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The Obama Watch
The Sting: Obama's Old Deal
"A good catch word can obscure analysis for fifty
years."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Obama era comes clearer.
The President-elect, says the President-elect himself on CBS' 60 Minutes, believes in an administration centered on the principle of "something that works."
This bromide always sounds appealing to the unwary. It has that fairy tale intrigue. Not too hot, not too cold. J-u-u-u-s-t right. A little left here, a little right there. Middle, sort of. Centrist, don't ya know?
Except of course, this idea never turns out to be either center or, as it is also frequently touted, new. It is -- shockingly! -- nothing more than old-fashioned liberalism afraid to advertise. It is, as the saying goes, what it is.
In a week which sees the cover of Time magazine photoshopping Barack Obama into Franklin Roosevelt, accompanied by the appropriately reverent paen to the New Deal and a blossoming New Liberal World Order by liberal journalist Peter Beinart, one can only -- well -- laugh. Why not just cut to the chase and do Obama and Joe Biden as the con men Robert Redford and Paul Newman portrayed in the classic Oscar-winner The Sting?
All of this, from Obama's musings about "something that works" to the quivering anticipation at the sight of the New Deal born again is nothing less than the kind of hype usually reserved by members of the Flat Earth Society for their own peculiar fantasies.
Think for a moment of the greatest claims trumpeted for the vaunted philosophy of "something that works." From the New Deal to the Great Society, from FDR to LBJ and Jimmy Carter (Carter apparently serving as the Obama first term), the results are nothing if not striking failures. There's Social Security, perpetually on track for bankruptcy if it is not hurriedly "fixed" yet again. Medicare, which Mr. Beinart praises without quite explaining the American people may not be aware this too is racing along briskly to Fannie Mae-style financial disaster.
Ah yes, Fannie Mae. The New Deal chestnut designed as a financial institution but quite inevitably transformed by the Clinton administration into a welfare agency under the catchwords "affordable housing." You remember Fannie Mae. The fuse that lit the financial implosion that is, as we speak, upending the lives and fortunes of millions of Americans and, for that matter, non-Americans. The list of results from this "something that works" philosophy is long. LBJ alone listed 207 cherished results in his memoirs, results that generally go under the catchwords "Great Society." The cost, we know decades later, was trillions and neither "Great" nor, in many situations, much of a society either. (Think of pre-Katrina New Orleans or pre-Giuliani New York.)
Then wrap your mind around the results that began appearing when Ronald Reagan finally brought a halt to this "something that works" idea in 1981. Even with George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton unable to resist some tax hikes, the Reagan idea kept on rolling, producing over forty million jobs between August of 1981, when taxes were cut, and September of 2008, when the fuse lit by FDR's Clinton-modified Fannie Mae exploded. Here are some of the more well-known products the American people responded to between 1981 and today:
Microsoft, Blockbuster, Dell computers, Apple computers, the DVD, the VCR, the iPod, cell phones, Martha Stewart Living, Fox News, Amazon.com, talk radio, Harpo productions (Oprah Winfrey's empire of TV: films, books and a magazine) and DreamWorks studios (Steven Spielberg).
Tax dollars required for start-ups? Zero. All were the product of dreams and private capital. Private capital that in turn has provided good jobs and, yes, health care for thousands of employees. Private capital that, if the Obama team were to breathe new life into the ghost of the New Deal, would vanish into more Fannie Mae-style black holes and Bridges to Nowhere. Private capital that would be sucked up from countless less famous but equally valuable small businesses across America. Businesses that are in fact the economic backbone of our communities.
The Obama idea behind doing "something that works" is, as Time acknowledges, nothing if not the new New Deal in both fact and form. What goes unmentioned by Mr. Beinart and his editors is that FDR's penchant for experimenting effectively unstabilized the American economy for a full decade. Markets crave stability and FDR proudly promised none. He tried "something that works" with currency and exchange policy, agriculture, utilities and the gold standard, to name but a few. The last policy was so erratic no less than the famed economist John Maynard Keynes described FDR's work as "the gold standard on the booze." According to Amity Shlaes, author of the current bestseller The Forgotten Man, one fine morning FDR informed his advisors he was raising the gold standard by twenty-one cents. Why? Said FDR in a classic "something that works" response: "It's a lucky number because it's three times seven."
Sound familiar?
This is the kind of economic philosophy behind Barney Frank's now infamous statement that he was willing to "roll the dice" with Fannie Mae.
