The President’s Tone

I suspect Obama’s rhetoric will turn to optimism in an attempt to (now) boost consumer confidence.
Keeping people frightened suited his purposes before the bill was passed.
Now that it is passed, he needs to start urging us out of the bunker mentality he wanted us to have.

jpt:President Obama admires FDR’s ability to explain problems so the average Amercian could understand them and feel confident a solution was coming.
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Also, it isn’t his rhetoric he needs to work on if this is his goal. It’s the solutions he comes up with.
People won’t feel confident a solution is coming if keeps doing what he did with Geithner.

“The president is of course a student of history.”
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It is impossible to know whether or not the president is a student of history. His transcripts have not been released.

Obama is a Marxist-Socialist bent on destroying the country as we know it. Lots of people who voted for this FRAUD had no idea what they were getting. I hope they find out and are happy!

It’s not working, the Dow is down nearly 300 points today????

I might be the last person that reads this site but doesn’t listen to Rush, but I think it frowned on by everyone else to not capitalize the presidents name… you have “obama”…kinda of like I type “tapper”…

The country suffers from Munchausen-By-Proxy Syndrome combined with Stockholm Syndrome.
Obama has made us ill. All he ever had to tell us was how horrible things were. I still wonder how bad things would have been had he simply shut the heck up.

Expect President Obama’s language today to shift tonally from urgency to optimism,
>>>> So which is the LIE the one he told to get the bill passed or the ones that he is telling now that he got what he wanted. ROFL..
I am sorry America I voted for Obama.
I didnt mean to hurt you so.

Its all better I bribed everyone I know.
Obama off mike. ROFL..
Those fools who practice religion think I believe in God.

He was not instilling fear into the American people. He was stressing to the Republicans who were arguing for their agenda (more big business tax cuts & not coming to a comprimise after Obama agreed to allow more tax cuts, just not as much as they wanted) that there is an urgent need to act NOW and not wait until things spiral further out of control by playing political games. Every since Obama was elected & before he was working with his team for an economic stimilus. Yes, once Pelosi got it she started adding crap to it that would not be a help but all that has been trimmed out of the plan.
Now, all of you that are whinning would be doing the samething even if he was doing nothing. At least he is trying to do something.

Well consumer confidence in the toilet, the DOWN at 7500.. WELCOME to the OBAMA years. The sky has fallen. a 14 trillion dollar economy sent into the toilet.

Obama’s words weren’t fear, they were TRUTH.
In fact, the situation is even more dire than has been discussed.
The American People have been lied to long enough… it’s great that we finally have an administration that will tell it like it is.

ChicagoBob:”WELCOME to the OBAMA years. The sky has fallen. a 14 trillion dollar economy sent into the toilet. ”
It is simply amazing how ignorant you seem to be of the condition of the economy at the end of the Bush years. Fact: The housing bubble occurred entirely under the Republicans (inflation adjusted average home value in 2000 equaled the 1989 level; the bubble peaked in 2006). Fact: The banking crisis happened on Bush’s watch.
Your opinions just can’t be given much weight when you seem to have no grasp of reality, just a blind hatred of Obama.

“It took 8 yrs to create the problems but now people want to solve it in 8 weeks.”
What a crock.
The economy was doing fine until the Democrats took the reins. I love how Obama constantly whines about “inheiriting” this bad economy, as though he just fell off a turnip truck and became President.
How many of these budgets did he vote for? Obama seems to forget that he’s been in the Senate for four years.
Then again, all he ever did was run for President.

“Tapper (tapper) in the article didn’t capitalize the presidents name”
Unlike “obamameaning”, lower-casing His holy name above presumably is a typographical error.

mad:”After he flies an enormous plane an enormous distance for a photo op…
This is a poor example of green behavior and fiscal responsibility.”
This is absurd. The president getting out into the country – the whole country, not just the Eastern seaboard – he is governing is part of the job and Air Force One is how it is done. Next you’ll be bemoaning the waste of energy caused by having our soldiers fire guns at harmless paper targets during training.

MayBee:”Where does this magic number of 8 years keep coming from?”
In 2000 the federal budget was in surplus. Look up Bush’s first press conference in 2000 – he was touting his plan to give back the federal surplus to the taxpayers (and he did ultimately send out checks to everyone). This is documented reality and the impetus to his tax cuts.
There was also no housing bubble. The average price of a home was the same as in 1989 when adjusted for inflation.
Both of these are facts. What are the facts suggesting that the economy was in bad shape when Bush took over?

Of course he is optomistic now! His boys are getting paid. Next up, the UAW!

