Home

Now Focused On the Economy, Obama Is Still Fact Finding

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 07/29/2008 - 4:53pm.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman

Most voters have at least something in common with John McCain: "We don't know nothin' 'bout ..." economics. Or more accurately, we don't know all we should.

Still, many do recognize, unlike John McCain and pal Phil Gramm, that the U.S. economy is a mess not entirely of our own making. It's a mess made of bad public policy -- primarily policy that has put waging wars and protecting big capital ahead of balancing budgets or providing a social safety net. We've had seven-plus years of bolstering the Blackwaters and hedge funds instead of supporting the foot soldiers and home owners.

Immediately upon returning from his foreign policy "fact-finding" lap, Barack Obama turned his focus to the economy. Monday he called upon a broad range of economists and financial thinkers, folks like former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, Google chief Eric Schmidt, billionaire Warren Buffett (by telephone), former Treasury Secretaries Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, as welll as Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, and AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney. He's asking for their advice and assessments.

Appearing on MSNBC Tuesday morning, former Senator Bill Bradley, also in the advisory group, said what makes Obama different from others is that he is tapping "the broadest possible constituency" to gather facts on the economic picture. Bradley said Obama aims to chart a path that will enable personal incomes to rise, including a centerpiece policy of a middle-class tax cut in the vicinity of $1000.

Skeptics look at individual advisers and fear the candidate will be swayed by the "wrong" ones. Bradley seems not to share that fear. He summed up the Obama economic vision this way:

"We need economic growth, fairly shared. That's his basic world view."

Once Again, It's The Economy, Stupid (Forbes)

WHAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE DOING TO THIS GREAT COUNTRY (americanchronicle)

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Bookmark/Search this post with:
buzzflash buzzflash | delicious delicious | digg digg | yahoo yahoo | technorati technorati
Technorati Tags:

» login or register to post comments | printer friendly version

No, it's the media stupid!

Submitted by hazmaq on Wed, 07/30/2008 - 10:24am.

Hillary and the press gave Obama a look now and then when he did something surprising - like succeed. And then went back to throwing sh**it at him to see what he'd do in response.

Substitute McCain for Hillary, and nothing has changed. The media is airing the McCain commercial blasting Obama for not visiting the troops - for free - almost as much as they air their paid commercials.
And I'm not talking about FOX -the BAD media -I'm talking about CNN, MSNBC in particular; and even C-span, whose Washington Journal calls and events are 80-90% pro Right.

Obama showed CNN's Malveaux some fangs finally when she tried more of the same bias in that last interview. But to get any of Obama's positive economic policies heard above these prowarmongers cries, he needs to be much more forceful with them and not take their crap.

It's now or never for Barack.
(But if he picks a useless national VP insider like Bayh or Biden or an unknown like Caine- all bets are off and the Dems will be screwed anyway.)

And I give fair warning both to Obama and our party mouths like Reid and Hoyer who think they'll be basking in centrist same-o same-o heaven come November: the 10-15 points Obama has lost in the polls and the missing donor $$ are from US. Those net-root evil-doers you centrists whine about.

Nationalism is not terrorism. And an adversary is not an enemy.

» login or register to post comments

Open Minded And To Thyself Be True

Submitted by crackerjack on Wed, 07/30/2008 - 4:55am.
Looks like the first requirement's been met, what with this here advisory council. Gives us a chance to get away from the predominately biographical stuff that's been plaguing this campaign, allowing us, instead, to take up the matter of what does Barack Obama really stand for, and, whether or not upon his taking office we can count on him to deliver on a campaign promise that if elected he'd end the Iraq War, negotiate with Iran plus turning things around here at home. Say he makes that promise to us, we put our trust in him, elect him and he makes good on his promise, then what sort of world? It'll be up to us.
» login or register to post comments

.

Submitted by bettysdad on Tue, 07/29/2008 - 7:18pm.
Only four of the attendees are not from the corporate or financial world
» login or register to post comments

Your forgot Paul O'Neill

Submitted by Colleen Clark on Tue, 07/29/2008 - 6:16pm.

Paul O'Neill, Bush's first Secy of the Treasury who told Ron Suskind ("The Price of Loyalty")
that in his first meeting with Bush he was surprised that Bush didn't ask him anything. After
several months in the Cabinet he told Suskind that he found Bush "ignorant and incurious."
Anyway, this lifelong Republican, former chairman of Alcoa etc etc, was also at Obama's
meeting.
Oh yes, Bush fired him. Probably because he used his own head and wasn't with the Bush
program.

Colleen Clark
Cambridge, MA

» login or register to post comments