Obama's Economic Plan

Mike Thompson at the Detroit Free Press hit the nail on the head with this one.

The Death Knell of "Conservativism"

Remember when the term "liberal" used to be whispered around political circles like a swear word? Conservatives would keep it in the campaign bag-o-tricks to pull out in an emergency. No longer. If this election has proved one thing is that public sentiment has turned away from the classical "conservative" point of view, and has trended more liberal. All the conservative movement has left is the abortion and gay marriage arguments. These two issues are of course important to many voters, but if that is all you can campaign on you end up with a campaign like John McCain's.

Remember when the conservative movement was the champion of fiscal responsibility? Well you have to go back to Clinton, a Democrat, to get a balanced budget and deficit reductions. Obviously it looks a little funny to be campaigning on fiscal responsibility when your guy in charge for the last eight years has overseen the largest expansion of the federal government since FDR.

Remember when the Neocon's hawkish attitude looked bold and aggressive. These guys were going to go above and beyond to protect America's freedoms and interests around the world. Now we have a world where more people dislike us then like us. We have managed to squander the goodwill of the world in eight short years. Looks like the Bush Doctrine was maybe not the best idea for protecting out interests LONG TERM. Sure we would secure the goal right now, but if 15 million people in the country hate us for it, has that really advanced our interests?

Remember when tax cuts and less regulation seemed like the be all, end all of economic theory? Not so much anymore. Wall Street has taught us that unregulated markets behave like they always have in our history, as a greed inducing orge of temporary profit followed by a massive collapse. Tax cuts are great, I mean who want to pay taxes...right? We have seen over the past few years that tax cuts for the wealthy DO NOT trickle down to the lower groups. If we want to stimulate the economy, how about trying from the bottom up?

On these three critical areas, it appears what has been orthodox conservative thought has been failing the American public for quite some time. The McCain campaign has tried the "liberal" label without much result. Now they are trying to go even further by throwing around the "socialist" label. My guess is that it won't work either. It may fire up the base to yell obscenities even louder at a McCain event, but the American people are looking past the insults and fear mongering to results, and that may just mean the death knell of the conservative movement as we know it today.

Greatest Fake Caption Ever

"Ok Lou, I’ll explain this to you one more time. Yesterday we fixed the economy but Gerry forgot to hit ‘save’ on his computer last night and now it’s all jacked up again."

-October 14th on the fact that the DOW was up over 900 points on the 13th, and now is down over 300 points on the 14th.

Hey, that 8.9% Unemployment Rate, Bump It Up a Little.

Yes faithful readers, it seems that I find myself in a position that more and more people are in...unemployed. This would be the reason that I have not blogged in a week or so, it has been a REALLY crazy week.

On Monday, I was sat down and told that my company would be closing the Ann Arbor facility that I manage. I was told this was not my fault, as I had only been running it six months, but just a victim of the economic climate. The good news for me was that they were going to give me a position in Toledo (corporate HQ). I went about my life knowing that I at least had a position open to me. So of course Friday afternoon rolls around and I get a call from the corporate lawyer and my regional. It seems that after evaluating the staffing in Toledo, I was no longer needed. My offer to relocate had been rescinded.

So if anyone out there need someone experienced in sales, purchasing, management, HR or inventory control, let me know. As of the 31st, I am available. JD out.

Between Debates

We are at a precarious time in the election cycle. We have already witnessed the first Presidential Debate, which almost did not happen (I tend to think it was going to happen all along). We are also at the cusp of the only Vice-Presidential Debate. I feel the need to talk a little bit about both.

The first debate was pretty interesting, and I am of the opinion that it was a tie. Both men looked Presidential and had that certain gravitas that is associated with the office. I tend to think that Obama won the portion where they talked about economics, and McCain slightly won the foreign policy section. I did not like how Sen. McCain kept talking down to Obama, saying "he just does not understand". If that is his strategy, he needs to rethink it. It comes off as condescending and cold, and may play to his base, but probably alienates those critical swing voters. For his part, Obama could have hit back a little harder, and also could have taken the chance to step up and claim leadership on the economic crises. I really think his campaign is scared to turn him loose, they are afraid of the "angry black man" characterization.

Most of the public opinion has called the debate for Barack. I can see this, as this was supposed to be McCain's home turf. By holding his own, Obama essentially won. The polls have trended for Obama since the debate, but I personally think that is just a general trend is his direction with the current focus on the economy.

Onto the VP Debate. I am VERY interested in watching this tomorrow. There are all kinds of subplots here. Is Sarah Palin really a ditz, as evidenced by her previous interviews? View the videos here. Is it all a ruse, and she is going to kick some Biden butt? Conventional wisdom has Biden rolling in this one... but I have two questions: Does anyone besides me care? Should anyone care at all? I mean this is the VP debate, and we are voting for the President. I will be sure to write a post-op on this one.