Interest08:”jhw539: Get a history book, read up on the economic changes implemented under Carter. ”
Perhaps you can be more specific: In what was is Obama acting more like Carter than Bush or Clinton did? I haven’t noticed an increase in the payroll tax. He doesn’t seem big on deregulation. I haven’t noticed any sweaters in the oval office. No windfall profit tax has materialized, and price controls have been regularly dismissed.
Just shouting “He’s like Carter!!!1!1!!” is not very compelling. Do you have any specific similarities in policy at all? Or do you just want to compare him to a failed Democratic president and grabbed the first one you can remember?

Fact: The banking crisis happened on Bush’s watch. Posted by: jhw539 | Feb 17, 2009 12:48:46 PM
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Fact: The banking crisis was created on Cater’s watch. The banking crisis was exacerbated on Clinton’s watch.
The Community Reinvestment Act.
Synopsis: Loan the money or you won’t bank.

curt: You have a good point. It is true that the fault for the housing crisis is widespread, but not equally spread. Some carry more than others. My current opinions are that Greenspan carries a heavier share since he should have known better and was in a position to help. And the Bush Administration, because they held the “buck stops here” position of power during the years that the enormity of the issue become obvious yet did nothing. The Congressional D’s and R’s have about an equal share in the blame (and about an equal share of banking bux in the campaign coffers… hmm…), although both are pretty naive bumblers compared to the private sector running circles around them.

Both of these are facts. What are the facts suggesting that the economy was in bad shape when Bush took over?
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We were in recession when Bush took over.
But when we talk about *these problems* building over 8 years, are we talking only about the current recession and a housing bubble?
We didn’t have a recession for most of the past 8 years.
The housing bubble itself wouldn’t be a problem without the bad mortgages, but the bad mortgages aren’t the fault of Bush, nor did subprime lending start 8 years ago.
Finally, I’m trying to determine whether people consider everything that happened over the past 8 years to be Bush’s fault. Do you?

All of you libs need to stop blamming Bush for this. He didn’t create this financial mess on his own. This is so typical of you libs to blame others then when questioned not take your share of the blame. Obama owns this recession now with this pork filled bill. He scared the American people into believing we needed this. Of course now his tone has changed just like a little kid who will do whatever it takes to get what he wanted. Obama is going to take our great country into a socialist nightmare along with his croonies Pelosi and Reid!

A final note on Obama’s new optimism. He has via this bill set up a permanent democrat patronage system. He has already, via presidential order, commanded that only union shops may apply for any infrastructure projects, or government contracts, not just those in this massive debt bill. He has allotted 4-6 BILLION dollars for ACORN and future democrat vote buying and fraud. He will give the UAW a pass on the promise to bring their benefits in line with other successful US auto companies, and the Unions will be happy to pay Obama back with ads and financial support for the next election. That will be followed by “card check” which will intimidate workers into signing on with a union as they must vote and sign , openly in front of a union rep. When did Americans find that a non-secret ballot is a good thing? I can tell you when it helps democrats win elections then that will be hunky dory.
When all this is done, and the unions have built their 20+ golf courses, as included in the debt bill, we will be asked to pay for all of this.
Therefore the american public will paying a very high premium tax rate to assure democrats remain in power.
This is an aberration and a nightmare for what is about to be the former US.
Oh yeah, if there were no less than 6 groups suing George Bush and claiming he wasn’t a citizen, and/or that he traveled with a passport claiming citizenship of another country, true or not, the media would claim that the seriousness of the charges merit and investigation and would beat the drum until all relevant, original documents were produced.
Why is it so hard for Obama to lay these questions to rest and simply produce the original documents? You would think it would be simple and certainly save himself, the DNC and the american economy a great deal of tax dollars as these multiple suits move through the courts.
SO YEAH, HE HAS REASON FOR OPTIMISM

“What are the facts suggesting that the economy was in bad shape when Bush took over?”
One fact that nobody EVER mentions is that the “Clinton” organization’s (now fronted by His Holiness) supposed “balancing” of the budget was accomplished by slave-making “welfare reform” for the very poor, and the Estate Benefits Recovery Act for the slightly-less-poor. Not one Congress-person in a hundred, it seems, has figured this out YET.
No matter WHO their figure-head is, these people are smiley-face corporate fascists, who mean “the people” NO good.

The last 8 years included 2 years in which the Democrats controlled the house and the senate. What did they do?

