Well, almost. It was pretty windy last night, and it appears that it continues to be, now. It was loud enough to wake me up, several times. Didn't help that I woke up multiple times anyway -- I was a little anxious about being up to get my daughter up; normally whichever of us is awake does it, but lately I've been sacking out. That's not an option today, as my wife's away overnight. I could just see telling my daughter that it was late and she had to get up right now. She always takes that so well.
I see where the bloom is starting to come off the rose for Barack's efforts. It appears to be a combination of people truthfully saying that they're not sure that the fiscal stimulus is the way to go, or constructed appropriately (both 'I don't think that's effective' and 'what's in it for me'), as well as Republicans generally being ornery. I am always dismayed when I realize that Republicans tend to be very good at toeing the party line and voting as a bloc, while Democrats tend to prefer thinking and voting for themselves; consequently, Republicans can block efforts even though they're in the minority, but Democrats frequently cannot. I try not to think of Republicans as collectively evil in this regard, but it's tough. I want to think of at least some of them as reasonable, intelligent people of morals, but all it takes is seeing people like Boehner and McConnell to keep me from getting very far down the road with that. I truly believe that they subscribe to Limbaugh's credo that Obama ought to fail. It does help that Barack's personal popularity continues to be high, but we're fickle; if we don't see some improvements soon, that's going to fade. Geithners's performance didn't help.
I started reading Tell Me How This Ends, again. I'm reading it slowly, trying to remember who's who and what's going on. I would be embarassed if anyone saw the notes that I've been writing, as they are very, very simple -- 'Maliki, PM, Shia (majority of country)'. But whatever it takes....
4 comments:
I do not think we will see any real improvements soon no matter what we stimulate or don't stimulate. All Obama can do is stem the flow of blood with this package. He even said he hopes to stop the spiral...not improve the economy. Americans always look for the quick fix, ditto-heads not withstanding.
I don't think that most people expect great things quickly. I do think they'd like a sense that someone knows how to fix this. There's a photoshopped picture of Obama that circulated during the campaign, when he was doing poorly; he is gesturing forcefully, and the added caption was 'Everybody chill the fuck out....I GOT THIS!' That's what we want.
Yes, that would be nice, except he would be lying. No one knows how to fix this.
I agree that no one knows the absolute solution; I didn't mean to imply that he did. I wouldn't trust someone who said they 'knew the answer' either. Thats the kind of 'trust me' statements that a certain prior president would make.
What I meant to say was that we want to feel that someone who can find the solution - either personally, or direct its finding - is in charge.
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