Posted on 06/09/2011 7:06:35 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Barack Obama's worst week was about more than bad data. The two great legislative monuments to the first Obama term, the remaking of the health-care industry and the Dodd-Frank financial reform, look like they've got serious structural cracks. A McKinsey report estimates that a third of employers will abandon their health-insurance plans come 2014. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the failure (or inability) of Dodd-Frank's regulatory arm to write new rules for the $583 trillion derivatives market has the financial sector in a panic over its legal exposure.
The worst was yet to come: Mr. Goolsbee announced he was departing the White House for the irresistible pull of academic tenure. What this signifies is that Mr. Goolsbee, a reputable economist, knows that in terms of economic policy, the Obama armory is empty. From within the exclusively demand-side context of the president's economic policy, there are no more bullets in the carbines. This president is now virtually defenseless against the inexorable forces of the U.S. economy. All that's left is whatever comes of Ben Bernanke's 30 months of close-to-zero interest rates atop two Quantitative Easings, the greatest untested economics experiment in the history of the world.
No wonder Tim Pawlenty is smiling. Amid a news cycle whose message is "nothing's working," Mr. Pawlenty delivered a major speech on economic policy whose title could have been: All the Things Barack Obama Has Not Tried to Do to Lift the Economy and Never Will.
Whether Gov. Pawlenty's prescriptions—dramatically lower individual and corporate taxes, zero taxes on capital gains and dividends, sunset provisions for federal regulations and a growth-rate target of 5%—are provable as solutions is politically beside the point at this moment. As substantive brand differentiation, the Pawlenty speech was a success.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Pawlenty won’t have a good week if it bites him in the a$$.
Tim Pawlenty is someone to watch.
Tim Pawlenty looked like a cheap knockoff of a Disney automaton in that first debate. I don’t really have anything against the guy but he’s certainly not an exciting candidate.
Pawlenty wants to “dramatically lower individual and corporate taxes, zero taxes on capital gains and dividends, sunset provisions for federal regulations and a growth-rate target of 5%—”
1. Targets are nothing but feel-good goals
2. Sunset Provisions - will take years to have a gradual effect.
3. Dramatically lower taxes - how can we stop this revenue stream to the federal government if we don’t raise the debt ceiling? will we even be able to borrow more until the (hopefully) beneficial economic growth effects of these tax cuts kick in? or have we maxed out the credit card already?
I’m not that impressed.
In 1984, I was too young to vote, but I watched the race closely. One of the most striking things about the race was how dynamic Reagan was. That geezer (all due respect) could light up a crowd and piss of the media quicker than chain lightening. The opposition, Mr. Mondale, was about as exciting as a stump. Seriously, the guy had cornered the market on bland and boring. My grandmother was a die hard Jacksonian democrat (not to be confused with the liberals) and she NEVER voted Republican. She voted for Reagan. When I asked why she said “That man has style and substance. Mondale is so wishy washy, he makes Charlie Brown look like a true leader.” That surprised me since I had no idea my granny liked the Peanuts comic and cartoons. But it shocked me that she liked Reagan.
I’m afraid that Pawlenty makes a mailbox seem exciting by comparison and Obama has the wow factor that (God forgive me for this) Reagan had, even if he does not have the substance.
I’m personally calling for a 10% growth rate. Vote for me, me, me!
Why? Is he a good juggler or something? :P
He never won a majority vote for governor. Therefore, he can't bring his home state to the table. That eliminates him right there as a contender. Dittos with Santorum and Bachmann. Technically, Cain has the same problem, since he couldn't win the primary for the Georgia Senate seat against Isakson. But since he's a total outsider from politics, I'd make it a mere asterisk instead of an outright disqualification.
It's also reason number 89948433 that Romney is a crap candidate. He can't win EITHER of the states he calls his home states, Michigan or Massachusetts. Yeah, I know people will claim he has a shot at MI, but by the time he's done tying himself in knots pandering to everyone, he'll lose.
I meant to ping you to post 8.
Grass growing, Tpaw. Tpaw, grass growing. If you've watched one, you've watched the other.
I don’t know what to think of Pawlenty. He is a bit on the liberal side. On the other hand, if you were Governor of socialist Minnesota in 2005, how much could you really accomplish?
I think people are being too hard on all these candidates as it relates to their fiscal issues in the past. Stopping the government spending gravy train was something that Reagan didn’t do, nor did Palin in Alaska. It really hasn’t been since 2009 and the country figured out that we were out of money that it became politically viable to be a big cost cutter.
And even now, guys like Scott Walker may or may not make it long term while implementing true budget reductions and cutbacks in government programs.
My main suspicion with Pawlenty is that this past week the Wall Street money is starting to embrace him, with the thinking that Romney is seriously damaged goods, despite those polls.
My home state hasn't elected a governor by majority vote since 1994 because of the Independence Party. Your thesis really doesn't prove anything given the dynamics of Minnesota politics.
That said, Pawlenty isn't either of my top two choices at the present time. Should he win the nomination, though, I could support him with a clear conscience.
The dynamics are that the chances are slim to none that Pawlenty can deliver his state in a presidential election. Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not criticizing him for it. I’m just saying that from an electoral standpoint, a winning presidential candidate must be able to deliver his/her home state.
I don’t dislike the guy. I think he’s as boring as watching paint dry, but I’d vote for him in the general if it came down to that. I don’t know if he has what it takes to win though.
Such a candidate should be able to, but I don't think he "must" be able to deliver his home state. If a conservative candidate from a liberal state is intelligent and dynamic enough to woo the voters from a majority of the dozen or so "purple" states, it's entirely conceivable that he could win the election despite losing in his home state. I don't think that Pawlenty is charismatic enough to pull off such a feat, but I certainly think that it is not impossible. For example, Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin has angered enough union members that he is seen as a pro-growth candidate in most of the country, although his tough stance (and fraud in Milwaukee) could cost him his home state.
Sure, it’s conceivable. But it hasn’t happened in 100 years or so. The last person to go from a state office and WIN while losing the state he held office in is Woodrow Wilson. Before that, it was Abe Lincoln in 1860.
Do those sound like good odds to you? :)
If a candidate can’t win his home state, he’s a loser almost all the time. That’s aside from any and all policy differences I might have with him/her.
If only these guys had the dynamic personality of James K. Polk, we wouldn’t have to worry...
So, in your opinion, what Pubbie can defeat Obama; seriously.
Had Al Gore won his home state (TN) in 2000, he’d have been President.
Actually, Romney has moved to La Jolla, California. He can't win that home state, either.
That's where Pawlenty needs to go, build strength in the South. With Barbour out and Gingrich withering and Cain making silly talk about "no laws over 3 pages long," the South is now THE delegate-rich region with no effective homeboy in the race.
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