The President’s Most Important Meeting at APEC Is Not With An Asian Country Nor Does It Deal With the Economy

Holy Moly, did anyone else see Obama BOW deeply to the emperor of Japan? Now, tell me again he didn’t bow to the Saudi king.
This is embarrassing.

Jobs, Obama, jobs. I guess you won’t learn that’s what Americans care about until 2010.
Huh? | Nov 14, 2009 11:59:08 AM
What, SPECIFICALLY, do you want Obama to do about jobs? Another quarter-trillion in tax breaks? Anyhow, that’s not what Americans really care about (at least on the Right):
“Holy Moly, did anyone else see Obama BOW”
“US president BOWS”
And you’re implying that the President, who ushered through over $750 billion in stimulus (including all the tax breaks) is the one out of touch?

Good grief.
Another submissive bow from Obama.
This time to Japan.
China owns us–what will Obama do to show his sumbission to China?

Obama needs to resign.

In response to what Obama should do about jobs, he should stop changing the lanes of the highway in the middle of rush hour. We’re in an economic crisis. Instead of pandering to his liberal base on health care and having Nancy Pelosi and the team threaten employers with fines, higher taxes and other penalties, he should be purely focused on reforming our financial institutions and on pulling the government out of the axis with big business. He should also put an end to EFCA and other Andy Stern/Union wish lists. When the government violated centuries old bankruptcy laws in their takeover of Chrysler and GM, it scared the private sector stiff. What will the government do next? How will this affect my business? How can we add jobs in this environment. The private sector cannot add jobs when they are guessing at what the future health care codes will be. How can they budget for increased employment if they don’t know the scope of the insurance plans they’ll be mandated to provide or the fines they’ll face if they cut benefits and let the employees go to the public option. There are countless other examples of how this meddling administration has created an uncertain environment in which the private sector is supposed to operate. That kills growth and jobs. The only people benefiting right now are people on public payrolls, which won’t get America anywhere. If we’re going to grow, the public employee payrolls will have to be reduced, obscene public empolyee pensions and benefits will have to be addressed and the private sector will have to be unleashed to be innovative and strong. Over the past 12 years, but especially these last 10 months, we’ve tilted the balance way to much to the public sector. It has to stop. No country can grow that way, see Europe.

Um, you do realize that President Bush not only bowed to the Saudi King but also kissed his hands. He also bowed to the Pope, and to King Abdullah. So why is there an issue now?

Why did Obama leave the country when his attorney general announced the 9/11 terrorists would be tried in New York? Does he think this issue is going to die down any time soon? It’s going to be a circus, with radical Islamists putting America on trial. This was a cynical, political ploy designed to satisfy the left-wing idiots in the Democratic Socialist Party. Absolultely no regard was shown for New Yorkers, who are now even more of a target for terrorism than they ever have been.
I’d like to see this headline in the NY Times: OBAMA THROWS NEW YORK UNDER THE BUS.

Hey, Carrot top, I don’t really care if Obama bows to the guy from Japan. I just wish he’d cease and desist with the apology tours. Every time he goes overseas, he gives the same basic speech: “I’m Barack, it’s all about me. America was a big crap sandwich before I showed up to make it great again.”

@trythetruth:
RE: “President Bush not only bowed to the Saudi King but also kissed his hands.”
So when Obama does something that Bush did, it makes it okay?
Wow, that Bush was one smart guy, setting the trends and leadership for every future President.
No wonder so many people liked Bush.
And I see that Obama is also following Bush`s lead in Presidential popularity polls- down, down, down.

Aaron, those are some very thoughtful, insightful comments on what Obama should to about jobs. This is the kind of comment we should see more of on blogs.

Here’s my prediction, for what it’s worth: Obama’s numbers will fall into the mid-forties by summer of 2010, after he’s pushed immigration “reform.” The Republicans will regain seats in Congress in 2010, but not enough because they’ll still be fighting with each other over the conservative v. moderate issue.
A watered-down version of Obamacare will be passed, further dividing the country. More and more moderate Dems will move away from Obama in 2010, as he pays lip service to jobs and unemployment remains high.
By 2012, the Republicans will stop fighting with each other long enough to unite against Obama. Fiscally conservative Independents will hold their nose and vote Republican because the only alternative is four more years of left-wing governance.
The President in January, 2013 will be a Republican. I’m predicting Mitt Romney/John Thune of SD.
Before you write off my prediction, consider this: I voted for the first time in 1972, and I’ve only been wrong once in my predictions since then. (I predicted the country would never elect George Bush for a second time.)

Obama and Medvedev has lots in common.
That is not a compliment.

Morale has fallen among soldiers in Afghanistan, where troops are seeing record violence in the 8-year-old war, while those in Iraq show much improved mental health amid much lower violence, the Army said Friday.

