Obama reelection 2012

[Lucky]

Health Care seems to be treated as a deficit reduction. If that proves to be the case, they have better magicians in OMB than in Vegas.

J

The $123 billion deficit reduction attributable to health care is from the automatic 2% cut to Medicare.

[onejayhawk]

The $123 billion deficit reduction attributable to health care is from the automatic 2% cut to Medicare.

They reduce medicare 2%, but do not move the money to where it will be used. Do they they not plan to pay for the law at all? That would make sense in terms of the article, which is selling tinted glasses, but not in actual coin of the realm.

The point is that they are comparing apples to oranges, hard numbers to optimistic projections. For example, the automatic reductions do not reduce the deficit at all; they reduce the growth of the deficit.

There are jokes about liars and statistics. In this case its about journalists and accounting.

J

[Judge Jude]

not sure I'm sold on the overall sentiment here, but interesting - Bain Capital execs give more to the Ds than the Rs:

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/21/democrats_and_bain_2/singleton/

Obama's vow to keep up the "Romney is a bad guy because all Bain Capital cares about is making money" is red meat for his base, but I don't think it's a winner among independents.

Wall St is unpopular, but an incumbent President is going to be judged more on his record than on angles like this. Of course, it's always tricky how to balance firing up the base yet not turning off indies. I guess if he mixes and matches other plays, he can make it work....

[OaklandA's]

Obama's vow to keep up the "Romney is a bad guy because all Bain Capital cares about is making money" is red meat for his base, but I don't think it's a winner among independents.

Obama's angle is not that Romney is a bad guy because Bain Capital is amount making money. The angle is that the goals of a private equity company are different than that of a President. Romney's main economic point is that he is best qualified to fix the economy because of his business experience. Obama is saying that politicians need to improve conditions for all citizens, not just a select group of shareholders (often at the expense of other groups). Obama is trying to discredit Romney's business experience as a cure for the country's economic problems.

[Judge Jude]

Someone needs to explain all that to Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Team Obama member.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/was-cory-booker-right-about-the-attacks-on-private-equity/

“This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides,” he said on “Meet the Press.” “It’s nauseating to the American public.”

“I know I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses.”

[onejayhawk]

Obama's angle is not that Romney is a bad guy because Bain Capital is amount making money. The angle is that the goals of a private equity company are different than that of a President. Romney's main economic point is that he is best qualified to fix the economy because of his business experience. Obama is saying that politicians need to improve conditions for all citizens, not just a select group of shareholders (often at the expense of other groups). Obama is trying to discredit Romney's business experience as a cure for the country's economic problems.

And not very effectively.

J

[OaklandA's]

Someone needs to explain all that to Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Team Obama member.

I think you're a day behind the news cycle. Booker clarified his comments on Monday.

When [Romney] says, I'm a job creator, I think that's a characterization of his record that deserves inquiry, and I think the way the president himself is talking about is something I will defend, in fact something I will echo...After hearing the president's remarks on this issue, where he was not condemning all of private equity, he was not condemning any particular firms, he was focusing in on a guy who's bragging about his job creation record - all of those things made me say, you know what, I need to go on and clarify.

[senorsheep]

I think you're a day behind the news cycle. Booker clarified his comments on Monday.

Translation: "My DNC overlords called me on the carpet, informed me that opinions that stray from The Official Democratic Party Message are forbidden, and forced me to publicly recant." LOL

What a pu55y.

[nots]

I think you're a day behind the news cycle. Booker clarified his comments on Monday.

I have a lot of respect for the thoughtfulness of your posts but this one confuses me. Do you believe Booker misspoke originally and is now seeking to clarify his remarks?

[Erik]

If you have aspirations to statewide office in NJ, as Booker does, you can't demonize Wall Street folks, because a lot of them live in NJ.

That's what went on there.

[onejayhawk]

Translation: "My DNC overlords called me on the carpet, informed me that opinions that stray from The Official Democratic Party Message are forbidden, and forced me to publicly recant." LOL

What a pu55y.

If you want to dance, you have to pay the cover.

In Washington the most eggregious gaff is to speak your true opinion unintentionally.

J

[DMT]

In Washington the most eggregious gaff is to speak your true opinion unintentionally.

Yep, and this is why our country is in such bad shape.

[OaklandA's]

I have a lot of respect for the thoughtfulness of your posts but this one confuses me. Do you believe Booker misspoke originally and is now seeking to clarify his remarks?

I think Booker had mis-interpreted Obama's statements, much like Judge Jude above. Obama was not trying to demonize Wall Street or private equity firms; he was pointing out the different goals of a private equity firm to those of a national economy. That doesn't mean Obama thinks that Wall Street or private equity firms are evil.

[Fresno Bob]

"Undecided voters are the biggest idiots on the planet."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YOh-rpvjYg

Obama's run against Bain Capital should resonate with people, in my opinion. It clearly negates Romney's claim that his business experience is any sort of positive. If anything, it shows very clearly how the system is broken and why the wealthy need to be taxed at a more reasonable rate on their capital gains.

Great video on why Bain Capital is under attack, why Romney is a hypocrite with his assertions, and why private equity is nothing like normal business:

Reich is awesome....

[onejayhawk]

Reich is awesome....

Not in this universe. In this universe he is a paid mothpiece, who offers simplistic feel good solutions for complex and thorny problems.

If there were ever a man that can be summed up by this old saw, its Reich:

For every problem, there is a solution: neat, plausible and wrong.

J