Thinking Right

By GOPs got to go

October 13, 2008 8:14 AM | Link to this

My advice to McCain is to get that crazy b!tch off the ticket. She is what is sending independents to Obama. I do not give a crap about who “Our Sarah” fired. I do however care a lot about her stance on abortion, gun control, and the environment and her seeming lack of ability to communicate without a script to follow. I have a big problem with her declaring her being on “God’s side”. I mean, that can be interpreted in many ways. Who is to say she is not planning her own little version of Revelations, waiting to be raptured. KEEP* YOURGOD OUT OF *OUR WHITEHOUSE!!!! Benjamin Franklin“Lighthouses are more useful than churches,” Thomas Jefferson: “Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.” John Adams”This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it”

By edward_bernays

October 13, 2008 8:24 AM | Link to this

I agree with your strategy. Today I Obama told a plumber at an event “When you spread the wealth around, everybody wins.”First of, what wealth?” Secondly, I’ve seen with Fannie and Freddie and the abuse of the community reinvestment act what government does in the economy. We can’t survive more of that. As for Ayers, I think if women voters knew his plans for turning public schools into indoctrination camps, and that he thinks Chavez has a fine educational plan, they would have seriously wonder about a candidate whom Ayers tapped to dispense educational reform money in Chicago.

By Jan

October 13, 2008 8:25 AM | Link to this

Forget Ayers. McCain needs to “show me the money”. Trace the route from the CRA to ACORN to Freddie and Fannie. Show the Dems (Maxine W. et al) defending the system. Show the roots of the housing credit crisis.

By Orlando

October 13, 2008 8:26 AM | Link to this

My advise to McCain is to give up all the negative ads. Obama is going to win, so in the long run this will make McCain looks like an old bigot. He has no chance especially with that ol hag on his arm, and Sarah Falin.

By Cherokee

October 13, 2008 8:28 AM | Link to this

My advice to you, Mr. Wooten, is to get your information from someplace other than the WSJ editorial pages.

Obama will cut my taxes; McCain, through his tax on health care benefits, will raise them.

The choice is clear.

By Steven d.

October 13, 2008 8:30 AM | Link to this

I agree with GOP’s got to go, I was going to vote for McCain(and I have never voted for a Republican in my life) until he picked her, stupid move.

By SayNo2McCain

October 13, 2008 8:31 AM | Link to this

MY Advice: Prepare to accept defeat graciously and have a private jet ready to take Sarah back to Alaska, where she belongs.

Also your advice to McCain is a little late, because he has already used little Miss Sarah as his attack dog on Obama. The attacks by Palin is why McCain had to clean up the teams acts on Friday.

I was very proud of Senator McCain when he corrected that little old lady about Obama being an Arab. However, I was disappointed that he didn’t correct her a little furher by letting her know that she does not have to be afraid of Arabs, as well. This whole thing about fearing an entire group of people is just plain hateful and crazy.

By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST

October 13, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this

Article about McCain’s man behind the Obama’s a Moslem lies, Since he hates Jews maybe, maybe Palin should start a OBAMA’S A JEW CAMPAIGN.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/politics/13martin.html?ref=politics

By Peter

October 13, 2008 8:42 AM | Link to this

My advice would be to use Spell Check when you write Jim…….

Be honest for a change Jim……….stop telling the world Sarah Palin is a real choice for VP or President, after McCain mind goes Blank !

By Churchill's Mon

October 13, 2008 8:44 AM | Link to this

Jim you have to do a better job with Ms Palin.. those liberals on the Washington Post gave her 3 paragraphs… I am thinking about giving up on Auburn for the year, is there another college in Georgia other than UGA that has a team?

Alaska’s Family Feud Meddlesome Sarah Palin does not come off well.

IN THE scheme of things — that is to say, in the larger context of a financial meltdown — the special counsel’s report concluding that Sarah Palin engaged in an unethical abuse of power in trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as an Alaska state trooper is a relatively minor event. But the report nonetheless offers a revealing and relevant portrait of the governor. It shows her and her husband pursuing a personal vendetta against the trooper, Mike Wooten, despite repeated warnings that they were impermissibly intruding into internal — and already concluded — disciplinary issues. Likewise, Ms. Palin’s decision to repudiate her earlier pledge to cooperate fully with the inquiry does not offer assurance about how she would conduct herself as vice president. The McCain-Palin campaign’s response to the inquiry has been internally contradictory — simultaneously assailing the investigation as a partisan witch hunt and mischaracterizing as vindication the report’s finding that Ms. Palin was within her rights as governor to remove the commissioner who had refused to act against her former brother-in-law.

The amount of attention that the newly elected governor, her husband and her subordinates — her personnel director, attorney general and chief of staff, among others — devoted to getting Mr. Wooten fired was extraordinary. Within a few weeks of Ms. Palin’s inauguration, her newly installed public safety commissioner, Walter Monegan, was summoned to a meeting with the governor’s husband, Todd Palin, at which the “First Gentleman” pressed Mr. Monegan to reexamine the already concluded disciplinary case against Mr. Wooten. The governor herself called Mr. Monegan, e-mailed him and met with him in person to discuss her unhappiness with Mr. Wooten’s continuation on the force. Equally extraordinary was the Palins’ persistence in the face of warnings that their intervention could run afoul of personnel rules and risked creating precisely the kind of public uproar that ensued.

Ms. Palin’s refusal to cooperate with investigator Stephen Branchflower reflects poorly on her. So, too, does Ms. Palin’s mischaracterization of the report as finding that there was “no unlawful or unethical activity on my part” and “no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired.” In fact, Mr. Branchflower concluded that Ms. Palin “knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired.” It’s unfortunate that Ms. Palin does not understand — or chooses not to acknowledge — the seriousness of the mess she helped create.

