Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 30, 2010

I like the Red Rascal stories better.

Publicly held debt is up $3.3 trillion in the last two years. GDP is only up $103 billion. What a total waste this president has been.

Economic policies have 3-4 year lag time. That’s right, I’m still blaming Bush for the current state of our economy. That’s why this cartoon is funny. Instead of trying to project an A$$-kicking legend, this president actually claims to think about how to address our problems – and that’s a liability with voters! Ha ha ha ha.

It would be funnier if, as a result of all the thinking, Obama’s economic policies were actually different from Bush’s.

Obama could have done more, but the Republicans has been the party of “NO!”

I’m absolutely certain one of the first things it makes him feel like thinking about is the horde of people with guns, knives and other weapons du jour who will be permitted to use them on him and his family should he step out of line and anger the power elites who really control this country.

Obama doesn’t need to be made into the same sort of phony lightning rod that Bush served as during his term (with the difference being that Bush was much more willing to take on that role). He needs people around him who truly have his back. Without that… we get what we’ve got.

Yawn.

all you deficit /debt henpeckers need to look at some charts. One chart, debt as a percentage of GDP is amazing. It spiked horribly under FDR (guess why?) and then during dem administrations it slopes downward, except for O, but the prior administration started a steep spike.

It’s the same old story… you have to (seem to) promise miracles to get elected, which raises everyone’s hopes, and when you can’t deliver what you (seemed to) promise, you’re automatically seen as incompetent or worse. Even if the problems have their beginnings YEARS before you got saddled with the baby.

Don’t bother me with all that actual data and verifiable facts.

First, let me thank everyone for being civil in yesterday’s comments. Nice change.

The good thing of having a party of NO when the executive and legislative branches are owned by one party is it slows things down. Cut taxes,increase taxes, spend, constrict government, increase troops, pull out, waste millions investigating the national pastime, Gitmo on a yo-yo. Hey guys, this is where you get to use your supposed compromising skills. As in this strips comments, throwing slogans don’t work.

Health care. The Dems say it’s the Prez’s crowning achievement. The Reps say it’s socialized medicine. Neither side read it and neither know it’s future ramifications. Boys on the Left, Boys on the Right. Everyone to the center and talk softly about it.

Lower taxes spur the economy vs the government’s job is to jump start it. Tough one. Can’t use FDR’s tax hikes of the rich as an example. Little war there. Can’t say Ronny’s tax breaks caused the recovery cause he coupled it with government debt. Economics is about as hard science as psychiatry. Blame Wall St. Everyone with a 401k, raise your hand. So maybe the answer doesn’t lie in raising/lowering taxes.

So Congress isn’t going to pass all my great ideas. I’m scared what they will pass in the lame duck months. Thank God the framers made it possible for the little guy (minority) to say NO.

Why bother to think? Your predecessor did just fine with out it

^ fine? I admit he couldn’t and didn’t think.

@Ouirsophuct

Your name says it all, and it confirms your observations about the economy/deficit.

If this gifted president should fail, it will be from having preserved Bush’s fiscal policies, notably by deferring to those “very smart” money-managers on Wall Street and their government supporters (Bernanke, Paulson, Geithner, and Summers).

Obama should have stuck with Volcker, Goolsbee, and Orzag. He should ram through any policy that scares the scheiss out of the bankers. American voters, who sense theyrsophuct without quite understanding how, would embrace Obama’s highhandedness as welcome justice and his ratings would soar.

O has this problem that his party is so fractured it can’t stop tripping over itself. The repubs are beginning to get that from the conservative fringe like the dems do from the lib side. Interesting to see both become impotent promise filled drones. Then the anti-government folks will be happy. And then they’ll demand real leadership. And then they’ll want better laws. And then…

IN other words, the public will never be happy because no matter what you give them they are as ungrateful as Jacobites in the wilderness.

Which is likely why the pols stopped listening to begin with.

Yeah, we need another President that ‘thinks’ with his gut, sigh.

Two men fight for control, one with reason, the other with lies. Murdoch won.

Two men fight for control, one with reason, the other with lies. Murdoch won.

Actually thinking, instead of following emotional knee-jerk is exactly the Democrats problem, and has been for a long time.

“Shoot first, ask questions later” has worked soooo well for Republicans, like Grenada, Libya, Lebanon, Panama, Nicaragua (Iran/Contra) Iraq (X-2), Afghanistan. Shooting the economy in the foot by refusing steadfastly to raise taxes, while raising spending was more like “W” taking that axe to the country, instead of just shrubs.

According to Jung typology, we make decisions based upon our inborn preferences to be Thinkers (logical consistancy) or Feelers (how our decisions impact people). 85% of men are born with Thinking preferences, and 85% of women are Feelers. While many hardcore liberals are NF “Idealists”, and hardcore conservatives are often NT “Conceptualizers”, I read Obama as an NT. The natural communication style of NT’s is professorial and tends to disconnect from NF’s.

The president is being counselled to stop sounding like a robot and communicate in a way that reaches his NF base. The “I feel your pain” reference yesterday appeals to “Feeling” values, and was deliberately implemented by Clinton’s advisors as a way to connect with women and NF’s. However, Obama would be better advised to communicate to the SJ’s, who represent the majority of the people and who are deciding what happens in November based upon their common sense about what is right for them.

Maybe GT will finally reveal his icon for Obama. certainly seems to be working up to it.

vanpelt,, Remember that the stimulus had to be controlled by the states in order to get the votes needed to get it through Congress. It is not controlled by the administration.

Oh, wow, do I ever like that man! Can’t imagine anyone else, certainly not a politician, who says, “It makes me feel like thinking.” He and I have a lot in common.

I do see that thinking is a problem for him. Now if he could think about the problem of dealing with people who deal with things by feeling, maybe he could figure out what to *do* for it?

Ya think?

@freeholder (if you’re still there)

Who are the Jacobites in the Bible? Do you mean the sons of Israel/Jacob—-the Ten Lost Tribes in the original diaspora caused by the Assyrian invasion ca. 721 BCE?

Despite the ranting to the contrary, the U.S. is a capitalist free-market economy - and a very big one at that. There’s only so much the government can do.

The recovery is lagging. What is required is economic initiative. Banks must start lending. Consumers must start spending. Companies must start hiring. All in unison.

Nemesys,

Thanks for muddying the discussion.

You do not know what you are writing about.

After 30+ years of multi-millionaires claiming to be good ol’ boys and men of the people, a bloodless technocrat still feels like a refreshing change.

Palindrome, I think the Jacobites mentioned refers to the Jacobites in French circa the Revolution. Nasty people but efficient.

Palin: Jacob’s descendants under Moses wandered in the Wilderness for 40 years until all the originals save two who had been in Egyptian captivity died. This was because all they did was grumble and complain about God rescuing them and feeding them. I call em Jacobites simply because there was no Israel at the time And, if you read the Bible, there were only 9 tribes dispersed, and even many of them likely settled in Samaria so were never really lost.