MayBee:”Finally, I’m trying to determine whether people consider everything that happened over the past 8 years to be Bush’s fault. Do you?”
Everything? Of course not. But Bush was a singularly incompetent leader, the Republicans went to corrupt free-spending seed even faster than the democrats in the 80′s, and the Republicans own this mess.
And the housing bubble IS the mortgages mess. The markets don’t care about the stupid mortgages – the interest onlys given to dishwashers. That could be soaked up. They are terrified of the fact that, due to the unprecedented drop in home values, a much much larger number of home owners with perfectly normal mortgages are going to get into a situation where they owe $100k more than their house is worth. That terrifies the market – their mortgage assets have no collateral other than a black mark on a credit record.

“Please explain to me how $13 a week will stimulate our economy?”
It’s to remind you that the craven Congress passed this crappola on Friday the 13th.
If banks and other corporations had to go through the verifications and paperwork the poor will have to provide “under penalty of perjury” for those over-ballyhooed Food Stamps, there’d be NO “crisis”.
By May Day, the revolution should be well underway.

Obama sued Citibank under the Community Reinvestment Act to force them to make loans to those who didn’t qualify.
B­uy­cks-Rob­erson­ v­. Ci­t­i­b­an­k F­ed. Sav­. B­an­k F­ai­r Housi­n­g/L­en­di­n­g/I­n­suran­ce
Docket­ / Court­ 94 C 4094 ( N­.D. I­l­l­. ) F­H-I­L­-0011
St­at­e/T­erri­t­ory­ I­l­l­i­n­oi­s

Obama owns this recession now with this pork filled bill. He scared the American people into believing we needed this. Of course now his tone has changed just like a little kid who will do whatever it takes to get what he wanted. Obama is going to take our great country into a socialist nightmare along with his croonies Pelosi and Reid!
Posted by: Nobama | Feb 17, 2009 1:16:57 PM
Last I heard we have been in a recession since the end of 2007. How does Obama own that?

It would be nice to see a change in his tone. His transition tone got me happy and eager for him to become President. Over the past three weeks, his tone has been annoying and perhaps even alarming. Now that the stimulus fight has passed, hopefully he can change his ways and be a bit more positive. I’m not saying he should give us any false hopes about the short run, but that doesn’t mean that nothing good is in store for our country. He also should not talk the economy down or say that the recession is “irreversible”. It’s only irreversible if you get bombed out World War II style and don’t clean up in the aftermath.

“Obama is going to take our great country into a socialist nightmare along with his croonies Pelosi and Reid!”
NOT to worry: the “socialist” stuff is all for the very rich, along the lines of the beyond-bankrupted State of California falling all over itself to subsidize the uber-class grape-and-brew biz (Pelosi’s a player) with public funds.
Every national political horror tries out first in California.
(If you liked Porkulus, you’ll love “gay marriage”, in which the federales pay DOUBLE benefits to boy-boy couples, the better to provide medical benefits for uh you know … “Not”, as Seinfeld said, “that there’s anything WRONG with that”, except that women-and-children-first isn’t just good manners, but has an actual BIOLOGICAL basis. But I digress. Note, however, that His Holiness expresses more concern about “gay” matters than about impoverished women and children, who get a lot of Bill-Cosby-blabla about “marriage” and “responsibility”. In short, “the people” have been had: Obama’s the new front man for corporate class war on the poor.)

“One fact that nobody EVER mentions is that the “Clinton” organization’s (now fronted by His Holiness) supposed “balancing” of the budget was accomplished by slave-making “welfare reform” for the very poor, and the Estate Benefits Recovery Act for the slightly-less-poor. Not one Congress-person in a hundred, it seems, has figured this out YET.”
Actually the Clintons balanced the budget with massive military cuts in spending and the number of troops. It is the main reason we could not have an earlier troop surge in Iraq. We needed to build up the number of available troops.
Clinton made his presidency look good this way but ended up costing us much more in the long run in American lives and treasure with this foolish move.
But it was really all about him, just as with Obama.

“Over the past three weeks, his tone has been annoying and perhaps even alarming.”
Nobody so … sedated … could be “alarming”, unless He sets Himself on fire next to a fireworks stand.