Now we have a cream puff.
I miss the cowboy.
hank | Nov 14, 2009 1:48:05 PM
Ask the Somalia pirates how much of a cream puff he is. Or the record number of Al Quaida leadership assassinated by Predator drone. Or the terrorists still being held at Bagram. Or China shocked by an administration who dared levy a tariff on part of their stacked-deck export portfolio. Or the Taliban who have seen the American boots on the ground increase more in 9 months than in the prior 7 years.
Yeah, but he’s just a cream puff in Right Wing Fantasy Land.

This is a great comment, Aaron. It bears repeating:
“In response to what Obama should do about jobs, he should stop changing the lanes of the highway in the middle of rush hour.
We’re in an economic crisis.
Instead of pandering to his liberal base on health care and having Nancy Pelosi and the team threaten employers with fines, higher taxes and other penalties, he should be purely focused on reforming our financial institutions and on pulling the government out of the axis with big business.
He should also put an end to EFCA and other Andy Stern/Union wish lists. When the government violated centuries old bankruptcy laws in their takeover of Chrysler and GM, it scared the private sector stiff.
What will the government do next? How will this affect my business? How can we add jobs in this environment. The private sector cannot add jobs when they are guessing at what the future health care codes will be. How can they budget for increased employment if they don’t know the scope of the insurance plans they’ll be mandated to provide or the fines they’ll face if they cut benefits and let the employees go to the public option. There are countless other examples of how this meddling administration has created an uncertain environment in which the private sector is supposed to operate. That kills growth and jobs.
The only people benefiting right now are people on public payrolls, which won’t get America anywhere.
If we’re going to grow, the public employee payrolls will have to be reduced, obscene public empolyee pensions and benefits will have to be addressed and the private sector will have to be unleashed to be innovative and strong.
Over the past 12 years, but especially these last 10 months, we’ve tilted the balance way to much to the public sector. It has to stop. No country can grow that way, see Europe.”
Speaking of Wal-Mart… via Bloomberg:
“Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, said it’s allowing more than 1,000 apparel companies to benefit from its high credit rating and arrange financing after CIT Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy…”
That’s thinking outside the box. Lack of available lines of credit are killing small and medium businesses.

“NO other first world nation business spends anything at all on health care.”
First, it continues to amaze me that we are constantly exhorted to do things because all other “first world nations” do them. The UK is a first world nation; its healthcare system is a cruel and abysmal failure. Russia and Germany are first world nations; in my lifetime both thought communist economics made sense and both used the genocide of millions as instruments of national policy.
Second, there is a reason that US businesses spend money on healthcare: the US Congress amended the tax code to give them an incentive to do so, and give individuals an incentive to avoid providing for themselves and instead to require it of their employers. That same body now proposes not to eliminate these mindless distortions, but rather to introduce an incomprehensible array of further distortions. But don’t worry: this time they’ll get it right.
The unshakeable faith that some Americans continue to repose in the federal government is a phenomenon not to be explained by reason.

Posted by: Leslie Langford | Nov 14, 2009 3:10:43 PM @trythetruth:
RE: “President Bush not only bowed to the Saudi King but also kissed his hands.”
So when Obama does something that Bush did, it makes it okay?
Wow, that Bush was one smart guy, setting the trends and leadership for every future President.
No wonder so many people liked Bush.
And I see that Obama is also following Bush`s lead in Presidential popularity polls- down, down, down.
————————-
Sorry you don’t get the fact that your all foaming at the mouth spouting your double standards! I guess you also missed the kings bow to President Obama, it’s called foreign protocol. I know common courtesy for another customs are foreign to you. FYI President Obama is at 54% approval rating as of today. So he’s going up, up, up!

This is economist Robert J. Samuelson discussing the insanity widely known as Obamacare, and the actions of the president and congress:
“Their sweeping overhaul of the health-care system—which Congress is halfway toward enacting—would almost certainly make matters worse. It would create new, open-ended medical entitlements that would probably expand deficits and do little to suppress surging health costs. The disconnect between what Obama says and what he’s doing is so glaring that most people could not abide it. The president and his allies have no trouble. But reconciling blatantly contradictory objectives requires them to engage in willful self-deception, public dishonesty, or both.”
Samuelson is no partisan. Every American should carefully consider what he is saying.

