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Karl Rove: 'It Won't Work'

By Robert Stacy McCain on 3.6.09 @ 7:59AM

A few days before CPAC, I learned that Karl Rove was following my Twitter feed, and the scary thing about that -- even more than the possibility of Karl researching all the nasty crap I've said about him before we became BFFs -- was that I might become "influential." So imagine my horror when Jennifer Rubin blogged the latest Rove column:

Eloquent words and "spin" work better in a campaign than they do while governing. And as Mr. Obama is discovering, the laws of economics won't change, even for him.

OK, here's me, Feb. 15, at AmSpecBlog:

The fiscal fantasies of Hope are about to slam head-on into the economic realities of the bond market. Economic reality is an unmovable object, and liberals are about to discover that Hope is not an irresistible force. Or, in fewer words: It Won't Work.

No specialized knowledge or advanced education is needed to understand why Obamanomics won't work. All you need is two eyes, a brain, and the common sense of common people. Ignore the polls. Ordinary Americans who are watching their hard-earned retirement savings evaporate in the stock-market meltdown caused by Obamanomics are beginning to realize that Hope is a poor substitute for basic economics.

As bad as the stock-market slide has been, try to imagine the crisis that could ensue if the bond market gets the jitters. Associated Press on Wednesday reported:

Analysts are anticipating that the Treasury Department on Thursday will announce plans [to] auction $60 billion in notes next week. The government has been issuing debt this year at a record pace to finance its bailouts. So far, auctions have been met with solid demand. But investors have gotten warier about buying Treasurys, particularly long-term ones.

No sign yet of a doomsday scenario, but these massive deficit-spending schemes piled one atop each other are placing unprecedented pressure on capital markets already ratcheted drum-tight by the bursting of the housing bubble and related financial fallout. Obama's budget is a fantasy, and while bonds tend to go up when stocks go down (people shifting capital from risk to security), we're now on such shaky ground -- fiscal, financial and monetary policy all going where no policies have gone before -- that the future is beyond prediction, certainly for a mere amateur like me.

People are scared. People are angry. They're "going Galt." They're planning a National Tea Party April 15.

Good-bye, Hope and Change. Hello, Fear and Loathing. When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

(Cross-posted at The Other McCain.)

topics:
Economics, The Obama Administration

View all comments (11) | Leave a comment

Alan Brooks| 3.6.09 @ 9:17AM

the stock market slide was "caused" by Obamanomics? don't you mean Obamanomics is a contributing factor?

A. Brooks| 3.6.09 @ 9:19AM

... you did in fact refer to yourself as "a mere amateur"

ruth| 3.6.09 @ 11:22AM

I love Michelle Malkin; the girl's got spunk. 'Going Galt' is genius.

Interloper| 3.6.09 @ 5:48PM

The tea parties again? After they have been exposed as a contrivance of Right Wing groups funded by Forbes and Koch in all the major media? Despite the fact the tea parties did not attract enough people to change a street light bulb? (With the exception of South Carolina, where hundreds showed up to wave racist signs damning President Barack Obama.) Even though the alleged face of the 'revolt,' Rick Santelli, repudiated it? Desperation, Robert Stacy McCain is your embodiment.

amsron| 3.6.09 @ 9:42PM

So the Dow Jones drops from a high of 14,000 in July of '07 to 8108 on January 22, 2009...the Bushonomics "mission accomplished" of -42%...but the 18% drop since then equals "OBAMANOMICS?" Seems to me you're mistaking the poor judgment of the previous administration with the current panic caused by said administration.

It's just like deregulation. The banking industry was rock solid for almost 50 years so Reagan said we need to deregulate...and 10 years later we have the S & L scandal...hmm, must be those darn Democrats...let's deregulate some more. So Phil Gramm pushes through the repeal of Glass-Steagal and 8 years later we have the almost complete collapse of the banking industry...hmm, must be those pesky Democrats.

Unbelievable!!!!!

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.7.09 @ 12:50AM

Interloper, when will we get to see your post about how the Dow Jones Industial Average is a white supremacist conspiracy to discredit the savior of mankind and distract us from coming together to admire his dreamboat awesomeness?

I sat at lunch today with a businessman who has had a successful small business for 38 years. He told me he is moving the whole company overseas. Why? Cause he hates the fact of an American of African descent being president? No, because he hates having a socialist in control who seems hellbent on destroying American manufacturing.

Take off your stupid blinders. It ain't racism, its economics.

BTW, the ultimate tea party will occur early November 2010. Welcome to the Revolution.

Matt| 3.7.09 @ 1:50AM

The DOW has dropped 2000 points in six weeks of Obama as president. Not lookin' too good, Obummer.

CH| 3.7.09 @ 1:53AM

Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and ACORN forced banks to make bad loans. It was stupid liberal social engineering that caused this economic meltdown. Frank and Dodd should be in jail. Corrupt bastards.

jrs| 3.9.09 @ 1:04AM

CH, you have no understanding of economics. I'll say it for the millionth time. Yes, things such as the CRA started the concept of subprime loans, but it was only the equivalent of letting the genie out of the bottle. Banks lent way more than they were required, why??? Because at the time it looked profitable (and that's a market reaction, not a mandated one.) Problem is that greenspan made the market irrational longer than it should have been due to interest rates.

CH| 3.9.09 @ 9:09PM

No, stupid, banks made bad loans because they were blackmailed into it by Barney, Chrissy Dodd and their socialist (Democrat) friends on the Congressional Banking Committee. Banks' requests for mergers were rejected unless they gave risky loans to the poor. ACORN also had violent, noisy demonstrations in front of banks to further pressure them. The origin of the financial crisis was democrat social engineering policies. I typed this post real slow so that maybe you could understand the truth. Either you've been living under a rock, you are stupid, or most likely, you are lying--but what I've written is the TRUTH!! Liberal moron, bad loans were mandated by you liberals.