“One fact that nobody EVER mentions is that the “Clinton” organization’s (now fronted by His Holiness) supposed “balancing” of the budget was accomplished by slave-making “welfare reform” for the very poor, and the Estate Benefits Recovery Act for the slightly-less-poor. Not one Congress-person in a hundred, it seems, has figured this out YET.”
Actually the Clintons balanced the budget with massive military cuts in spending and the number of troops. It is the main reason we could not have an earlier troop surge in Iraq. We needed to build up the number of available troops.
Clinton made his presidency look good this way but ended up costing us much more in the long run in American lives and treasure with this foolish move.
But it was really all about him, just as with Obama.
Posted by: MMover | Feb 17, 2009 1:50:17 PM
What you are saying is it Clinton’s fault. This has been building up for years. Yes some of the stuff Clinton did was to blame for it, but Bush also had a hand it as well. Probably Reagan and Bush 1 policies as well. It’s not the fault of ONE person. How you people expect Obama to fix years of things in 3 weeks is beyond me.

It’s unlikely given the content of this bill, there will be a “a new belief in government” again.
And I for one will never forgive this president for his fear mongering to pass a bill that will forever change the fabric of our nation.
We don’t go from doom to prosperity with a trillion dollars of democrat pork. The man should be ashamed of himself.

The historian Jake used, Douglas Brinkley, obviously has nothing kind to say towards Obama. It’s understandable since Brinkley recently heralded Ronald Reagan as one of the top five presidents. Never mind the Iran Contra scandal, his lauded tax cuts that benefitted mostly the wealthy, or the national debt that was incurred over eight years. Could it be there’s a bit of partisan bias with Brinkley and Jake’s choice of a historian?

I attempted to post the link to the video of the fannie/freddie hearings and it was “withheld” as possible spam. Hopefully the post will be reviewed and OK’d for publication by the sites author.

That’s this recession. Bush took over in 2001.
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Maybee- Yes, that’s this recession, which occurred while Bush was in office.

This is yet another Democratic debacle in the making:
A tentative plan to overhaul Massachusetts’ transportation system by using GPS chips to charge motorists a quarter-cent for every mile behind the wheel has angered some drivers. “It’s outrageous, it’s kind of Orwellian, Big Brotherish,” said Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, who drafted legislation last week to prohibit the practice.

The point is that Obama isn’t even TRYING to “fix” anything, except for the corporations and the very rich … take a look at His cabinet, if in any doubt about this.
When the “urban” masses figure it all out, there’s gonna be Hell to pay.
Posted by: “Watch for Asteroids” | Feb 17, 2009 2:09:05 PM
Ok genius. What’s your solution?

“A tentative plan to overhaul Massachusetts’ transportation system by using GPS chips to charge motorists a quarter-cent for every mile behind the wheel has angered some drivers. “It’s outrageous, it’s kind of Orwellian, Big Brotherish,” said Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, who drafted legislation last week to prohibit the practice.”
Probably time to reflect on the mob-friendly Massachusetts Governor, the Axelrod prototype for the Kerry-backed and mob-friendly “Obama” … and on how to dethrone ALL of them.

True. Why did you quote my post about Bush inheriting a recession in your post about this recession?
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Bush had an eight month recession beginning around March of 2001, and it was nothing comparable to the one under his watch, which has burgeoned out of control.

“Dems are exposed in their advocacy for fannie/freddie and their gross obstruction and neglect that led to the housing crisis.”
This is by far the most popular right-wing myth that they maintain to try and shift blame from the Bush administration.
Yes the Democrats supported structuring mortages so that lower income could afford their own homes but it is ridiculous to say that they obstructed anything when the Republicans held the House and the White House. It was the Republicans that conveniently neglected to actually do anything about it.

Posted by: “Watch for Asteroids” | Feb 17, 2009 2:43:38 PM
You brought up revolution. Obama has been in office for 3 weeks, GWB was in office for 8 long depressing years. Where was the talk about a revolution when this man was destroying the country with his unjust wars, lying, secrecy, wiretapping, etc. Obama hasn’t done any of that.
BTW I am not sure I get your economic plan. We might be owed some of those things after the amount of money we pay in taxes, etc, but chances of most of that happening is next to none.

“A man’s admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.” –deTocqueville
I hear a lot of contempt coming out of the supposedly hopeful and eloquent President Obama.

“I hear a lot of contempt coming out of the supposedly hopeful and eloquent President Obama.”
I hear fifteen minutes of politicians “thanking” each other in Denver, and demanding that the crowd squeal and applaud for the television cameras.
“Give them a big round of applause” decrees The Puppet, returning to the scene of His electoral crime.

“Historians say…” and then he quotes one historian.
Nice journalism Tapper. Thank god you guys are better than the bloggers.

“Probably time to reflect on the mob-friendly Massachusetts Governor, the Axelrod prototype for the Kerry-backed and mob-friendly “Obama” … and on how to dethrone ALL of them.”
Oh Deval Patrick is well on the way to dethroning himself.
Maybe he will could be Commerce Secretary.
Most likely he will go down as the worst governor in MA history, and with Dukakis in the books, that is a hard standard-bearer to beat.

