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Title: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Benny B on September 27, 2008, 05:06:02 PM

Actually, Obama Does Understand

John McCain’s mantra tonight was simple: Barack Obama “doesn’t understand.” He repeated this line over and over, and at one point directly said that Obama “lacks the knowledge” to be president. But Obama demonstrated over and over that he does understand foreign policy. He has a better command of foreign policy issues than most presidential candidates (as does McCain.) McCain tried – and, I think, needed – to disqualify Obama as a foreign policy president, and I think he failed. McCain did land some blows, but Obama easily cleared the bar.
McCain had a strong point about the surge that Obama didn't answer, Obama had a strong point about Afghanistan and “taking our eye off the ball” that McCain didn’t answer. The other difference was mainly one of style, with Obama occasionally stating his agreement with McCain, and McCain refusing to acknowledge agreement with Obama. This is what you’d expect when Obama is merely trying to make himself acceptable and McCain is trying to make him radioactive.

On the economic portion of the debate, McCain seemed to have one single idea: cut spending. He turned every question into a reason to cut spending, mainly earmark spending, which is a tiny percentage of the budget. He is unable to engage on the broader questions of the role of government in economic life.

--Jonathan Chait

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 10, 2010, 05:12:45 AM

Obama officials moving away from 2011 Afghan date
Source: McClatchy Newspapers[/b]

________________________ ______________



The Obama administration has decided to begin publicly walking away from what it once touted as key deadlines in the war in Afghanistan in an effort to de-emphasize President Barack Obama's pledge that he'd begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011, administration and military officials have told McClatchy.

The new policy will be on display next week during a conference of NATO countries in Lisbon, Portugal, where the administration hopes to introduce a timeline that calls for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan by 2014, the year when Afghan President Hamid Karzai once said Afghan troops could provide their own security, three senior officials told McClatchy, along with others speaking anonymously as a matter of policy.

The Pentagon also has decided not to announce specific dates for handing security responsibility for several Afghan provinces to local officials and instead intends to work out a more vague definition of transition when it meets with its NATO allies.

What a year ago had been touted as an extensive December review of the strategy now also will be less expansive and will offer no major changes in strategy, the officials told McClatchy. So far, the U.S. Central Command, the military division that oversees Afghanistan operations, hasn't submitted any kind of withdrawal order for forces for the July deadline, two of those officials told McClatchy.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/09/103468/obama-admi...

 

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 12, 2010, 05:00:22 PM

Skip to comments.

Embarrassment in Seoul
Wall Street Journal Opinion ^ | November 13,2010

Has there ever been a major economic summit where a U.S. President and his Treasury Secretary were as thoroughly rebuffed as they were at this week's G-20 meeting in Seoul? We can't think of one. President Obama failed to achieve any of his main goals while getting pounded by other world leaders for failing U.S. policies and lagging growth.

The root of this embarrassment is political and intellectual: Rather than leading the world from a position of strength, Mr. Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner came to Seoul blaming the rest of the world for U.S. economic weakness. America's problem, in their view, is the export and exchange rate policies of the Germans, Chinese or Brazilians. And the U.S. solution is to have the Fed print enough money to devalue the dollar so America can grow by stealing demand from the rest of the world.

President Barack Obama walks off the stage with Secretary of Treasury Timonthy Geithner But why should anyone heed this U.S. refrain? The Germans are growing rapidly after having rejected Mr. Geithner's advice in 2009 to join the U.S. stimulus spending blowout. China is also growing smartly having rejected counsel from three U.S. Administrations to abandon its currency discipline. The U.K. and even France are pursuing more fiscal restraint. Only the Obama Administration is determined to keep both the fiscal and monetary spigots wide open, while blaming everyone else for the poor domestic results.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Benny B on November 12, 2010, 05:16:25 PM

WALKING THE CORRIDORS OF YOUR MIND

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Arnold jr on November 12, 2010, 05:23:55 PM

Quote from: Benny Blanco on November 12, 2010, 05:16:25 PM

WALKING THE CORRIDORS OF YOUR MIND

That's funny, you've yet to produce one original thought or opinion, and you're the one "walking the corridors of the mind?" Please, learn to use your own mind first and then maybe with some luck you can persuade others.

