The big speech? It was small. And unpersuasive. And fuzzy and vague. Obama wants to run as the 2008 candidate, where platitudes and political philosophies are the main message. Now, he runs as a sitting president with a record who has made choices, and he won’t (and for many can’t) defend his choices over 4 years. And, in addition to no talk about the last 4 years, we didn’t hear anything coherent or tangible about the next 4.
And, this is precisely why I thought having Clinton speak was a huge mistake - even left-wing commentators are griping this morning that Obama paled mightily in comparison to Clinton, in style, spirit and details. Now Obama looks smaller and less effective than Clinton by contrast, and people that Obama needed to say “Obama is brilliant” now walk away and say “he’s no Clinton, not by a long shot - remember how great the 1990s were?”
Also, bonus points for hammering “de-regulation” as the cause of all things bad and, specifically, the Great Recession when none other than…Bill Clinton…signed the legislation repealing Glass-Steagall in the 1990s. Curious - I don’t remember that coming up at the convention.
Krauthammer was stunned. Stunned! He’s right, that was not the speech Obama needed to make. Obama just made himself look like he has absolutely no idea what to do. As if he’s completely lost. He’s got a record now. And despite attempts here to say “well, it’s not a miserable as it could be,” moderate Democrats, independents, and 2008 off-the-reservation Obama Republicans weren’t looking for a mile-wide-inch-deep vision this time.
They wanted him to at least attempt to convince them that their senses had betrayed them. That they WERE better off than 4 years ago. For the future, they wanted plans. Substance. WHY would things be different. How would squandered opportunities be salvaged, and broken promises made whole. Obama had nothing for them. As if the last 4 years, coasting on the fumes of a lofty 2008 vision, hadn’t happened. He knew he was reaching back into the 2008 well, and even he didn’t seem convinced that there was enough left at the bottom of it.
Obama’s speech last night was lacking but it was not up to par for good reason. The President has boxed himself in quite unintentionally. He was unable to talk about his victories over the past four years as he had very few. The one big piece of legislation that he rammed through when both houses were democrat, Obamacare, is so unpopular that mentioning it in such a format would not bring in any new votes, and may have scared many away.
Therefore, he stood before us a President unable to crow about his term in office like every other first term President in the past who is asking for four more years. Obama couldn’t really tell us why he deserves to have such a thing happen.
On the other hand he was unable to be the Obama of 2008 who stood before the American public and looked to many bigger than life and able to do just about anything. His speech was a stark reminder that the days of hope and change are long gone.
Unable to talk about his past four years for any length of time, and unable to toss out the glowing pros that made hope and change so appealing he stood there and rambled on sometimes lashing out at republicans sometimes other perceived foes that he intimated prevented him from doing better. But he opined if he could have just one more chance at it surely he’d produce.
For the first time I saw Obama as a pathetic figure. Someone who was jettisoned into the national spotlight because of his youth and charisma but was woefully unprepared for the biggest job in the world. He now stands before us seemingly unsure of what to do, what to say and how to retain the big job that he was never able to handle.
How about we take a look at who parks their money at Bain Capital…
Since 2000, Preqin reports, the following funds have entrusted some $1.56 billion to Bain:
Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund ($2.2 million)
Indiana Public Retirement System ($39.3 million)
Iowa Public Employees? Retirement System ($177.1 million)
The Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System ($19.5 million)
Maryland State Retirement and Pension System ($117.5 million)
Public Employees? Retirement System of Nevada ($20.3 million)
State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio ($767.3 million)
Pennsylvania State Employees? Retirement System ($231.5 million)
Employees? Retirement System of Rhode Island ($25 million)
San Diego County Employees Retirement Association ($23.5 million)
Teacher Retirement System of Texas ($122.5 million)
Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System ($15 million)
Take the California State Teachers? Retirement System, which has some $1.25 billion invested with Bain. A spokesman for the system, Ricardo Duran, says in an e-mail that its fiduciary duty to 856,000 members and their families is paramount. ?With that as a backdrop,? he says, ?the scrutiny generated by a heated election year matters less than the performance the portfolio generates to the fund.? And private equity, Duran says, has been the best-performing asset class in the system?s portfolio over the past 24 years.