“the Democrats supported structuring mortages so that lower income could afford their own homes”
Nononono: not only were bogus mortgages NOT designed to benefit the “lower income” marks who were essentially forced into them on pain of homelessness, but signing up some unsophisticated poor person to pay part of the usurious interest on such a mortgage doesn’t mean either that such a fleeced individual (who will, when he/she defaults, NEVER get “credit” again) could “afford” the mortgage, OR that he/she “owns” ANYthing.
The immense ghastliness of the houses so moved is a separate subject which deserves discussion, along with the fact that nobody actually LIVES in most of these houses, but merely sleep there between scurrying to a car and to some probably-pointless “job” as a cog in the enrich-the-rich machine.

‘Happy Days are Here Again…’
‘ Pie, Pie in the sky, When you die… ‘
I’m ready to get a jalopy and head in the direction of California, maybe I could pick grapes there….

The stock market has dropped about 2,000 points since Obama was elected.
From 9600 to 7600 – a drop of over 20%.

Obama got his Pork Pie!….Now its time for Mr Obama’s Neighborhood!!!!
So now welcome to my neighborhood…
Don’t you want to be…..My Neighbor?
Time to put on our sweaters & our happy faces!
Here comes Trolley, He runs on Solar Power now!

That’s a kind of a lousy cartoon caricature, Jake.

Why the big ears on Obama? He’s not Ross Perot.

Back in 2005 or so, when the Fannie and Freddie problem was brought up by President Bush and the Republicans, we were immediately flooded by TV ads against regulation of F&F. Remember the ads with a little girl carrying a teddy bear being led by her mother out of their (foreclosed?) home, and the voice instructing the lemmings to ‘call your Congressman and tell him to keep their hands off of our affordable housing’, or something like that?

Perhaps Human Intelligence would like for a tail and horns along with a goatee to be added to Obama’s caricature.

Jake, GREAT image of BHO BUT, you forgot the REALLY BIG TEETH that everyone falls for as genuine smile–right. His tone set a NICE EFFECT on the market…I’m from Los Angeles-a very misguided state and getting worse. BHO sounded like he was talking all our rediculous talking points. Here’s the thing, we’re in a melting pot hell hole. If he believes in gearing up a US after a Pelosi state, this country is DOOMED! His tone is not going to change the words coming out of his mouth and those words are trouble for this free couny! The market works looking at the future and YES, I KNOW, Gibbs and ALL the BHO zombies will say that’s NOT a good scale to go by. Actually, for confidence in the money market, it’s a very good scale and we’ve seen that since this man opened his mouth about the economy, it’s been pretty bearish. The lowest in nearly 10 yrs! People, if anyone besides the ACORN people these pollsters keep polling were asked about this president, it would be a joke! The latest on Geithner is that he was uncertain of his plan before he was to present it to the committee and so he scrapped it 3 days prior to his news conference. This is the man we had to have because he was ALL that and indispensable to the point ignore his crime of not having paid his taxes repeatedly! No wonder all those Demo’s are all for hiking up yours and my taxes–they repeatdly NEVER pay! I’ll bet Pelosi and Reed have those issues in their closets! Wait Pelosi and her husband who’s on her payroll! UNREAL! Just wake me up when this world opens their eyes!JAKE, I put this on your shoulders to get some REAL truth out there! BTW, who’s surprised by Burris’s admission today of being a perjuring lier! Obamazombies, wakeie, wakeie!

.I’m from Los Angeles-a very misguided state and getting worse . . .
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And I see the situation is blamed on the Speaker of the House, instead of the more direct influence of Arnold, The Terminator.

I’m sorry, did I blame Pelosi for California? Are we REALLY calling The Terminator a Republican, if so, perhaps you could define it for him…we KNOW he doesn’t wear the pants in his family nor can he handle his lack of popularity in a VERY DEMOCRATIC STATE. I’ll SAY IT AGAIN–They’re ALL messed up!

California is in dire straits because of the democratic control of prior liberal governors such as Grey Davis (D)whom we recalled after he had entered into pacts with the state correctional officers union and other state unions giving them huge pay hikes and benefits in return for a $250,000 campaign contribution two weeks later. Davis should have been locked up instead of recalled. Now they are trying to blame it on Arnold and the Republicans. We are stuck with too many depending on government handouts in this state including millions of illegals and like the federal gov. going down the tubes because of liberal policies.