Comments
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stu.b.con| 11.18.08 @ 7:38AM
I've been saying this for months and months to anyone who would or would not listen. Naturally few who listened actually heard preferring to tag me was some kind of racist neanderthal who refused to embrace 'hopenchange'. So now the messiah's message evolves to 'something that works' or whatever...except it didn't work in the 30's, '40's, 50's, 60's et al and will only further drag us into the cesspool that is liberal socialism.
Robert| 11.18.08 @ 9:52AM
Ah, stu.b.con...you have stumbled upon the PURPOSE of the Marxist left's agenda: to so paralyze the economy that government takeover becomes the ONLY option. You are right: nobody's listening! Why? The left has so successfully removed critical thinking from the minds of the robots graduating public school, there is no capacity to understand what's going on. Additionally, the mind-numbed robots fully believe Big Brother is the munificent provider of all that is good. That is what they have been taught. The takeover by the Left of the press, schools, media and now the government is complete. Future elections will be deemed unnecessary, or at best a sham pretension, resembling the next one reinstalling Putin in Russia.
Fannie Maelstrom, Freddie MacDonald's, Medicrap, Social Insecurity,and a thousand other pinprick programs sucking from the ever-diminishing body of prosperity in the US, all these are part of the tenacious Socialist script for ultimate takeover of the economy followed by the political power center of this country. The last few months were the climax of the play. George Soros, like the Wizard of Oz behind the secret curtain, has been pulling the levers of Act Three of the script. This monstrous sub plot probably will never see the light of day. The compliant press is in the bag already. The manipulation of hedge funds to crash just before the election, plunging the world into financial chaos has the timing of genius!
Now enter stage Left, the Shakesperian thespian character Obama, the baby gestated from the mating of the socialist sperm with the American egg, now bereft of brain DNA. The perfect Manchurian candidate - smooth of tongue, absent of substance...a Messianic figure from Central Casting to provide Hope and Change - the hero required to resolve the plot the radicals have set into motion.
The curtain may be lifted during the coming regime by what's left of a free press before 'Fairness' kicks in, exposing the sham of this wizard reincarnate Soros, but the damage is already done and - with the power structure in place, what chance has truth to undo it? The mechanisms of repression have already been displayed in truth squads deployed by the Obama minions, throwing off the campaign plane opposition press reporters, the Fairness Doctrine, illegal campaign contributions from abroad, a proposed taxpayer-funded civilian storm trooper cadre, and a general hostility to dissent. If this is how a campaign operates BEFORE it has the means of power, just think how it will operate after January 20th!
My fellow Americans, we have been had! So many of us don't even realize the con man is readying to stab us in the back with the knife in his left hand while putting his comforting right arm around us.
Obama Rules| 11.18.08 @ 12:04PM
Robert rants, "The left has so successfully removed critical thinking from the minds of the robots graduating public school, there is no capacity to understand what's going on. Additionally, the mind-numbed robots fully believe Big Brother is the munificent provider of all that is good. That is what they have been taught. The takeover by the Left of the press, schools, media and now the government is complete. Future elections will be deemed unnecessary, or at best a sham pretension, resembling the next one reinstalling Putin in Russia."
I beg to differ. Everyone is a free thinker. Obviously, most free thinkers and voters in this country decided that Obama was the better option. So, stop yer whining and get back to work.
Lakewood Bob| 11.18.08 @ 1:14PM
To Obama Rules, Your response to Robert is very predictable.
"By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell - and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed." - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
Theoldman| 11.18.08 @ 1:27PM
Robert is right on. Indianapolis is a microcosm of what is going on in Washington. An example: We are now in the process of razing the RCA Dome, it having been replaced by a football palace costing ten times that original expenditure. We have now been told that, over the last 25 years, nothing has been paid on the principal of the debt for the RCA Dome. This despite the fact that the citizens of Indianapolis have paid a one percent "Food and Beverage Tax" over that quarter century, levied for the specific purpose of paying for that construction. There has been no question asked by the media, the political leadership or the business community organizations as to where all those dollars went. The city media has accomplished a brainwashing that a professional football team is the only asset making us "world class" and no one dares question that "wisdom." One newspaper columnist went so far as to say, in answer to a direct question about the disappearance of those funds, "I don't know and I don't care." He is among those telling all of us about the "economic benefits" of the team. Meanwhile the city budget is in trouble and we are closing schools as enrollment declines with surrounding counties having rapid growth.
Obama Rules| 11.18.08 @ 1:28PM
Robert, I have a quote for you, too:
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
—Dick Cheney, Vice President, USA, 2002
See, free thinkers realize the bogus claims and lies that the Bush administration has perpetrated on the American people for the past eight years.
Because of liars like Cheney and awful lies like this, the Republican party is doomed.
