The next expectations game

Honesty..Everyones asking for it. There it is.If he promised anything else he'd be lying or covering up what we already know. You can't have a situation like this and not expect some hardship .I commend his speaking from his heart and mind.

"Is Barack Obama already trying to encourage voters not to expect too much from the next president?"

Nice way to spin it, but I think Obama is being honest. If anyone thinks the next year is going to be easy is purely delusional, no matter who is Pres.

There is a feeling among citizens that the bailout will not be good. I think that is incorrect. The way this financial crisis has unfolded has unfortunately not been good. Mr Paulson hired a company to assist in crisis management that had its own problems in this financial environment as one of the entities that created it. The Paulson plan was too focused the mortgage security market and not on the total problem.

The logical choice for an advisor would have been someone who had predicted this crisis. He would have the needed understanding to extricate the country from the situation. He would not be personally involved and could give more dispassionate advice. There are many people who could fill that bill.

My point is that by going outside the industry we can get a perspective that encompasses the needs of all members of the community including ordinary citizens. Mr Paulson and Mr Bernanke have wasted valuable time. They have been too concerned with market participants and not nearly as concerned about the banks and small businesses needing vital capital infusions and individuals facing impending mortgage foreclosures.

Leadership with a broader focus would have already initiated the needed overhaul of the financial services industry. The stock market would have stopped plummeting and the people would be more accepting of the economic plan.

Our next president needs to be cognizant of why industry insiders and lobbyists are not good as government officials. That is true whether it is the EPA, the FDA or Treasury. Our present problem all boils down to a lack of good judgment by the president in choosing his administration. John McCain’s choice of advisers says he would share the president’s problem.

Apallin' Politics (or Playing to Base Emotions)

The words and images featured in the article “Palin Plays to Conservative Base in Florida Rallies” (Oct 7, 2008) are deeply disturbing regardless of which party one supports in this presidential election. Although McCain spokesperson Nicole Wallace rejects any criticism as just more noise from the “fussiest campaign in American history,” that is not the aspect of American history that troubles me. From the self-proclaimed Palin's Pittbulls screaming “Get him Sarah!” to the racial epithets hurled at an African-American cameraman, to the cry “Kill him!” when Palin smears Barack Obama with charges of “palling around with terrorists,” it is the ugliest of our history laid bare. In my undergraduate course on human rights and social justice, we spend several weeks on the civil rights movement. I bring in Billie Holliday's haunting rendition of “Strange Fruit,” which most of my young white students have never heard. That song played in my mind as I read the coverage of Palin's rally, and remembered the festive atmosphere that accompanied the lynching of so many black men. In those Florida crowds whipped up into a fever of belligerent ignorance, I do not see our country's future - I just hear echoes of our painful and divided past.

Say what,I have no plan at the moment ? At least Mccain already announced a plan.

Barack Obama is being honest. It took Bush's republican policies eight years to totally destroy the American and the world economy. It will take work to restore it. It would take a very dim brain to think that it will all just magically heal itself on November 5th. But, we need a very good leader to help us find our way back. And Obama is the leader we need. Thank goodness that we have such a leader to choose at such a time. What if our only choices were people with the knowledge and skills of the likes of Bush, McCain and Palin?

Of course it is not going to be easy for an INEXPERIENCED male who gets everything handed to him, but he can just use the race card and blame others.

Barack is a realist. Bush & Co. devastated this country and it will take years to bring back good jobs, restructure civil rights that Bush has taken away, restore our standing in the world. There is Iraq to bring the troops home without inciting more danger in that region. There are college tuition to make more affordable and a whole host of problems. Bush has been a terror on this country.

Of course not! He is only gearing it up for more massive federal government hand outs that all taxpayers have to pay for when he raises taxes. Remember Clinton said no new taxes and promptly raised them. The Democrats are masters when it comes to economics - raise taxes and spend our way out of the problem. Started with Johnson followed by Carter and then Clinton. It will be easier if we just vote in Democrats to control the Presidency, Congress and the Senate. Then the good times will roll!!!