Posted on 10/29/2008 9:06:26 AM PDT by ignorancerunsrampant
Obama's appeal to upscale whites, magnified or amplified by both their long-standing views on cultural issues and by their visceral backlash against Republicans as they see their wealth eroded, means that he is the candidate of something like the top and the bottom of society, while the white, noncollege class, the working men and women to whom almost all the rhetoric at the Democratic National Convention was directed, on balance favor John McCain. This is perhaps an exaggerated description but not one without some considerable basis in fact. Democrats like to pose as the party of the ordinary guy, but the Obama candidacy appeals most strongly to the racially distinctive and the educational elite.
John Lindsay's utter failure as mayor of New York City (see Vincent Cannato's definitive The Ungovernable City) suggests that there are policy dangers for a leader elected by such a top-and-bottom electoral coalition. The cases of Lindsay and Obama are not entirely on point: Lindsay vastly expanded welfare and pioneered soft-on-crime policies, which together resulted in municipal bankruptcy and a 1 million population loss for New York City in the 1970s). Obama is not, on the surface anyway, interested in policies that will result in reversing the 1990s policy successes in reducing welfare dependency and crime. But he is interested in advancing policies that could have serious wealth-destroying effects: higher taxes on high earners, protectionism, government-controlled health insurance, the card check bill abolishing secret ballots in union elections, which could have the effects on much of the private sector that United Auto Worker contracts have had on what used to be called, quaintly, the Big Three U.S. automakers. Will voters in the Philly suburbs, and their equivalents in target and nontarget states, like the consequences? Bill Clinton kept their votes when, after the Republicans won control of Congress in 1994, tax rates were no longer raised and capital gains tax rates were cuts, when local and state officials reversed the disastrous Lindsay policies on crime and welfare. But such a scenario seems unlikely from where we sit now. And while Clinton took office when the economy was in recovery, Obama, if he wins, seems likely to give his inauguration speech (as already drafted by John Podesta, or as later drafted or revised by his own hand) when we are headed down toward the trough of a recession of unknown duration. The irony here is that voters motivated by anger at the decline in their wealth seem about to elect a president who has promised to embark on wealth-destroying policies.
If he wins the Dow could easily be at 5683 before April 1st
It’s mainly because people don’t understand the long-term effects of what he’s planning, don’t have a good grasp of economics, no longer believe in the value of hard work and earning your keep, and no believe that freedom comes second to comfort and security.
You are very optimistic.
A lot of very stupid people are going to vote for Obama, because they’ve been spoon fed Obamadolatry for the past two years. They don’t know anything about politics or policies or why they are voting, but Obama is their idol.
WHERE HAVE I HEARD THAT BEFORE?
It is becoming more and more obvious that all you have to do to win an election is tell people that you will give them what they want and that you will make someone else pay for it. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that there are 220 million eligible voters and 88 million of them pay no taxes ... the 88 million do not care what the prevailing tax rate is.
WHERE HAVE I HEARD THAT BEFORE?
It is becoming more and more obvious that all you have to do to win an election is tell people that you will give them what they want and that you will make someone else pay for it. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that there are 220 million eligible voters and 88 million of them pay no taxes ... the 88 million do not care what the prevailing tax rate is.
I did not say that 5683 would be the low ... I said that we would be there by April 1st ... I would not reach out to catch that falling knife.
I feel confident that in 50yrs, another set of “Venona papers” will show that Obama and Associates were spies or plants to undermine the US.
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