...the crowd awaits breathlessly for a response to the thread with your name on it.

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Benny B on November 12, 2010, 05:25:48 PM

Quote from: Arnold jr on November 12, 2010, 05:23:55 PM

That's funny, you've yet to produce one original thought or opinion, and you're the one "walking the corridors of the mind?" Please, learn to use your own mind first and then maybe with some luck you can persuade others.

...the crowd awaits breathlessly for a response to the thread with your name on it.

PWNED

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: tonymctones on November 12, 2010, 05:28:14 PM

Quote from: 333386 on November 12, 2010, 05:00:22 PM

Skip to comments.

Embarrassment in Seoul
Wall Street Journal Opinion ^ | November 13,2010

Has there ever been a major economic summit where a U.S. President and his Treasury Secretary were as thoroughly rebuffed as they were at this week's G-20 meeting in Seoul? We can't think of one. President Obama failed to achieve any of his main goals while getting pounded by other world leaders for failing U.S. policies and lagging growth.

The root of this embarrassment is political and intellectual: Rather than leading the world from a position of strength, Mr. Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner came to Seoul blaming the rest of the world for U.S. economic weakness. America's problem, in their view, is the export and exchange rate policies of the Germans, Chinese or Brazilians. And the U.S. solution is to have the Fed print enough money to devalue the dollar so America can grow by stealing demand from the rest of the world.

President Barack Obama walks off the stage with Secretary of Treasury Timonthy Geithner But why should anyone heed this U.S. refrain? The Germans are growing rapidly after having rejected Mr. Geithner's advice in 2009 to join the U.S. stimulus spending blowout. China is also growing smartly having rejected counsel from three U.S. Administrations to abandon its currency discipline. The U.K. and even France are pursuing more fiscal restraint. Only the Obama Administration is determined to keep both the fiscal and monetary spigots wide open, while blaming everyone else for the poor domestic results.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yup he understands that the best way to stimulate the economy and get businesses to spend money and hire is to stabilize as much as possible for them...like expenses, regulations, taxes, oh wait a minute... ;)

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Brixtonbulldog on November 12, 2010, 05:34:10 PM

Obongo's understanding of foreign policy is limited to making concessions, kissing up, asking forgiveness, and the like..

The moment he has to defend our positions or values, stand up for America's rep, or pursue our interests abroad he becomes this guy:

(http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f226/PsychoPsonic/Fail/epicfail.jpg)

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Arnold jr on November 12, 2010, 05:53:17 PM

Quote from: Benny Blanco on November 12, 2010, 05:25:48 PM

PWNED

At least you made me laugh...at you, not with you. Really, "PWND" that's the best you got? Are you seriously coming back with that?

Let's examine....see the "Benny/Blacken" thread for update shortly.

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 13, 2010, 05:06:15 AM

Quote from: Benny Blanco on November 12, 2010, 05:16:25 PM

WALKING THE CORRIDORS OF YOUR MIND

Rather than post new threads, its far more amusing posting in your old TEAM KNEEPAD threads. 

Benny:  why dont you take arnold up on his calling you out?

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 13, 2010, 02:21:05 PM

www.nationaljornal.com
ANALYSIS
America’s Rodney Dangerfield Moment

Obama’s decline, Washington’s dysfunctional politics, and decades of bad advice are undermining U.S. sway abroad.

By Michael Hirsh
Friday, November 12, 2010 | 9:55 a.m.

Comment
 
There were some high points during President Obama’s 10-day Asian tour, particularly the wildly cheering crowds that greeted him in Indonesia, his childhood spawning ground (a welcome that, unfortunately, will likely only sow further suspicion within the “birther” crowd back home, not to mention among the substantial number of Americans who still believe he’s secretly a Muslim). But for the most part this was a shadow of the president who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 on the mere bet that he would somehow deliver the “old America” back to the world. And along the way, when it came to substantive issues such as trade, capital imbalances, currency policy, and Middle East peace, Obama encountered a faceful of rebuffs from allies and future rivals alike.

