Can we admit that Obama has a really big stick?

[Nova]

Pretty stoked that I don't have to be a full time student in order to keep my health insurance anymore.

[beezlebub]

It is pretty entertaining to watch Nathan take on all comers though. Like Steven Segall and shit.

[zamboni]

hahaha gaytm

[chimp_]

i dont get it does the gaytm dispense homosexuality

[Snatch]

No, his first priority should have been pushing our government even deeper into debt while consuming massive amounts of resources pursuing an even more expensive venture that is generally unpopular with his constituents.

Health care reform is the same as the stimulus, or a climate bill. It sucks, from an government spending/deficit perspective, to do it now, but it's way, way better, also from a government spending/deficit perspective, than the alternative of continuing with the status quo.

He did it now instead of later because it will be impossible politically to do it later.

There's no excuse on the Guantanamo/security stuff, or the oil spill (though I'd argue that your "this guy was supposed to be the anti-Bush" thing is more what you wanted from him than what he said during the campaign) but his health-care instincts were 100% correct.

[sordid affair]

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/how-much-does-the-president-really-matter/

[sordid affair]

i don't buy that the public option was unpopular. in polls it was unpopular when it wasn't explained, then popular when people knew what it meant

[Snatch]

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/how-much-does-the-president-really-matter/

these guys are more interested in being provocative than they are in being right

[KALM]

he doesn't really provide any support for his argument there outside of that one paragraph about the economy. and that only covers the economy.

[sordid affair]

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/how-much-does-the-president-really-matter/

these guys are more interested in being provocative than they are in being right

i definitely agree, but i think that the question about the power of the singular executive is interesting

[sordid affair]

klam, are you referring to the freakonomics thing

[Ted Pikul]

i don't buy that the public option was unpopular. in polls it was unpopular when it wasn't explained, then popular when people knew what it meant

Which Obama failed to realize until too late in the game.

[KALM]

yeah

[sordid affair]

i think the main argument against it is that the president is an enormously important SYMBOL, and that will never change. he (or she) makes very few decisions, but that doesn't really matter

[mcwop23]

i cant wait until half of my case load is cut because people can get basic medications in a few years

[unpredictable landlord]

i dont get it does the gaytm dispense homosexuality

Tapping the GayTM

The concept of drawing donations from an oppressed minority by promising them their rights but not delivering them, all the while asking for ever more money. Named for Pres. Barack Obama's vaporware promises to the gay community during his Election Campaign.

"We have to stop giving money to this car salesman of a president or he'll just keep tapping the GayTM."

[mouse pad]

didn't Obama put down ~$8bil for new high-speed rail? can't wait for that shit.

[chimp_]

i dont get it does the gaytm dispense homosexuality

Tapping the GayTM

The concept of drawing donations from an oppressed minority by promising them their rights but not delivering them, all the while asking for ever more money. Named for Pres. Barack Obama's vaporware promises to the gay community during his Election Campaign.

"We have to stop giving money to this car salesman of a president or he'll just keep tapping the GayTM."

that makes a lot more sense than my idea

[unpredictable landlord]

latino support for obama = GueyTM

[mcwop23]

what I want to know is what the fuck are we going to do about taking education control away from all these fucking states that won't teach evolution/science. I'd argue that education is by far our biggest problem.

[KALM]

well he clearly states what his argument is: "Americans’ widespread belief in the President’s absolute power...is not founded on truth."

this is the only sentence in the entire article that shows any attempt to back up that argument: "As for the economy itself: even though there is debate over the President’s effect on matters affecting people on a daily basis – gas and food prices, interest rates and the housing market – most economists agree that he is more of a cheerleader in this regard than a playmaker."

everything else in there is just restating the argument or hypothesizing about why we might feel inclined to think otherwise o

[mouse pad]

yeah that Texas textbook legislation is really infuriating

[Snatch]

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/how-much-does-the-president-really-matter/

these guys are more interested in being provocative than they are in being right

i definitely agree, but i think that the question about the power of the singular executive is interesting

well i guess i'm just gonna come out and say i think their take here is really flawed

for starters, the CEO/president analogy is iffy. if Widget Co. brings in a new CEO, they're still selling widgets. maybe in a different way, but the end goal is the same. when the presidency switches parties, the federal government's goals shift dramatically. (i guess you could argue that the goal is "to govern," but even that's nebulous w/ the two parties having such differing ideas on the reach of government.)

for second, the president, by all accounts, moves the congressional agenda. take the climate bill. i'm biased on this subject a little bit, but everyone, from my buddies who work on capitol hill to commentators on both sides of the political aisle to everyone i know in the green space, thinks the only chance this thing has of passing is obama really taking the reins, grabbing dems by the balls and saying, "look, we're getting this thing passed." until he does, the bill's going nowhwere. i suppose i'm making the counter-argument as well, that we have a beautiful checks-and-balances system built into the three-branches model, but the most powerful senator there is still a nothing compared to POTUS.

i agree that the president doesn't necessarily have a huge impact on the economy or on day-to-day stuff but when it comes to making big policy decisions i just think he's as powerful as we say he is.

