It's THAT time of the year for us politicos. Annual report time for America Corp., also referred to more popularly as "The State Of The Union" address, delivered by our President and Chief Executive. George Washington delivered the first one in 1790, Barack Obama just orated the most recent one, Tuesday evening.
If snap opinions poll results were the appropriate guide of success, President Obama hit a grand slam. Reportedly, more than 90% approved of the ideas proposed in the speech and more than 80% said they supported the economic plan laid out http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/26/obamas-centrist-tone-hits-right-note-state-of-the-union-ratin/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C197372. For a President whose party suffered the most stunning mid-term defeat in history, this has got be one helluva shot in the arm.
If, for some reason, you weren't a part of those majorities, I have VERY bad news for you. According to the President (who, apparently is trained as a psychologist): "Mr. Speaker, Vice President Biden, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans, nearly two years into our recovery from a recession that left our financial system on the verge of collapse, I stand here today confident that America is on a path to a better tomorrow, despite all the nutjobs and lunatics out there whose behavior is, honestly, kind of weirding the rest of us out." (http://www.theonion.com/articles/obama-aside-from-all-the-weirdos-and-freaks-around,18929/).
Maybe if Dr. Obama would prescribe us nutjobs some psycho-tropic drugs, we could see the nearly two year recovery, too!
Did he REALLY say 2 years into our recovery? The same 2 years in which the economy has lost 8 million jobs?
Well, then call me one BIG-TIME lunatic who's "weirding you out"! At least, I have good company.
It seems you could also count the Federal Reserve among the lunatics. Concluding a 2 day committee meeting, they left interest rates at ZERO and recommended ANOTHER $600 Billion in bond purchases: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fed-says-economy-needs-600B-apf-204644297.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=. Only in the last 2 years, have they had to employ a desperate tactic popularly known as "Quantitative Easing", by a Chairman, who has said that money might have to be thrown out of helicopters. Figuratively, of course.
Perhaps the problem is nothing but semantics. If one could re-define a few of the criteria for a 2 year economic recovery as:
1. Near 10% unemployment;
2. A "cash-based" budget deficit running at $1.5 Trillion;
3. Municipalities and States teetering on defaulting on their debts;
4. Massive "Quantitative Easing";
5. Record bailouts and "Troubled" Asset Purchases; and
5. Record home foreclosures,
then the economy must be in one helluva nearly two year recovery!
Maybe the time has come for us lunatics to run the asylum! Remember Candidate Obama? He kept telling us how horrible the economy was when we had 8 million MORE people employed. The budget deficit was half, local governments were still solvent, the Fed wasn't running the presses overtime and more homes were occupied by owners.
Candidate Obama was right! Unfortunately, President Obama who attempted to enact Candidate Obama's policies, has run out of time to blame George Bush. The only option is for President Obama to declare victory by altering the definition of victory. Hell, if you set the bar low enough, even "Mini Me" could become an Olympic gold medal pole vaulter!
In Part 2, we will do a thorough "Marko's Take" analysis of the proposals set forth and run them through our proprietary "Take-Meter".
In order to deal with the issue of understanding very confusing phrases such as "nearly two year economic recovery", we have prepared a special Candidate Obama/President Obama Dictionary for those aren't fluent in both.
Marko's Take
If snap opinions poll results were the appropriate guide of success, President Obama hit a grand slam. Reportedly, more than 90% approved of the ideas proposed in the speech and more than 80% said they supported the economic plan laid out http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/26/obamas-centrist-tone-hits-right-note-state-of-the-union-ratin/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C197372. For a President whose party suffered the most stunning mid-term defeat in history, this has got be one helluva shot in the arm.
If, for some reason, you weren't a part of those majorities, I have VERY bad news for you. According to the President (who, apparently is trained as a psychologist): "Mr. Speaker, Vice President Biden, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans, nearly two years into our recovery from a recession that left our financial system on the verge of collapse, I stand here today confident that America is on a path to a better tomorrow, despite all the nutjobs and lunatics out there whose behavior is, honestly, kind of weirding the rest of us out." (http://www.theonion.com/articles/obama-aside-from-all-the-weirdos-and-freaks-around,18929/).
Maybe if Dr. Obama would prescribe us nutjobs some psycho-tropic drugs, we could see the nearly two year recovery, too!
Did he REALLY say 2 years into our recovery? The same 2 years in which the economy has lost 8 million jobs?
Well, then call me one BIG-TIME lunatic who's "weirding you out"! At least, I have good company.
It seems you could also count the Federal Reserve among the lunatics. Concluding a 2 day committee meeting, they left interest rates at ZERO and recommended ANOTHER $600 Billion in bond purchases: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fed-says-economy-needs-600B-apf-204644297.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=. Only in the last 2 years, have they had to employ a desperate tactic popularly known as "Quantitative Easing", by a Chairman, who has said that money might have to be thrown out of helicopters. Figuratively, of course.
Perhaps the problem is nothing but semantics. If one could re-define a few of the criteria for a 2 year economic recovery as:
1. Near 10% unemployment;
2. A "cash-based" budget deficit running at $1.5 Trillion;
3. Municipalities and States teetering on defaulting on their debts;
4. Massive "Quantitative Easing";
5. Record bailouts and "Troubled" Asset Purchases; and
5. Record home foreclosures,
then the economy must be in one helluva nearly two year recovery!
Maybe the time has come for us lunatics to run the asylum! Remember Candidate Obama? He kept telling us how horrible the economy was when we had 8 million MORE people employed. The budget deficit was half, local governments were still solvent, the Fed wasn't running the presses overtime and more homes were occupied by owners.
Candidate Obama was right! Unfortunately, President Obama who attempted to enact Candidate Obama's policies, has run out of time to blame George Bush. The only option is for President Obama to declare victory by altering the definition of victory. Hell, if you set the bar low enough, even "Mini Me" could become an Olympic gold medal pole vaulter!
In Part 2, we will do a thorough "Marko's Take" analysis of the proposals set forth and run them through our proprietary "Take-Meter".
In order to deal with the issue of understanding very confusing phrases such as "nearly two year economic recovery", we have prepared a special Candidate Obama/President Obama Dictionary for those aren't fluent in both.
Marko's Take