Much of the commentary in Washington has focused, predictably, on the devastating midterm election losses suffered by the Democrats, widely interpreted as a repudiation of Obama and his policies. But there is a much deeper dysfunction at work here. The key nations of the international system have grown weary of the political paralysis in Washington that has effectively placed an unelected official, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in charge of growing the economy; and they are fed up with two decades of bad U.S. economic advice since the end of the Cold War. Consider the evidence:

--Obama was relegated to the position of cheerleader for Bernanke’s plan to purchase $600 billion in Treasuries to boost the economy—known as “quantitative easing”—which set off a roar of foreign disapproval. Bernanke’s move also took the pressure off China, which charged that Washington was hypocritically driving down the dollar as a spur to exports even as it was trying to muster international pressure on Beijing to raise the value of its currency. The result was a muddle, as the G-20 leaders at the Seoul, South Korea, summit agreed to develop a mild set of “indicative guidelines” intended to address large economic imbalances—all of which essentially kicked a very large can down a very long road. Gone was any mention of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s plan to curb current account imbalances. Among those who repudiated Geithner and the Obama administration was Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel, who declared: "To set political limits on trade surpluses and deficits is neither economically justified nor politically appropriate." Merkel’s uncompromising language suggested that Geithner may have botched the negotiations by going in with a full-blown plan, complete with specific numbers, rather than laying the groundwork behind the scenes.

--Seoul may be a solid U.S. ally, but Obama’s South Korean counterpart, President Lee Myung-bak, failed to offer up a key “deliverable”—Washington jargon for an agreement signed during a presidential trip—when he and the U.S. president could not come to agreement on a bilateral trade deal. And despite Washington’s supposed leverage over the U.S. auto industry—a large portion of which the taxpayers now own—Obama could not persuade Chrysler, Ford, and the United Autoworkers Union to relent in accepting the immediate end to a U.S. tariff on Korean cars, a key deal breaker. The further delay in the pact, which has languished since 2007, threw other free trade agreements into doubt, along with hopes of reviving the Doha round of global trade talks.

--Worldwide uncertainty over America’s ability to address its deficit and debt problems is growing, cast into further doubt by the expectation that the midterm election results will only widen the chasm between Republicans and Democrats. The issue abruptly re-emerged back in Washington during Obama’s Asian tour when, taking the White House by surprise, the co-chairs of the president’s deficit commission offered up a credible plan for cutting the federal deficit by $4 trillion—only to see the scheme denounced on both sides of the aisle. Global uncertainty over the "Whither America?" question has also heightened, because so many regulatory rules remain unwritten since this summer’s passage of the financial reform law. A new Bloomberg survey of 1,030 investors, analysts and traders showed that the United States was now ranked behind China, Brazil, and India as an investment opportunity.

--Obama didn’t stop in the Middle East on his trip, but its politics nipped at his heels nonetheless as Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stoutly defended yet another snub to U.S. efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians – the latest announcement of new settlement construction in Jerusalem. The tenor of Israeli defiance also raised new questions about whether Netanyahu might decide, sometime in 2011, to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities if Obama’s efforts to gradually ratchet up sanctions pressure continue to bear no fruit.

The backdrop to all of these setbacks has been a gradual loss of prestige. The last decade has seen multiple disasters and missed opportunities emanating from Washington—the diversion away from Afghanistan to Iraq; the long period of fiscal, regulatory, and financial recklessness; and the squandering of global leadership over climate change and the carbon-based global economy. As a result, other countries are no longer looking to Washington as a model, and Obama simply hasn’t done enough to change minds, to deliver sufficient substance to go with his soaring rhetoric. In the years since the 2007-09 financial catastrophe, the G-20 group of nations, which included China and other major developing nations, have won a kind of battlefield promotion. The G-20 is now seen as the world’s preeminent economic forum, eclipsing the hoary Group of Seven (and the G-8, which included Russia). The G-7 had been meeting since the 1970s to decide on interest rate and currency policies for the world. But whereas Washington was clearly first among equals in the G-7—the first meeting actually occurred in the White House library—it has not been able to dominate discussions at the G-20.

