will win for one reason. There will be no other viable alternative. Other than Ron Paul (the establishment will destroy him) the rest of the field is a joke.
Wrong. Presidential elections are always, always, always a referendum on the incumbent. Doesn't matter if a three-toed sloth is the opponent, the record of the incumbent is front and center for the debate. You can't point to an example otherwise.
It really doesn't matter much who will get the nomination for the GOP. I'm just hoping for a political outsider like Trump or Cain. Our political class is a bunch of losers. Look where we are at as a country.
If teh Donald wins there will be hell toupe!
+1
Touche on the toupe.
Don't touche the "hair" damn it.
Nice! *buh duh dup ziiing* Sank you he'll be here all ze week.
Truly sad when the best we can hope for is that the Great Implosion arrives BEFORE Nov, 2012!
Even if he were to manage to gain traction amongst the herd and win, TPTB would just use the opportunity to crash everything before the inauguration with the MSM screaming loudly "SAVE US!!"
It would be the same thing that happened when the first TARP was voted down in Congress.
1,000,000,000 / 300,000,000 people = $3.33 per vote. for 100% 6.66 for 50%...hummm
129 Million votes cast in 08.
Raise a billion = $7.75 for every vote cast.
WIN
Unbelievable
I think this is Reason #1. Everything else flows from it.
I'm not as bearish about collapse. Very bad inflation, absolutely. Economic collapse before November 2012? I doubt it.
This president is just Carter on steroids for the economy and Bush on steroids for foreign policy. Worst of both worlds.
Doesn't matter who "wins". We the people are the losers.
The best comment today.
This says it all. I wish I could write like this. I will send this to friends and relatives. Wish that ZH readers would do the same.
Regardless of who is elected, the people will lose (or at least 95%).
Meanwhile, everybody loses until 2012...
Why not just go to sesame street to find the next puppet.
"Why not just go to sesame street to find the next puppet."
Dammit, I'll tell you exactly why. Peter G. Peterson's wife is the person behind that vile show, dumbing down the American populace and turning them all into mindless consumers.
And if you don't know who Peter G. Peterson is (Blackstone Group, buyer and closer of oil refineries to drive up the price; creator of privatized prisons; ultra-leveraged buyout firm which has destroyed countless jobs and companies to enrich themselves; tax evader; former director of Council on Foreign Relations, former NY Fed Reserve chair, headed the Commission Clinton appointed to "end welfare as we know it"; founder of the Peterson International Institue of Economics to offshore American jobs, privatize Social Security and Medicare, and founder of America Speaks and the Fiscal Times, killed the finest soft drink ever created, Schweppes Ginger Beer (OK, that IS a personal pet peeve of mine, but I'm allowed that!), and endless other crimes against society.
Stay away from Sesame Street, dude!
So, you're saying Big Bird has a political axe to grind and Kermit the Frog is a spinmeister?? I feel so used (slinks off to hide in closet...)
We The People do not and never have voted for The Office of President. The People voice support for one candidate or the other by voting for ELECTORS. When The Electoral College meets to ELECT the President, there is no requirement to vote based upon anything except PERSONAL preference. With the criminal operations running rampant, don't discount PRESSURE being put upon Electors to vote as DIRECTED - namely, The Messiah 2.0
You're right, people vote with their pocketbooks. Since > 50% of the US is dependent on a gubmint paycheck Obama is a shoe in.
Exactly!
His analysis is perfect, yet he draws the wrong conclusion.
The sheeple have surrendered and just want to be taken care of by the Gubmint. Just look at the hysterical reaction to Rep. Ryan's austerity plan today. There is no evidence that the majority is for austerity of any kind. The majority is in favor of higher taxes (for someone else), more government and mindless and endless foreign wars/interventions.
It will take an unprecedented economic collapse to change this dynamic. The oligarchs confuse those dependant on government largesse and co-opt those dependent on the oligarchs' patronage; they buy cheaply the liberty that ought to be priceless.
Sadly, it's an unbeatable coalition.
+1
Obama has been too beholden to the bankstas to lose in 2012 (at this point).
Obama will be re-elected
TP who run the "US elections" want a malleable sock-puppet for president
Obama has proven he is a malliable sock-puppet as president.
Therefore, Obama will be re-elected - QED
I voted Ron Paul the last two pres. elections
The cool thing about Obama is that he is the one who has precipitated this large breakdown or accelerated it. Without collapse of some kind I don't believe there can be change, not hopium change a real change to the system. If McCain won or the next Republican to do so the collapse would be drawn out a slower bleed. I only hope that something big happens soon because if we keep limping along and then the next president is somebody like Romney we'll all keep limping along slowly bleeding. Obama can bring us down nice and quick.
No he won't. The Republicans don't have anybody worth a shit except maybe Ron Paul. I would vote for him only because he will end the FEDERAL RESERVE who is public enemy #1 in my book.
Here's a prediction. Other than a few dozen people who will come into power, ALL of us will lose in 2012.
The only item of interest will be how many sheeple the fear-mongers can drive to the polls. On one hand, most people are finally disgusted with both parties. Unfortunately, the fear will reach such intense levels as to overwhelm their disgust as they polarize around issues that make up "the most important election, EVER!"
Divide, conquer, rinse, repeat ad infinitum.
Much more a few dozens. Millions of people will win if Obama or his opponent are elected. They are not the same though.
The feeling of the people is one thing, but remember; campaign spending is unlimited now. There is no limit to the big money boys ability to form PACs and completely mind fuck the people with non stop attack ads. Don't underestimate the power of the media onslaught. Only a small percentage of people are contrarian types who come here. This election cycle will set spending records. The only thing separating American elections from the ones in corrupt third world dictatorships is the goons with assault weapons at the polling stations and, depending on the next couple years, that may arrive too.
Yes, but my question is - how can I get me some of that money they will be throwing around?
1) Print up a catchy slogan on a red bumper sticker
2) Then turn the slogan inside out and print that on a blue bumper sticker.
3)...
4) Profit!
The reelection of this guy is very unlikely. I'd prefer to see a new US president. Four years are enough to show that changes in the US are illusory because US citizens are too hooked on power to yield it in one way or another. Their prosperity depend too much on certain imbalances they need to be able to manipulate.
Rather than this status quo president, it is time for a president who will seek to manipulate these imbalances even more ostentiously than the current one.
Point 3 is funny. I always enjoy those US citizens who like to sell the idea of change based on loose notions. The US citizen nature is eternal.
Nah, unless there is a good candidate, we're stuck. I hope Ron Paul runs. this is probably his best and last chance.
Of course, donate to the guy and homeland will put you on a watch list. Kinda doesn't motivate me to help Ron, in that sense.
You're on here, you're probably on a watch list anyway, know what I mean?
+1984
Obama, Holder, Thomas all seem to me to be the beneficiaries of affirmatice action gone completely haywire.
Lovely people., I am sure, but they no can do.
Remember that mini series Amerika with Robert Urich? Kinda makes a person want to laugh, huh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_%28TV_miniseries%29
It's sad to see otherwise intelligent people, such as CHS, writing about "elections" as if they mattered.
There are no elections kids...there are only SELECTIONS...and here's a news flash for ya...you ain't got shit to say about who gets selected.
+1 ... about the only sensible post in the whole thread!
Obama is reaching out to all the college kids again with his latest you tube video. He has to make sure to avoid all the 'adults' who actually know what's going on in the world and know he's a terrible President.
There needs to be a rebuttal from all the college kids who voted for him last time, and still don't have jobs.
I'm predicting a serious primary challenger that will win, eliminating Obama.