Archive for the ‘spending’ Category
BTW, BHO Could Still Win
Oct14
By John Feehery
Never assume.
I usually get in trouble when I make assumptions and then challenge them.
I have been assuming for some time that the Republicans will easily beat Barack Hussein Obama.
I have been assuming that for some very good reasons.
For example, Obama is just not a very good President. He doesn’t have a clue how the private market place works. He is not much of a leader. His neo-Marxist philosophy is all out of step with our free-market system.
Even if you do like the President personally, it is still hard to make the case that he deserves to be re-hired. The economy is in terrible shape. Our country is “this close” to going completely broke. He has failed to take on entitlements in any serious way.
He has had some successes in the war on terror, but unfortunately for him, this election won’t hinge on Mr. Obama’s ability to give the order to kill terrorists.
That is what we all know, and that is why he is cracking 50% in his disapproval ratings.
But the Republicans can still screw this up. Here are a few ways BHO could still win:
• Republicans can nominate Hermann Cain: He’s a nice guy, but he is not ready to become President. Obama will tear him apart in the debates. His 9-9-9 plan will be torn apart by both right and the left. He doesn’t have any clue about foreign policy. And independents will go with the devil they know rather than the angel they don’t.
• Republicans can piss off Hispanic voters: Immigration is an important issue, but the GOP better learn to handle it better than they have in the past. Rick Perry stepped in it when he said that Republicans who didn’t support his views on immigration didn’t “have a heart,” but his sentiment is right on this front: He knows how to get Hispanic votes.
• The Tea Party can run its own candidate: Ross Perot helped elect Bill Clinton twice. The Tea Party could re-elect Barack Obama. Matt Kibbe, the man behind Freedom Works, so dislikes Mitt Romney he has threatened to run a third party candidate. If he does, he deserves an appointment to the Obama cabinet in 2013.
• Money: Obama has a huge money edge on whoever the Republican candidate is. It is nice that the Republicans have all kinds of Super Pacs doing this thing and that thing. But Super Pacs, by law, can’t coordinate with other campaigns, and nothing is more frustrating than a bunch of conflicting messages coming out of a variety of different campaigns. Obama has already raised a shit-load of money and pretty soon, he is going to start using it.
• The economy: The economy can turn around, and if it turns around quick enough, it might save BHO. The irony, of course, is that the President is doing his level-best to keep that from happening. From Dodd-Frank regulations to Obamacare, from the minimum wage increases to the extension of unemployment insurance, the President and his team are doing all they can to keep the economic growth to a minimum. Despite that fact, the American economy still might roar back.
• The Republican base goes to war against swing voters: The GOP still hasn’t successfully litigated many of its internal disagreements. Should we be libertarian? Neo-cons? Paleo? Should we push to get out of Afghanistan? Should we legalize pot? Should cut the hell out of defense spending? Should we end the Fed or simply audit it? So many questions. So little time.
This election is in no way over, and to all of my Republican friends (and this is a memo to myself too), let’s not assume that this race is over. It ain’t over. It is really just beginning.
Quick Trade
Oct13
By John Feehery
Well, that was quick.
Yesterday, as I drove through Washington’s streets, all I saw was a bunch of traffic, made worse by the 30 rabble-rousers who occupied a half-block in downtown D.C.
Today, dozens of South Korean flags were fluttering in the pouring rain.
The President of South Korea is in town, meeting with Barack Obama and addressing a joint session of Congress.
Apparently, this visit constituted an important enough deadline to compel Congress to finally act on a free trade agreement with one of our best Asian allies.
The House and Senate usually only work this quickly together when they pass a continuing resolution to keep the government open.
South Korea wasn’t the only trade pact passed in a New York minute yesterday. So were the Colombia and Panama Free Trade agreements.
If you like NAFTA, you will love this trio of trade pacts.
If you don’t like NAFTA, you will be despondent.
The big business and the agriculture sectors love free trade. Free trade makes it easier for our companies to sell their products at a lower price to more customers and that is something that makes farmers and multi-national CEO’s very happy.
Labor hates free trade. More competition from foreign companies usually means lower wages for workers at the bottom rung of the chain. Workers that are protected by labor agreements are threatened because many companies would rather move their operations overseas than be forced to pay unnecessarily higher wages for low-skill workers.
President Obama campaigned against NAFTA, you may recall. He promised to take a look at repealing the trade agreements. That is how he got labor support.
The President’s campaign team assailed Mitt Romney for being a “flip-flopper” for some inconsistencies in the former Massachusetts governor.
Mr. Obama is not a flip-flopper. It seems to me that he is a liar.
He campaigned on getting rid of trade agreements like NAFTA, and now he is hurriedly pushing to expand NAFTA to other countries in Asia and Central America because he wants to save face with the South Korean President.
Wow!
I am a free-trade guy. Always have been and always will be. So I like the fact that we have these Bush-Administration trade agreements finally in place.
But putting my pundit’s hat on, I can’t see how passing these trade agreements so quickly is going to somehow settle down either the Tea Party or the Occupy Wall Street folks.
Free trade is the right thing to do, but it is not very popular with the voters.
Fast-tracking the votes and jamming it through both the House and Senate similarly was the right thing to do, but it won’t be very popular with the voters either.
My guess is that President Obama is going to quietly sign these new trade pacts without the glare of the television cameras in his face.
Big labor may want to rethink its support for their man in the White House.