Nor is there any sign that Obama or the United States will be able to do so in the future.

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 13, 2010, 03:24:52 PM

Expert: past 10 days have been worst of President Obama's 'political life'
By Kenneth R. Bazinet
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Originally Published:Friday, November 12th 2010, 6:08 PM
Updated: Friday, November 12th 2010, 6:08 PM

 
Dharapak/APPresident Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walk by an honor guard as they disembark Air Force One upon arrival in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday. Take our PollDrama for Obama
How do you expect President Obama to fare over the next two years?

      With a Republican Congress, he'll be toast!
 He has time to sort things out before 2012, no matter the outcome of the elections.
 I'm not sure.

 Related NewsLouis: Stop trading away American jobsLouis: President Obama, it's time for a little audacityObama, South Korea warn North Korea on looming rocket launchKrauthammer: Bailout spitfires are igniting a bonfire of trivialities
WASHINGTON - President Obama is coming home from his overseas trip pretty much empty-handed.

After watching his party take a beating in the midterm elections, Obama wasn't able to secure even a symbolic victory on a trip that was expected to give him plenty of opportunities to claim a win.

"This certainly was the worst 10 days of his political life," said Baruch College political scientist Doug Muzzio. "Given that he's not going to be able to get any domestic achievements with the Republicans in control of the House ... if he doesn't do it in foreign policy that's a big problem for him.

"He came back with bupkis [Yiddish for 'nothing']."

Obama's inauspicious 10-day, four-nation trip included a failure to land an anticipated slam dunk free trade agreement with South Korea.

It also included a botched effort to rally Western allies to press China to budge on a monetary policy that threatens to keep the U.S. economy in the tank.

Yet Obama appeared to shrug off the lack of results during summit meetings with the world's most powerful leaders.

"Naturally, there's an instinct to focus on the disagreements, because otherwise, these summits might not be very exciting; it's just a bunch of world leaders sitting around intervening," Obama told reporters in South Korea.

"What's remarkable is that in each of these successive summits we've actually made real progress," he added, without anything of substance to point to.

Compounding his problems, Obama had to dial back on comments made back home by top adviser David Axelrod, who suggested Obama will cave on ending tax cuts for the rich.

Even when he had a chance to back embattled outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, his biggest political ally who wants to remain leader of the House Democrats, he hedged.

"I think Speaker Pelosi has been an outstanding partner for me," Obama said. "I think Harry Reid has been a terrific partner in moving some very difficult legislation forward."

Experts scoffed.

"If President [George W.] Bush was the great decider, then President Obama is the great considerer," Muzzio said.

kbazinet@nydailynews.com



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/11/12/2010-11-12_president_obama_returns_from_asia_trip_with_disappointing_results_amid_midterm_l.html#ixzz15CwcrTNp

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2010, 05:05:32 AM

Obamanomics leaving world nervous
By DANIEL J. MITCHELL

Last Updated: 4:17 AM, November 15, 2010

________________________ ________________________ ______


When I was growing up, China's Communist leaders would attack the United States as "capitalist running dogs." How the world has changed: Chinese leaders now publicly fret about America's reliance on "outmoded central planning."

Talk about being called ugly by a frog.

The Chinese official specifically was referring to the Federal Reserve's decision to pump $600 billion of extra liquidity into the economy. But instead of being called "QE2," this new bout of quantitative easing should be called the "Titanic."

Interest rates already are very low, so the argument from the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration that the economy is being hindered by high interest rates is laughable. If Fed chief Ben Bernanke follows through on this scheme, we're quite likely to see an outbreak of 1970s-style inflation. And those who recall the glory days of the Carter administration will remember that an easy-money policy leads to higher rather than lower interest rates.

Along with countries such as Germany, Brazil and South Africa, China's worried that President Obama and Bernanke will destabilize the global economy by dumping too much money into the system. This distorts trade, creates bubbles and may prompt other nations to engage in similar devaluations. The fact that China is probably guilty of the same thing doesn't change the fact that America is on the wrong path.

