[ennui2]

Now I can see where Planty's blame-Obama tic comes from.

Beat your wife? Blame Obama!

http://the-daily.buzz/sarah-palin-white-house/

This is your girl, Planty. Embrace her with open arms. Own up to her.

[KaiserJeep]

Harry Truman's sign:


Those idiots who insist upon political partisanship will always blame the POTUS if he's of the opposite party, and the other side's partisan idiots will always think the POTUS walks on water.

It's inevitable really. In old Europe, after a famine began, they picked some poor sap and sacrificed him (i.e. The Wicker Man). If the crops did not come back the very next growing season, they next sacrificed their King. After all, he was in charge when the problem occurred.

American politics works the same way, except instead of burning the former POTUS inside a straw figure, we relegate them to the lecture circuit, and pay them to tell us what they did wrong for years after they were in office.

[Plantagenet]

The NYTimes just interviewed Obama, and Obama unloaded about how unfair it is that everyone isn't applauding the wonderful economic condition of the USA under his wise leadership.

president-obama-weighs-his-economic-legacy.

Obama claims that he has created the strongest economic recovery is history, and the only reason that everyone in the US isn't cheering the current recovery is that the evil Rs have brainwashed Americans into thinking the economy is worse then it is. Even the NYTimes couldnt accept that pack of lies. The NYT pointed out that Hillary (D) and Bernie(D) and millions of their D supporters are also criticizing the state of the economy so it isn't just the evil Rs out to get Obama.

The NY Times also brought up the fact that the growth in the last quarter was just 0.5%, continuing a pattern of very weak GDP growth under Obama. Curiously the NYT blamed the weak growth in the USA economy partly on Obamacare, suggesting that it is slowing economic growth and discouraging some people from getting jobs.

Its strange to see a pro-D newspaper like the NYT (1) basically say that Obama must be stoned to think the US economy is in great shape and (2) partly blame Obamacare for the weak economy in the US.


That was then---this is now. Now even the NYTimes is blaming Obama for the poor economy in the US.

[ennui2]

The economy in the US isn't poor.

Better luck next time.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ennui2', 'T')he economy in the US isn't poor

[SeaGypsy]

If I might chime in, the last few months is the first time since the AUD$ floated, 1984, where job opportunities in the USA are seriously attractive. When cost of living & particularly access to a variety of reasonable job markets nearby very attractive opportunities for land ownership- I believe the US is unrivalled.

Disclaimer- I am a mostly white, multi skilled & computer literate 48 year old male.

[Tanada]

Fixing blame is a mostly pointless exercise unless there is something you can do about the person being blamed. So far as I can tell none of us are in positions where we could convince President Obama to resign, nor get Congress to impeach, so saying he is to blame for everything is just a shorthand way of saying you don't like the way things are going.

[ROCKMAN]

T - I'll go even further and say now one individual POTUS or political party can be blamed (or given credit for the good times) for the economy to any significant degree. The system is too large and complex to be manipulated SIGNFICANTLY by such relatively small actors. Of course good/bad policies could be injected around the edges but nothing that can readily change the trajectory. What ever President Obama tries to take credit for one cannot escape the fact that he took office during one of the cyclic economic downturns we periodically go through. How much credit he gets for any improvement can be debated. But the economy was going to slip back into some level of growth mode regardless of what he did or didn't do. Sme dynasic in place for the next POTUS regardless of which candidate it might be.

[Newfie]

Spot on Rock. It's the system, which is mostly made up of us, we the people.

I do blame Obamah for trying so hard to be part of that system. He had an opportunity to speak out on climate change and over population and did not. What he could have done was striven to educate and start a more reasoned discourse. That was the scope of what was in his power.

[ROCKMAN]

Newfie - But that brings me back to my point: any POTUS can say anything he wants. But would it change the dynamics significantly? People pretty much do what they think is in their best interests and it seldom matters to them what opinions others have.

Consider the one seemingly tiny things the two parties could have gotten behind after the 1970's price spike: consider raising fed motor fuel taxes just 1%/yr. And not 1% in absolute terms but just 1% of the existing fed tax. So after 35 years the fed tax would be around $0.25/gallon instead of $0.184/gallon. Still ridiculously small and would have little impact on consumption IMHO. And yet they couldn't even do that. And now listen so some of those grandiose idea about the govt doing this or that which would have a significant impact on our energy dynamics. No damn way any of those ideas would be implemented voluntarily.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', '
')
Consider the one seemingly tiny thing the two parties could have gotten behind after the 1970's price spike: consider raising fed motor fuel taxes just 1%/yr. And not 1% in absolute terms but just 1% of the existing fed tax. So after 35 years the fed tax would be around $0.25/gallon instead of $0.184/gallon. Still ridiculously small and would have little impact on consumption IMHO. And yet they couldn't even do that. And now listen so some of those grandiose idea about the govt doing this or that which would have a significant impact on our energy dynamics. No damn way any of those ideas would be implemented voluntarily.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', '
')
Consider the one seemingly tiny thing the two parties could have gotten behind after the 1970's price spike: consider raising fed motor fuel taxes just 1%/yr. And not 1% in absolute terms but just 1% of the existing fed tax. So after 35 years the fed tax would be around $0.25/gallon instead of $0.184/gallon. Still ridiculously small and would have little impact on consumption IMHO. And yet they couldn't even do that. And now listen so some of those grandiose idea about the govt doing this or that which would have a significant impact on our energy dynamics. No damn way any of those ideas would be implemented voluntarily.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '
')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')
“Businesses see rising prices at the pump hurt their bottom line,” Obama warned in 2011. “Families feel the pinch when they fill up their tank. And for Americans that are already struggling to get by, a hike in gas prices really makes their lives that much harder. It hurts.”

[Newfie]

Rock,
I was t even looking for him to DO something like legislation , just talk intelligently. Not "all the above" baloney.

He's a looser.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '
')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')
“Businesses see rising prices at the pump hurt their bottom line,” Obama warned in 2011. “Families feel the pinch when they fill up their tank. And for Americans that are already struggling to get by, a hike in gas prices really makes their lives that much harder. It hurts.”

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'H')e's a looser.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', ' ')the right-wing article cherry picks the quote

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', '
')
Consider the one seemingly tiny thing the two parties could have gotten behind after the 1970's price spike: consider raising fed motor fuel taxes just 1%/yr. And not 1% in absolute terms but just 1% of the existing fed tax. So after 35 years the fed tax would be around $0.25/gallon instead of $0.184/gallon. Still ridiculously small and would have little impact on consumption IMHO. And yet they couldn't even do that. And now listen so some of those grandiose idea about the govt doing this or that which would have a significant impact on our energy dynamics. No damn way any of those ideas would be implemented voluntarily.

[ennui2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ennui2', 'T')he economy in the US isn't poor

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ennui2', ' ')if we're going to judge Obama's presidency on the basis of whether the economy is better with him leaving office than when he started, then people should be thanking him and not whining that things could be better.