[sordid affair]

what I want to know is what the fuck are we going to do about taking education control away from all these fucking states that won't teach evolution/science. I'd argue that education is by far our biggest problem.

yeah it's huge. do any texas boarders want to weigh in on THIS

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html

edit: mouse pad beat me

[Broncobama]

yeah that Texas textbook legislation is really infuriating

It is, but there's literally nothing that can be done on a federal level.

[texasme]

the corporatism is what kills me

i knew he'd be more moderate than i'd hoped, but his gleeful willingness, or insistence, on letting corporate america do the heavy lifting for his policy goals is detestable and far less than i'd hoped

Are there examples of this beyond the BP thing?

healthcare: even beyond the lack of real support for a public option, the grand bargain made with big pharma in exchange for their support for the bill (even as they worked behind the scenes to undermine it)

banking: lipservice 'support' for the volcker rule with no real push behind it, backing of an extraordinarily pro-wallstreet finref bill during an equally extraordinarily anti-wallstreet moment in public opinion

environment: giving up offshore drilling as a bargaining chip before environmental legislation even reaches the senate

war: even when he does a poseur 'budget spending freeze' that everyone forgot about two weeks after the SOTU, he still wouldn't step up to the plate and work to cut wasteful spending on obsolete and overpriced weapons platforms (granted he cut f-22 spending but the exemption for all defense department spending signalled how disingenuous his promise really was)

i'll support the guy, and i'll vote for him again, and i expected him to be a moderate, but i was not expecting clinton 2.0 - especially with historic majorities in congress

[texasme]

what I want to know is what the fuck are we going to do about taking education control away from all these fucking states that won't teach evolution/science. I'd argue that education is by far our biggest problem.

yeah it's huge. do any texas boarders want to weigh in on THIS

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html

edit: mouse pad beat me

utterly shameful
the gas station attendant called me out on it when i showed him my texas id to buy beer, and i didn't have a good answer for it other than it made me ashamed of the home i loved

[sordid affair]

these guys are more interested in being provocative than they are in being right

i definitely agree, but i think that the question about the power of the singular executive is interesting

well i guess i'm just gonna come out and say i think their take here is really flawed

for starters, the CEO/president analogy is iffy. if Widget Co. brings in a new CEO, they're still selling widgets. maybe in a different way, but the end goal is the same. when the presidency switches parties, the federal government's goals shift dramatically. (i guess you could argue that the goal is "to govern," but even that's nebulous w/ the two parties having such differing ideas on the reach of government.)

for second, the president, by all accounts, moves the congressional agenda. take the climate bill. i'm biased on this subject a little bit, but everyone, from my buddies who work on capitol hill to commentators on both sides of the political aisle to everyone i know in the green space, thinks the only chance this thing has of passing is obama really taking the reins, grabbing dems by the balls and saying, "look, we're getting this thing passed." until he does, the bill's going nowhwere. i suppose i'm making the counter-argument as well, that we have a beautiful checks-and-balances system built into the three-branches model, but the most powerful senator there is still a nothing compared to POTUS.

i agree that the president doesn't necessarily have a huge impact on the economy or on day-to-day stuff but when it comes to making big policy decisions i just think he's as powerful as we say he is.

i agree with most of this, but i still think that's an argument for the power of the executive, not the pres. specifically. maybe there's no meaningful distinction though

[sordid affair]

what I want to know is what the fuck are we going to do about taking education control away from all these fucking states that won't teach evolution/science. I'd argue that education is by far our biggest problem.

yeah it's huge. do any texas boarders want to weigh in on THIS

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html

edit: mouse pad beat me

utterly shameful
the gas station attendant called me out on it when i showed him my texas id to buy beer, and i didn't have a good answer for it other than it made me ashamed of the home i loved

i mean i'm not even a huge jefferson fan, but i am IRRITATED

[mouse pad]

education is tough because everyone wants it to be better but nobody has any really good ideas besides more standardized tests and more strict curriculum, which I'm almost positive do more bad than good

teaching fact instead of fiction would be a good first step though