Robert| 11.18.08 @ 1:31PM
"Obama Rules." How subtle! You understand the distinction between presiding and ruling. Shall we call your dear leader "Der Fuhrer" now or wait until January 20th?
Incidentally, as a member of Free Thinkers, Inc you have labeled your intellectual contribution to this forum precisely at fair market value.
Obama Rules| 11.18.08 @ 1:53PM
Robert, don't be mad because you're wrong. You posted a quote by Hitler: "The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed."
I can't think of a greater lie than the WMDs-Iraq-is-a-threat-there-will-be-mushroom-clouds-over-NYC nonsense that Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush told to the American people.
Looks like you got duped, dude. I guess Adolf was right: "The greater the lie ..."
Why don't the GOP and its supporters grow some cojones and 'fess up that Bush did us wrong?
Lakewood Bob| 11.18.08 @ 2:01PM
To Obama Rules, There are many quotes by democrats referring to Hussein's WMD's. Here is just one of them.
"I will be voting to give the President...authority to use force...to disarm Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." John Kerry 10/09/02
Stan redmond| 11.18.08 @ 2:12PM
Obama Rules,
Just anectodal evidence... Howard Stern send a reporter to ask what the "man on the street" thinks of the Obama - Palin ticket. No one pointed out that Palin was McCains running mate....Just yesterday at LAX a group of well-meaning Obamabots set up a PORTRAIT shrine of Obama magazine and book photos. The only responses were "Obama will fix " and when asked if they disagree with any of Obama's policies they looked like a deer in the headlights. They never even considered disagreeing with the Obama. And these are college graduates and all they can say is "He will fix this or that" with no information to back it up.
And must libs always bring up the "lies" in regards to Iraq. He had them, he had them when we invaded, and we found them. More disturbing was we didn't find what we knew he had and the UN knew he had. And if you're going to play that game I'll play right back and you MUST admit then that Gore, Clinton, Kerry, et al. LIED when they said the SAME THING Bush and Cheney said!!!
Nancy Hutzenbeler| 11.18.08 @ 2:49PM
I believe that Obama cares little about the state of the economy. In fact, the worse it gets the easier it will be for him to begin his big government plans including higher taxes in order to redistribute wealth, gun control, silencing any opposition like conservative talk radio and setting up a civilian security force as powerful as the military answerable only to him. There will be little chance to stop him with a majority of congress being democrats.
daboss| 11.18.08 @ 2:51PM
Obama Rules -
You cannot lie about intelligence - which is by its nature a speculation. When those in power wish to criminalize policy or intelligence gathering because they do not agree with it we go down a dangerous road.
Fro example when the Bush fired the Fed prosecutors it was totally within the administrations right – since they serve at the pleasure of the president. And if Obama fires them all when he takes office – good for him. Again – they server at the pleasure of the POTUS.
Get the picture??
Mike Kennedy| 11.18.08 @ 2:57PM
Enough with the MoveOn liberal mantra of Cheney and Bush lied. All your idiot candidates said the same thing and most voted for the war (those that actually could). Obama has no concrete plans and will "wing it" with old ideas that have failed before and will fail now. He's a one-termer who has no original thoughts, but he is a good politician. I'd cast him in the Redford role in the sting because of his youth and cocky attitude, but I'm no George Roy Hill.
Obama Rules| 11.18.08 @ 3:15PM
To STAN REDMOND and LAKEWOOD BOB:
Stan Redmond writes, "... you MUST admit then that Gore, Clinton, Kerry, et al. LIED when they said the SAME THING Bush and Cheney said!!!"
Stan, that is nonsense and you know it. On Sept. 12, 2001 -- ONE DAY AFTER 9/11 -- Rumsfeld already asked around if there was a possible way to link what had happened to Iraq.
For more than one year, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Franks formulated and planned an attack. Cheney purposely made that statement in Aug. 2002, about Iraq having WMDs, to hurry and get on with the business of war. He had no desire for a peaceful solution. Even if Saddam had surrendered BEFORE an invasion, I betcha Cheney woulda somehow pressured for a war!
Many Democrats AND Republicans in the Senate were skeptical of any and all evidence that Bush and Co. provided for the invasion. Alas, they took Bush's word as president and voted with him to show unity. It still doesn't excuse the deliberate lies by Cheney and Rumsfeld (those two in particular) in going about the business of invading Iraq.
Even George H.W. Bush's former national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft, wrote in 2002 that invading Iraq was a mistake and that he had serious doubts about any WMDs!! I mean, this is Dubya's daddy's security adviser!
