Could Obama be "Good for America"?

[John Galt?]

Could Obama be "Good for America"? I think so. Just like a bad tasting medicine, we will have to swallow 4 years of Obama to finally realize what is good for us.
 
They say an addict needs to hit rock bottom before they truely realize thier problems, and our country is an addict. It is addicted to spending money that isn't there. For decades the government has spent money it didn't have while saying "it's just temporary, we will stop later." That attitude has spread to the American consumer, and with devistating results. This current financial crisis wasn't caused by the Bush or Cheney or Pelosi or Harry Reid, it was caused by average Joes and Janes spending money they didn't have, buying houses they couldn't afford. Consumer spending has been rising around 7%/year for the last decade while wages and personal income has only risen 4%. We are addicted to deficit spending and the only way to kick that addiction is a hard crash down, and who better to bring that crash than "the man of change"
 
Pundits have compared Obama to Carter. But Carter was good for the country because he made us realize how much we needed a President like Reagan. The Republicans had force fed the country a diet of Nixon corruption and Ford ineptness and it was time for a "change". Carter made the GOP realize that the answer wasn't another Washington insider, a career politician, but a cowboy, a leading man. Similarly, the GOP has fallen into the same rut. 8 years of the son of a career politician, 8 years of gaffes and ineptness and what do they offer us, a crotchity old has been career Washington insider who 8 years ago was a maverick but now is little more than a neo-con puppet. Another Gerald Ford. In '76 the GOP rejected the Cowboy Reagan in favor of the career politician, and in '08 the innovative businessman who started 1 company, saved 2 others, and made the Winter Olympics a profitable venture was rejected for a 26 year Senator famous for surviving plane crashes (3 crashes, 1 caught fire on deck).
 
Obama will win this election. Barring some event of epic proportions Obama will be our next President. But the question is why. Sure he is a charismatic speaker and has a strong TV personna, but is that why he is leading in every poll? Or is it because the majority of voters don't see a choice. A young, vibrant, strong willed tax and spend socialist or an old, mistake prone, indecisive, tax and spend liberal who claims to be conservative. Those are the choices. The old days of a liberal candidate verses a conservative candidate have disappeared replaced with the liberal candidate vs. the slightly less liberal candidate. Given the choice between two similar products, people will invariably select the one that looks better.
 
Obama will be good for the country, because he will force the opposition party to realize we need clear choices. Reduce spending vs. increase spending is a choice, increase spending and increase spending not as much really isn't. An independent man vs a tool of the Chicago political machine is a choice, a Chicago political tool vs a military/oil industry tool really isn't. Obama will bring change, change to the GOP that will hopefully give us better choices in Congress and the White House.
 
Obama will be like catching chicken pox, it will be bad for a while, but once we are over it, we won't catch it again.

[Ironphist]

great points,  and by the way - despite my feelings about the candidate obama, my feelings about President Obama will be different.

i'm coming to grips with it, and i hope he does a good job as it is in everyone's best interest.  but like suggested above, even if he sucks out loud, it'll paint a clear vision to where we really need to go.

great thoughts actually...

[Biggs3535]

Excellent post.

[Snake Pliskin]

As your doctor I'm gonna call for a double dose.

[bradentonian]

I kinda thought GWB for two terms was "hitting bottom"

[John Galt?]

People love to point the finger of blame at the President. He is one man, standing alone, so it is easy. But most of our problems, present and future, start in the legislature. All tax plans, all spending bills, all treaties, all SC appointments, all declarations of war, go through the legislature. People need to stand up and demand more and better from their Senators and particularly their Congressmen. Hold that guy that won his office with only a 500-1000 vote majority accountable. Ask questions of that guy who has an office 5 miles from your house, not the guy thousands of miles away inthe White House.

There is a hundred thread on here about Obama or McCain but not one single thread about the merits or faults of Guy Bilirakis, Jim Davis, Bill Young, or Kathy Castor.

[ufojoe]

Back to the premise of your thread...

If Obama or McCain are bad for the country or worse than Bush was for the country, will Americans finally get it
and move onto real change?

Watch this and laugh. But you're going to cry too.

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/daily-show-rallies-fear

[bradentonian]

People love to point the finger of blame at the President. He is one man, standing alone, so it is easy. But most of our problems, present and future, start in the legislature. All tax plans, all spending bills, all treaties, all SC appointments, all declarations of war, go through the legislature. People need to stand up and demand more and better from their Senators and particularly their Congressmen. Hold that guy that won his office with only a 500-1000 vote majority accountable. Ask questions of that guy who has an office 5 miles from your house, not the guy thousands of miles away inthe White House.

There is a hundred thread on here about Obama or McCain but not one single thread about the merits or faults of Guy Bilirakis, Jim Davis, Bill Young, or Kathy Castor.

You won't get any argument from me.  The whole system is rotten.  But to pretend like Bush's administration didn't have a hand on the tiller of the legislation passed during his term is fallacy IMO. 

[nybuccguy]

 Ã‚     I would like to see true Republicanism make a comeback. Small fegeral government is not a bad concept, but thats not what the Republican party represents anymore. The federal government has run amock, and the only candidate who said anything about it was Ron Paul. For Republicans to beome the dominant party they need to realize that they cant cut taxes wiithout cutting spending and they need to cut their ties with the the evangelical christian movement, IMO. Most of all, the Republicans have to hope Obama fails because it may be devastating to their party. After eight brutal years or Republican debauchery, the country is ready to embrace change. If that change is successful the next 12 years will wither the Republican party significantly, possibly completelly.

