The Economist Takes a Shot at Obama

Red State ^ | March 01, 2008 | Staff

[jdm]

The Economist and its libertarian leanings are one of the better analytic papers in the world. Unlike most papers, their endorsements are not preordained by political party. They called for Clinton's impeachment and removal, supported Bush in 2000, and then Kerry in 2004 ("The Incompetent versus the Incoherent"). After a notably laudatory article on McCain two weeks ago, the paper takes Sen. Obama to task for his populist anti-growth rhetoric on trade. The Economist pokes at Obama's message of "hope":

What is missing from Mr Obama's speeches is any hint that this is not the whole story: that globalisation brings down prices and increases consumer choice; that unemployment is low by historical standards; that American companies are still the world's most dynamic and creative; and that Americans still, on the whole, live lives of astonishing affluence.

And the paper goes for the jugular when it questions Obama's newness by calling him out:

The sad thing is that one might reasonably have expected better from Mr Obama. He wants to improve America's international reputation yet campaigns against NAFTA. He trumpets “the audacity of hope” yet proposes more government intervention. He might have chosen to use his silver tongue to address America's problems in imaginative ways—for example, by making the case for reforming the distorting tax code. Instead, he wants to throw money at social problems and slap more taxes on the rich, and he is using his oratorical powers to prey on people's fears.

Mr Obama advertises himself as something fresh, hopeful and new. But on economic matters at least he, like Mrs Clinton, has begun to look a rather ordinary old-style Democrat.

[Kolokotronis]

“...and that Americans still, on the whole, live lives of astonishing affluence.”

Hey, that’s a winning theme for McCain! “Shut up and be thankful you’ve still got a job at McDonalds and the Chicoms keep the shelves filled at Wal-Mart (and make the uniforms for our troops).”

You just have to love the globalist capitalists and their lickspittels in the GOP! Kyrie Eleison!