Lakewood Bob gives us a quote from John Kerry:
"I will be voting to give the President...authority to use force...to disarm Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."
Exactly. Good quote. Kerry is voting for war, because he believes that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are telling the truth about being convinced that the WMDs exist. Why would he doubt his own president?
The real treason was perpetrated by Cheney and Rumsfeld in lying and distorting intelligence and selling this bogus war to the American public. In his defense, Bush was just the go-along prez who didn't know any better.
Again, let's look at Cheney's quote one more time: "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
"NO DOUBT. WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION."
I've emailed Dick Cheney three times already, and have yet to hear his response on where the WMDs are. Nice VP, eh?
Doesn't care about America's opinion, nor the fact that through his actions more than 3,000 of our brave soldiers have died for naught. Sickening.
b_wax| 11.18.08 @ 3:20PM
It appears as if some people did not see this article. Bush did not lie, Wilson and Plame did!
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/u/uraniumyellowcake.htm
Obama Rules| 11.18.08 @ 3:53PM
Nancy Hutzenbeler:
See, with comments like that, methinks you're closed-minded and afraid of everything that isn't "White, Old, and Wrinkly."
Please, read a book every once in a while. Learn about other cultures. Learn another language. Think for yourself. Question things.
I think you will find that is a strange, big, and beautiful world out there, with lots of interesting people and different cultures.
And not, as your leader Bush keeps insisting, that "everyone is evil and we must bomb 'em to give 'em freedoms."
Speedbump| 11.18.08 @ 3:56PM
Why do we continue to legitimize this Obama Rules moron??? Please people, just ignore his lunatic ravings and then eventually he'll get tired and go away...maybe he'll even get a real job and move out of his mother's basement...
daboss| 11.18.08 @ 3:58PM
Obama Rules - you must be confused ... didn't Canada just take in a shipment of 500 tonnes of yellow-cake uranium that was sent from Iraq?
Pretty sure it was banned under all UN sanctions ... how many nukes can you make out of 500 tonnes of yellow cake?
Not sure - maybe you can find it in one of the books you read.
Jeeze!
dosser| 11.18.08 @ 4:11PM
For ANYONE who doubts the existence of WMDs in Iraq should remember that he used them. Also, one should read the book by General Sadda, the air force general of Saddam Hussein himself. I think I would rather believe he who knows the culture, resided in the inner circle, knows Saddam Hussein, and witnessed the handling and transporting of WMDs from Iraq personally than some know-nothing poster who is not Iraqi so doesn't know the culture, nor Saddam, nor the inner circle and relies on third hand suppositions at best.
Obama Rules| 11.18.08 @ 4:23PM
Speedbump: Which part of my posts have been "lunatic ravings"? Please explain.
Or, is that your word for "facts"?
Obama Rules| 11.18.08 @ 4:30PM
daboss:
It's actually 550 -- NOT 500 -- metric tons of yellowcake. And, yes, I've heard of it.
How did I hear about it?
Is it maybe because this is same yellowcake that had already been discovered by United Nations inspectors after the first Gulf War, in 1991?
Hey, are you part of Dick Cheney's "Team Of Let's Distort the Truth"?
dosser| 11.18.08 @ 4:46PM
Obozo Rules:
Please, convince me then, that Gen. Sadda, several weapons inspectors, and other non-American observers were wrong. Currently, your "arguments" are unconvincing.
Robert| 11.18.08 @ 5:13PM
Obama Rules, the election is over your stooge fooled enough dopeheads and won. Go celebrate and gloat that you will soon no longer have to deal with your Bush Derangement Syndrome.
But before you rant on about the loss of American lives in Iraq, do remember 3000 innocents lost their lives to terrorism on this side of the pond seven years ago. Curious how that fact is missing from your posts. I'm sure you believe that was an inside job, and the little Eichmanns, as your idol Ward Churchill called them, deserved what was coming to them.
And to edify you on your delusions concerning the absence of WMD in Iraq, it wasn't tourists on those Russian trucks headed out of Iraq bound for the Bekaa Valley of Syria after the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq was passed enabling the Bush Administration, with the concurrence of your Liberal senators, to pursue what Bill Clinton named, but did not have the cohones to carry out: "Regime Change." The contributors above who affirm the presence of WMDs in Saddam's Iraq are correct. Of course, that matters little to you BDS members. However, if the truth matters just enough to warrant the time of one Obama Sycophant, read http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/u/uraniumyellowcake.htm.
You called this a "strange, big, and beautiful world." After reading your postings, I understand how this world must feel "strange" and indeciferable to you. For what other reason could you have voted for a fraud?
