Comments on: Spengler, Obama, Goolsbee – it’s a stew

By: Captain Hate

Captain Hate — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:41:14 +0000

what is undeniable is that NAFTA has been bad for Ohio

I’m really tired of hearing this. Pandering is bad for Ohio. Resisting change is bad for Ohio. Playing the victim and acting pathetic is bad for Ohio. Settling to go on the dole instead of picking yourself up and making your place in the world is bad for Ohio. Electing governors that suggest adding Keno in bars is economic stimulus is bad for Ohio. Having extremely high corporate taxes is bad for Ohio. Having local income taxes is bad for Ohio.

I could go on.

By: TomTom

TomTom — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:14:09 +0000

Obama is an American Hugo Chavez, and we may be at the tipping point, after 50 years of dumbing down, aborting ourselves of our progeny, and then welcoming the immigration tsunami of the world’s least-educated, but somehow deserving, people of color. Makes my blood curdle, and not just for this election. The American future seems dark; another Argentina, then, instead of Venezuela?

By: Beldar

Beldar — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:24:42 +0000

People who say Obama has no record are wrong. He has a record. It’s as a classical Daley-machine Illinois Democrat. The back-channel reassurance to the Canadians — “Don’t take our rhetoric too seriously” — is absolutely consistent with that. The real message to the Canadians is, “We need you to cooperate with us in ways that we can portray as face-saving victories to our base. But business is business, we can be bought under the table, and you’ll be taken care of, just trust us.”

Over that Chicago ward-pol skeleton is a Harvard Law-trained intellect and facility with phrasing. The most interesting observation in Spengler’s piece is the proposition that Obama learned from his mother the anthropologist’s technique of learning to interact nonjudgmentally in a way that makes him/her seem (but only seem) to mirror his audience’s values.

History repeats itself. Harvard Law-educated John F. Kennedy, whose politics furnish so many other parallels to Obama, also provided hope, rhetoric, and charisma. Underneath were the politics of a millionaire Boston Irish bootlegger and ward-pol who knew how to hold a grudge and cut a deal (viz, “Welcome to the ticket you absolute bastard Lyndon Johnson, now find enough dead people in Duval County, Texas, to vote in alphabetical order to ensure that we get Texas’ crucial electoral votes in 1960.”)

We live in interesting times, of the exact sort the Chinese curse was intended to reference.

By: markus

markus — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:14:37 +0000

The jury is still out on whether NAFTA is good for our country overall, or good for Mexico. There is some research suggesting that it has decimated Mexican agriculture, driving a lot of the illegal immigration in recent years.

Still, even if you can make the arguement that NAFTA has been good for the USA, what is undeniable is that NAFTA has been bad for Ohio. A state with no competitive advantages, as well as a state that will always have as many seats in the Senate as every other state.

By: TerryeL

TerryeL — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:05:31 +0000

I am not sure people are prepared to believe all that stuff anymore. I know people who think NAFTA is bad blah blah blah…but I am not sure they would vote for Obama because of it. It is one thing to bitch and moan and whine…it is another to undo a longstanding treaty with your neighbors. I think a lot of these same people are worried that a million Mexicans might come pouring over the border if NAFTA is killed. And when someone reminds them that Canada sells us gas and oil…all that stuff about protectionism might seem like less of a reason to vote for Obama. Especially if it is all just rhetoric anyway.

By: David Thomson

David Thomson — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 04:23:15 +0000

“This is a seductive elixir for many.”

Yup, and that’s why “Barry” Obama will earn forty percent of the vote. This is roughly the same total obtained by Barry Goldwater and George McGovern. Never forget that the United States is a democracy and even the loser in a two way race for the presidency still receives a hell of a lot of votes.

By: chuck

chuck — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 03:51:32 +0000

I don’t disagree with all of Spengler’s remarks about Obama. I, myself, don’t see Obama as black, I see him as the son of an academic with all the deficits that implies. But I still think Spengler is nuts. Remember when he predicted Russian troops showing up in Iraq? He is a good read in the same way that Lovecraft is a good read, and his stories have about as much connection to reality.

By: Barry Dauphin

Barry Dauphin — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:49:19 +0000

Living in Southeast Michigan without cable, I get to see the political ads from Ohio. Obama is engaging in blatant protectionist rhetoric. An unemployed auto worker says how he lost his job because of NAFTA, and then we learn about Obama’s policies: stick it to corporations that send jobs overseas, i.e., boilerplate, old school Democratic crappola. Change? Hmmm.

Of course if Obama is telling the Canadians, “don’t worry, be happy”, he’s simply saying that he can’t be believed.

Yet, it is essential to remember that large segments of the country are fatigued of the war in Iraq and of the resulting frictions in the country. Obama implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) promises to end all the fighting and to make it all nicey nice. This is a seductive elixir for many.

By: David Thomson

David Thomson — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:02:32 +0000

“And his campaign may morph into the Audacity of Hope that voters don’t Change their minds after they learn more about him.”

Barack Obama is too leftwing to be elected president of the United States. He is another George McGovern and the MSM will not be able to con the middle-of-the-road voter into believing that he is some sort of centrist. When everything is said and done, Obama is merely a more refined version of Jessie Jackson who knows how to manipulate guilt tripped white Yuppies.

By: Ray Zacek

Ray Zacek — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:17:41 +0000

Obama is the blank slate, after all. And his campaign may morph into the Audacity of Hope that voters don’t Change their minds after they learn more about him.