And because people look to the United States for leadership, the disappointment is particularly acute. Indeed, America was almost persona non grata at the recent G-20 meeting.

The monetary move is isn't the only Obama policy causing unease around the globe. Having seen the destructive impact of too much deficit spending in nations such as Greece, Ireland and Spain, policymakers worldwide increasingly recognize that countries need to reduce the burden of government spending to prevent a spread of sovereign-debt crises.

Nations such as Germany and the United Kingdom haven't approached this issue in the best way. Too often, they're using the fiscal crisis as an excuse to raise taxes rather than make long-overdue reductions in bloated budgets. But at least they recognize that the time has come to back away from the abyss of too much red ink.

The United States, by contrast, is on a spending binge of historic proportions. It's not a one-party problem: President George Bush virtually doubled the size of the federal budget in his eight years. But Obama did promise change -- yet has picked up the big-spender baton and is racing in the same direction.

The president's failed stimulus didn't keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent, as the White House promised: It's stuck above 9 percent, and far higher if we include those too discouraged to seek work. But the stimulus added several more big straws of debt to the camel's back. Germany and other nations that rejected the Keynesian approach, by contrast, have enjoyed much better economic performance.

But the unease in global credit markets flows from far more than just the faux stimulus. Obama's next step was to demand even more government control and power over the health-care sector. The administration claims that a giant new entitlement program will reduce government borrowing, but people in the real world reject this fanciful assertion -- another source of growing anxiety about America's role as a potentially destabilizing force.

Some of these fears are overblown. Yes, the Bush-Obama years have dramatically boosted the burden of government, and one obvious symptom of this fiscal excess is a much bigger national debt. But America's red ink, as a share of GDP, is lower than the comparable levels in many European nations, as well as Japan.

But that's hardly an excuse. We all tell our kids that their friends' misbehavior is no excuse for them to the wrong thing as well.

This is a good rule for the global economy. If China is keeping its currency artificially weak, that doesn't mean we should do the same thing. If European nations have bigger governments and more debt, that doesn't mean we should copy their mistakes.

Ironically, the rest of the world has learned that easy money and deficit spending are a bad recipe, yet the White House somehow thinks that going back to Jimmy Carter's policies is the right approach for America.  

Daniel J. Mitchell, a Cato Institute senior fellow, is co-author of "Global Tax Revolu tion: The Rise of Tax Competition and the Battle to Defend It."

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Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2010, 08:00:39 AM

Haha ha ha  F'ING CLUELESS

________________________ _____________________

President Obama: 'Campaigning is different than governing'
Politico ^ | 11/14/10 | CAROL E. LEE

________________________ ______

President Obama offered a lesson for Republicans that he learned the hard way during his first two years in office.

"Campaigning is different than governing," Obama told reporters Sunday when asked about his meeting with GOP leaders later this week.

"They are flush with victory after a campaign of just saying 'No,'" he added. "But I'm sure the American people did not vote for more gridlock."


(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2010, 03:03:42 PM

BUMP

_____________________

Come 2012 - the only thing obama will understand is what it feels like to be regarded in the same light as jimmuh carta. 

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 31, 2013, 08:50:48 AM

"The Russian president said Obama, as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, should remember the impact any U.S. attack would have on Syrian civilians."

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: Mr.1derful on August 31, 2013, 10:11:36 AM

Quote from: Soul Crusher on August 31, 2013, 08:50:48 AM

"The Russian president said Obama, as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, should remember the impact any U.S. attack would have on Syrian civilians."

 Putin is a real leader.  It's ironic that the proposed solution to an alleged chemical weapons attack, which has dubious origins, is to pound the country with depleted uranium.  The irony seems lost on Obama. 

Title: Re: Actually, Obama Does Understand
Post by: George Whorewell on August 31, 2013, 06:58:44 PM

Quote from: Soul Crusher on August 31, 2013, 08:50:48 AM

"The Russian president said Obama, as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, should remember the impact any U.S. attack would have on Syrian civilians."

 ;D