Obama Rules| 11.18.08 @ 7:47PM
Robert, you don't have to tell me about the 3,000 killed on 9/11. I live and work in NYC. I see the empty skyline every morning. But, remember now, that it wasn't just 3,000 Americans killed--there were people from all over the world working at the WTC. That is something that you so conveniently want to forget: that there is a world outside of America. Yes, other countries. Other peoples. Other cultures. And you know what? Most of these people don't appreciate Bush invading Iraq and shoving "freedom" down peoples' throats. Your precious prez pretty much ruined our reputation and our standing in the world. I pray that Obama will remedy this.
John| 11.18.08 @ 8:24PM
Er . . . did I miss an explanation for this new "comment" feature when TAS started its newly designed online site a month or so ago? The great majority seem half-baked and illiterate and useless--with the whole feature, in response to article after article, more or less dominated by a dozen or so borderline psychopaths. Am I missing some higher purpose for the feature--a public service gas outlet for the unstable perhaps? What the hell's going on?
Dennis Morris| 11.19.08 @ 12:26AM
to Mr. rules,
Seems to me the UN put certain requirements upon Mr. Hussain. Failing to follow those he was required to be removed. Those other cultures had their say then. Since that time their new opinions are interesting but basically Monday morning Quarterbacking.
Stan Redmond| 11.19.08 @ 1:29AM
"I mean, this is Dubya's daddy's security adviser! "
I don't mind at all debating the Iraq invasion. But any liberal that uses "daddy" when referring to GW Bush is just pathetic. It's childish and stupid and the "Dubya invaded Iraq for daddy" argument is so stupid as to not be worth another thought.
Obama Fools| 11.19.08 @ 1:36AM
0bama (practically all the time):
"Uh, uh, uh... Uh..."
The reason brainwashed cultists like Ms. Rules here can't figure out 0bama's new New Deal is retarded is because such obvious truths are way above their pay grade, which matches their IQ: it's 0, just like that of their leader.
Incidentally, Ms. Rules, your sissy whining and libeling of Cheney won't cover up the known fact that your braindead Messiah is already an inveterate liar, pervert, mass-murderer, and traitor. We've got all his lies published on YouTube and a million other sites, and we're going to be throwing them back in your fat, pasty, pimply, drool-soaked face for so long as free speech remains. Here's a preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDed5qsdS9A
By the time your moronic "ruler" Messiah gets done wrecking America (assuming--out of purest optimism--that there still is a USA by the time he's gone), 90% of the USA will be declaring him the absolute worst President we've ever had. The other 10%, which will doubtless include you, will be in dire need of straitjackets and padded cells, though where we're going to get the money for that with your moron having mooched it all for his retarded programs, heaven knows.
Jeffrey Lord| 11.19.08 @ 9:54AM
I'm struck by the Obama Rules comments about the world outside America. There is nothing new in what she says. The outside world - simply because it is outside and different on the surface - is the same outside world it has always been throughout history. For that matter, it's identical to the USA. Which is to say that no matter people's race, gender or culture human beings are..yes..human beings. No more, certainly no less. And human beings are famously good, bad, evil, greedy, kind, generous, religious, not religious etc etc etc. What should never be distracted by what one sees on the surface. To have a wonderful command of the language, to speak fluent German and also have a passionate belief that Jews are non-human is, one would hope this is obvious, evil. But it wasn't obvious to millions of Americans in the 1930's who were quite taken not only by Hitler but Mussolini and Stalin to boot. "I've seen the future and it works" crwoed liberal muckraker Lincoln Steffens of his visit to Soviet Russia way back then. Eventually people were shocked -shocked!- that Stalin had this habit of mass murder just like Hitler.
So Ms. Rules, you may be discovering the outside world for the first time. Respectfully, I suggest you not only travel more but pick up a history book or two. And I also respectfully may suggest that casting aspersions on someone's race, as Democrats have politically profited from doing for most of their history (see slavery, segregation, lynching, race quotas etc etc) is not only wrong but morally so.
liberty4uSA| 11.22.08 @ 3:10AM
When you smash a pumpkin on the street and proceed to return it to the body of it owner I believe you come up with something I would term as an Obama Rules. Gourds are impressive to behold but basically void on the inside.
Obama doesn't even wear the pants in his own household! The world will do what they are already doing, laugh at all the geniuses that voted for a Marxist with the no experience whatsoever!
You pray....funny, not very liberalesque of you!
Our country is in trouble and you help elect the hip dude because he made you feel good, now you hope that he will change the world for the better...we all wait with baited breath. LOL