[mjs020294]

Obama is going to be awesome....best black Muslim POTUS we have ever had by a mile.

[John Galt?]

People love to point the finger of blame at the President. He is one man, standing alone, so it is easy. But most of our problems, present and future, start in the legislature. All tax plans, all spending bills, all treaties, all SC appointments, all declarations of war, go through the legislature. People need to stand up and demand more and better from their Senators and particularly their Congressmen. Hold that guy that won his office with only a 500-1000 vote majority accountable. Ask questions of that guy who has an office 5 miles from your house, not the guy thousands of miles away inthe White House.

There is a hundred thread on here about Obama or McCain but not one single thread about the merits or faults of Guy Bilirakis, Jim Davis, Bill Young, or Kathy Castor.

You won't get any argument from me. The whole system is rotten. But to pretend like Bush's administration didn't have a hand on the tiller of the legislature passed during his term is fallacy IMO.

He had influence, sure. But Bush was elected to office twice, the Reps, both Ds and Rs, that debated, amended, modified, and passed that legislation were blindly elected 4 times. Barney Frank has a 17% approval rating and yet he has a huge lead over his challenger. The vast majority of congress ignored hundreds if not thousands of letters and emails opposing the $700 billion bailout, and yet most incumbents are leading in their districts.

How can all this Obama supporters yell and chant for "change" and turn right around and re-elect their congressman? That is what I wonder.

[bradentonian]

People love to point the finger of blame at the President. He is one man, standing alone, so it is easy. But most of our problems, present and future, start in the legislature. All tax plans, all spending bills, all treaties, all SC appointments, all declarations of war, go through the legislature. People need to stand up and demand more and better from their Senators and particularly their Congressmen. Hold that guy that won his office with only a 500-1000 vote majority accountable. Ask questions of that guy who has an office 5 miles from your house, not the guy thousands of miles away inthe White House.

There is a hundred thread on here about Obama or McCain but not one single thread about the merits or faults of Guy Bilirakis, Jim Davis, Bill Young, or Kathy Castor.

You won't get any argument from me. The whole system is rotten. But to pretend like Bush's administration didn't have a hand on the tiller of the legislature passed during his term is fallacy IMO.

He had influence, sure. But Bush was elected to office twice, the Reps, both Ds and Rs, that debated, amended, modified, and passed that legislation were blindly elected 4 times. Barney Frank has a 17% approval rating and yet he has a huge lead over his challenger. The vast majority of congress ignored hundreds if not thousands of letters and emails opposing the $700 billion bailout, and yet most incumbents are leading in their districts.

How can all this Obama supporters yell and chant for "change" and turn right around and re-elect their congressman? That is what I wonder.

Because they spend most of their time getting reelected

[benir0]

Hmmm...an interesting post.  I still think you need to get over the idea of "Obama as socialist".  It doesn't hold water when viewed in the context of this government's history over the last 90 years.

That's just a minor quibble...

I do think that we've been given no true conservative option and that is quite alarming.  However, I think that this election cycle is the product of the Dems finally getting hip to the new game that the Reps have been playing the last two election cycles.  It makes for sad sack politics.  Obama has been incredibly adept at keeping himself clean to all appearances, while I get the feeling that McCain never quite bought in to what his strategists were bringing.  They developed a strategy that didn't fit their candidate.

I think that our political parties may have descended to the point of no return.  Maybe the system itself is reparable, but we need to develop a third option, because the Reps/Dems have had ample opportunity to demonstrate what they'll do if they manage to convince everyone that political opinion only exists on a left-to-right continuum.  It's an absurd notion.

Obama is set to be a victim of his circumstance.  Things are gonna get rough.  Even though I'm not entirely convinced that he's as fiscally irresponsible as some would say, he's in for a huge butt-whipping.  I hope he doesn't try to completely FDR the situation.

My hope for Obama is that he uses some of his leadership ability (which I admit he has in spades) to tell us to tighten our belts and get working rebuilding neighborhoods and families that we've allowed to sink into ruin chasing this chimera called "the latest and greatest".  We will need the support of a network of friends as we move forward, no matter what the future holds.

Go outside, folks.  Stop listening to the terror that the TV is offering and learn to believe in people again.

Bob Barr '08!

[benir0]

People love to point the finger of blame at the President. He is one man, standing alone, so it is easy. But most of our problems, present and future, start in the legislature. All tax plans, all spending bills, all treaties, all SC appointments, all declarations of war, go through the legislature. People need to stand up and demand more and better from their Senators and particularly their Congressmen. Hold that guy that won his office with only a 500-1000 vote majority accountable. Ask questions of that guy who has an office 5 miles from your house, not the guy thousands of miles away inthe White House.

There is a hundred thread on here about Obama or McCain but not one single thread about the merits or faults of Guy Bilirakis, Jim Davis, Bill Young, or Kathy Castor.

I agree that we ourselves need to hold ourselves more accountable.  Part of the problem with this Bush administration, and why he deserves so much of the blame is that he has been, in fact at the source of many of problems we're facing, due to his power grab for the executive branch.

But yes, our representatives suck and I fear they suffer from the same rot that is consuming all of Washington right now.

[oregonbucfan]

the reason Im not voting for McCain is because I know an Obama presidency will be bad and finally we will elected a conservative for a change.