“And I see that Obama is also following Bush`s lead in Presidential popularity polls- down, down, down.”
If you’re talking about Obama’s job approval ratings, not every poll has him down, down, down. Today he’s up a couple of points in both Rasmussen* and Gallup daily polls. He was also up a point in the latest Fox News poll.
Additionally, Rasmussen* actually has Obama with a positive spread in his approval rating today: 50% approve, 49% disapprove. First time Rasmussen* has swung in that direction in over a month.
*Choice pollster of conservatives

More from Samuelson:
“Equally misleading, Obama’s advisers assert that the present proposals would slow the growth of overall national health spending. Outside studies disagree. Three studies (two by the consulting firm the Lewin Group and one by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a federal agency) conclude that various congressional plans would increase national health spending compared with no legislation. The studies estimate the extra spending, over the next decade, at $750 billion, $525 billion, and $114 billion, respectively. The reasoning: greater use of the health-care system by the newly insured would overwhelm cost-saving measures (“bundled payments,” “comparative effectiveness research,” tort reform), which are weak or experimental.”
What this distinguished economist is saying is (1) these people are lying to you, and (2) these people are nuts.

healthcare by $289 billion over the next 10 years, according to an analysis by the chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The CMS report is a blow to the White House and House Democrats who have vowed that healthcare reform would curb the growth of healthcare spending.

“The unshakeable faith that some Americans continue to repose in the federal government is a phenomenon not to be explained by reason.”
If you want to argue about misplaced faith, I don’t see it as reasonable to expect us to put our faith in corporate America when it’s been shown time and again that they can’t be trusted to operate in the public’s best interests. Part of the reason that this healthcare initiative has gotten as far as it has is more and more Americans who are happy with their healthcare, because they have never had to draw serious claims, are hearing true stories of abuse from people who have. Merely the fact that health insurance companies invest millions to figure out ways to drop costly policies should be evidence enough for anybody that they can’t be trusted to protect the sick.

From the CMS report:
“Medicare would be cut by ‘more than one-half trillion dollars ($571 billion), … possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries,’ according to the report, and smaller companies would be ‘inclined to terminate their existing coverage.’”
It doesn’t matter at all to Pelosi, Reid or Obama. This has long since ceased being a debate over anyone’s actual healthcare, and even less a question of costs. It is simply a question of whether they can get a bill passed, and as we have seen, there is no deceit to which they won’t resort to do it.

Posted by: Fascist Hyena | Nov 14, 2009 6:58:47 PM
Re Samuelson, I chuckled at his disclaimer at the end, something to the effect of “of course I could be totally wrong.” I’m paraphrasing.
More interesting to me was David Leonhardt’s article this week “Falling Far Short of Reform” in which he addresses cost and names six big issues to keep an eye on in the coming weeks, as well as Ezra Klein’s interview with John Gruber (a well-respected MIT economist if we’re quoting economists–”In 2006, he received the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for the best health economist in the nation aged 40 and under. He’s unabashedly pro-reform, but he’s from the camp of reformers that worry incessantly about the economics of the plan.”). The interview is called “Does health-care reform do enough on cost control?”

I wonder if Dmitry Medvedev will have his own teleprompter, or will Obama share his?

RobertM – I concur. I too am an American living abroad (Europe). I wish I had a nickel for every conversation I’ve had with local nationals on the stupidity of our President.
They are particularly amused at his speaking manner – he always looks like he’s watching a tennis match, looking left, looking right, never looking center.
They’re also wondering why he hasn’t made a decision since he’s been in office – they’re focusing on their OWN involvement in Afghanistan, and since their OWN leaders are waiting for our “leader” to make a decision, he’s making THEIR leaders look foolish too.
We usually finish the conversation in full agreement – November of 2010 will result in another shift in power in the US, and Obama is finished in 2012. We then laugh, shake hands, and say “If we can make it to 2012…”

Posted by: RobertM | Nov 15, 2009 2:20:27 AM
I find exactly the opposite – people are SO glad Bush and Cheney and the Republicans are gone (they considered them basically cretins and hypocrites) – and very impressed with both Obama and America for electing him.

tierra: No kidding…….he has high numbers over seas…..since they hate America and want it to fail….I wonder why they feel that why??? 3 more years of this president there will be no more America……….Just land of the illegal……legalized….and land of overwelming poverty.

All the jealous conservatives commenting on this site….jealous of the president’s popularity and jealous of how the president is working to solving issues the past president did not tackle.
Good job Obama keep working and fighting….may god keep you in his light.

“The interview is called ‘Does health-care reform do enough on cost control?’”
I know of no economist (except perhaps former Enron advisor Paul Krugman) who believes this measure will control costs at all.
But the important thing to remember is that this issue has long since stopped being about healthcare or costs. It is now simply a matter of “can we get a bill passed?”
Everyone knows now that most of what the Dems and Obama are saying about it is untrue and intended to deceive.

“At this particular moment in history, it seems that the Republicans are far more likely than the Democrats to resist the coming unprecedented intrusions, and so I support them.”
“At this particular moment in history”? Adulthood comes with facing the truth. The Republicans are almost always more likely to resist your so called ‘intrusions’, which we less derisively call reform in the public’s best interests, and fight instead for the interests of big business. And while I’d like to take credit for inventing the term ‘Corporate America’ your claim to be unfamiliar with it plainly shows you would like to obscure this relationship and say government by either party is the same. I’ve seen enough blatant pandering to big business by the Republicans to know otherwise.