[quote]MaximusB wrote:
How about we take a look at who parks their money at Bain Capital…
Since 2000, Preqin reports, the following funds have entrusted some $1.56 billion to Bain:
Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund ($2.2 million)
Indiana Public Retirement System ($39.3 million)
Iowa Public Employees? Retirement System ($177.1 million)
The Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System ($19.5 million)
Maryland State Retirement and Pension System ($117.5 million)
Public Employees? Retirement System of Nevada ($20.3 million)
State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio ($767.3 million)
Pennsylvania State Employees? Retirement System ($231.5 million)
Employees? Retirement System of Rhode Island ($25 million)
San Diego County Employees Retirement Association ($23.5 million)
Teacher Retirement System of Texas ($122.5 million)
Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System ($15 million)
Take the California State Teachers? Retirement System, which has some $1.25 billion invested with Bain. A spokesman for the system, Ricardo Duran, says in an e-mail that its fiduciary duty to 856,000 members and their families is paramount. ?With that as a backdrop,? he says, ?the scrutiny generated by a heated election year matters less than the performance the portfolio generates to the fund.? And private equity, Duran says, has been the best-performing asset class in the system?s portfolio over the past 24 years.
I have been waiting for this story to break for a long, long time.
I do a lot of work in Private Equity, and both my clients have a shit ton of pension funds invested. I don’t see Bain’s books, so it is hard to say who invested with them with any certainty.
But I will tell you this, anyone with a pension, anyone, has a very very good chance some of their money is invested in PE.
Oh and those Batman movies everyone loves… Funded by PE. Cellphones? PE. I could go on, but I won’t.
Thing is, buyouts are what pisses people off, and are a small portion of the industry and often times net losers.
Please show me one about Obama or Nancy Pelosi or Barney Franks or any one else
[/quote]
Hey Pitt we don’t give a fuck about your little flip-flop video.
Is that clear?
Obama wrecked the economy and we need someone who can fix it as Obama is inept at best and at worst he’s doing it on purpose to build a socialist utopia. Either way the topic is OBAMA SUCKS.
Want a little video to show you how he did it?
[/quote]
Clear as mud
[/quote]
So… If all these jobs are created, why is there so much uncertainty in the markets? Why do we need QE3? Why are so many people on food stamps? Why do we need to raise taxes because all these new jobs should raise revenue? Why are so many people still out of work?
I mean, I’ve seen this graph on more than one facebook page, and it just seems like, well, fuzzy math. I do a lot of math in my day to day life, and it just seems like this graph is missing something, something vital, something like, well, context…[/quote]
I agree this is fuzzy math , one reason i posted this is some people on this site believe the shit that Ronald Reagan created 21 million jobs.
I heard a great analogy it went The Democrats say they are for the middle class and they take all their money and give it to the poor .
The Republicans say they are for the middle class so they take all their money and give it to the rich
One of the more color items I read about the DNC convention, apparently there where a number of dancing vaginas seen outside the hall. Some how the purpose of this display was to high light “a war on women”.
“Circus of the Vagina-gogues vs. Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan”
“government isn’t what you love if you’re American, America is what you love. Government is what you have, need and hire. Its most essential dutiesâ??especially when it is bankruptâ??involve defending rights and safety, not imposing views and values.”
[quote]Menthol wrote:
One of the more color items I read about the DNC convention, apparently there where a number of dancing vaginas seen outside the hall. Some how the purpose of this display was to high light “a war on women”.
“Circus of the Vagina-gogues vs. Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan”
[quote]Menthol wrote:
One of the more color items I read about the DNC convention, apparently there where a number of dancing vaginas seen outside the hall. Some how the purpose of this display was to high light “a war on women”.
“Circus of the Vagina-gogues vs. Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan”
[quote]Menthol wrote:
One of the more color items I read about the DNC convention, apparently there where a number of dancing vaginas seen outside the hall. Some how the purpose of this display was to high light “a war on women”.
“Circus of the Vagina-gogues vs. Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan”
