Category Archives: Economy
Flipping the Big Bird
It turns out Big Bird is a Fat Cat.
Sesame Street has asked the Obama campaign to pull down an ad giving the Bird to Romney.
Debate
Going into tonight’s debate, Obama is mired in troubles (I couldn’t cram in Fast and Furious, Afghan police killing American troops, or the coverup of the Benghazi attacks ), yet he leads in the polls, and Republicans are hammering Romney!
If you’ve got half an hour to blow, here’s an entertaining and angry speech by Pat Caddell, former pollster for Jimmy Carter.
Romney’s 47 Percent
Romney says 47% of voters depend on government and should be written off to Obama.
In 2008 Obama said that blue collar voters “cling to their guns and religion”.
Slate’s William Saletan says it’s not the same because in the end “Obama tells his audience not to write off any group”.
Thomas B. Edsall of the NYT missed that memo when he wrote last November that the Obama campaign would abandon the white working class vote:
“For decades, Democrats have suffered continuous and increasingly severe losses among white voters. But preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class.”
As for Romney, it’s true that almost half the population doesn’t pay federal income tax. But his 47% isn’t a permanent class of government serfs. It includes retired people and people just starting out, or starting over, who may hope one day to join the evil 1% who pay 38% of all federal income taxes.
Mitt should take Obama’s earlier advice.
Pre-existing Condition
Romney says he wants to cover pre-existing conditions but he’s having trouble explaining how his plan is the same, but different, from Obama’s.
Incomplete
The president gave himself an incomplete grade for his first term. Bill Clinton excused him, saying that no one, not even The Big Dog himself, could have fixed the economy. Obama never actually uttered the words “economic malaise”, but then again, neither did Jimmy Carter.
For those not down with Carter era Sweat Hog culture, here’s a link to Welcome Back Kotter.