By Republicans R Crooks

October 13, 2008 8:45 AM | Link to this

My advice to the Idiot of the AJC: RETIRE, you obsolete,ignorant dinosaur.

By Ms. M.Thomas

October 13, 2008 8:49 AM | Link to this

John McCain is so out of touch. He is reaching for any and everything to bring Obama down. Rehashing Rev. Wright, Ayers and Palin trying to make it seem like if you vote for Obama you vote for abortion. Abortion was made leagal DECADES ago, it has nothing to do with Obama. What did Bush do about abortion the last 8 years he was in the White House? NOTHING! Obama/Biden O8! Enough Said!

By Alvin

October 13, 2008 8:51 AM | Link to this

WHAT IF……

Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?

…..think about it.

Would the country’s collective point of view be different? Could racism be the culprit?

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn’t read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama’s family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama: Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden: University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

Vs

John McCain: United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin: Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study University of Idaho - 2 semesters – journalism Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Education isn’t everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.

By cara

October 13, 2008 8:53 AM | Link to this

My advice to McCain would be to drop Sarah. The people that love her are the racist rednecks of the counrty and it shows. She makes the campaign trail look like a KKK rally.

By GOPs got to go

October 13, 2008 8:55 AM | Link to this

Could Jay please take a picture of you handing him that dollar on Nov 5th? Now talk about a Kodak moment……..

By reader110

October 13, 2008 8:57 AM | Link to this

My advice to McCain - retire. You’re finished. And send Ms. Mooseburger back to Alaska where she belongs - that is, if they’ll have her. If not, perhaps Palin could move to Russia - after all, it’s so close to Alaska it’s almost like another state, right?

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

October 13, 2008 8:59 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. I don’t have serious disagreement with Jim’s core advice, to point out everything wrong with Obama’s constantly shifting proposals, except that the unfocused message will cause the sheep’s eyes to glaze. Unfortunately McCain has shunted Phil Gramm to the sidelines, and he was the only player in either camp with any measurable economic literacy.

(1) Since President Bush has destroyed al Qaeda, nobody cares about the victory over terrorism. Or if they care, they mostly answer, “yes, but what have you done for me lately.” War against evil people is the Republican strong point, but victory obviates the need for further effort.

Quote of the Day, by Martti Ahtisaari: In the early 1990s, he ran the U.N. mission to Iraq after the first Gulf War, watching Saddam Hussein’s repression up close. Twelve years of frustrated diplomacy later, and against the grain of conventional European opinion, Mr. Ahtisaari found himself defending the U.S. invasion, the absence of a nuclear or biological weapons program notwithstanding. “Since I know that about a million people have been killed by the government of Iraq, I do not need much those weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

(2) Magna Sarah may be the one to tackle the gravely-flawed democrat economic plan; I think that is beyond Captain Queeg’s capacity. She should do so (a) by tying Obama’s Marxism to his convoluted plan to complicate the tax code, and (b) by laying out the case against the democrats on FNMA and FHLMC. The democrat corruption on FNMA and FHLMC are the core causes of that element of the current financial panic, and she should have no reservation about saying so. Why France is in, and will remain in, worse shape than the US, is found in this revealing quote by Nicolas Sarkozy: “Le laisser-faire, c’est fini.” Sarah is thus capable of distinguishing American republicans from internationalists.

James Freeman tells a funny story: “Yes, we have a verdict on the winner of the vice presidential debate. Clint Eastwood was speaking at an event hosted by New Yorker magazine. Needless to say, lots of Obama fans in the crowd. And Clint said that it was clear one of the candidates was more truthful. Well, apparently, the crowd thought he was clearly referring to Biden and started cheering. And then he said, “She was great.” Silence descended on the room, apparently, according to the New York Post” report. But I think it’s clear, Clint has rendered his verdict, and doggone it, she was excellent.”

(3) Captain Queeg needs to talk about the future, and energy is the place. More nukes, more drilling, forget about inflating tires. That is a message simple enough that he can carry it, and happily it ties to his beliefs. Always talk about what you know and believe, and that is his winning message.

By Republicans R Crooks

October 13, 2008 9:00 AM | Link to this

Trailer Trash Sarah would park a double wide trailer with a fancy foldout on the wh lawn…and include a pora-a-potty fer the outhouse experience….Send her to a prison in Alaska, fer life….

By Ga Values

October 13, 2008 9:02 AM | Link to this

It’s that time of they year again, time for NPR to ask for your money. Here in Atlanta we are blessed with WABE & for the last 5 years I help them with pledges. Wednsday Oct. 15 afternoon is my time this fall, please call & give generously. Yes, Captine Freedom, Wabe will take your used gold, diamonds & surplus BMW’s.

By Peter

October 13, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this

Where is by AmVET TODAY……..

I am wondering if he heard Clark Howard saying this was a wonderful time to buy stocks for young folks………….. and those who are putting stocks in their retirement accounts ?

By Adam Savage

October 13, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this

I would explain that any “tax relief,” given to middle and working class people will be a wash, or a net loss. Tax hikes on business with be paid by those middle and working class people, as business passes their tax hike on to consumers.

Listen, here’s why I’m voting for McCain: He has an old-fashioned stateman’s deep belief in service for the public good. I believe Obama is a Hollywood sequel, “Slick Willie 2.” Second, I believe McCain will really use the bully pulpit of the presidency to drive U.S. leadership in development, manufacturing and selling of alternative energy options, securing our economic future for generations.

By deegee

October 13, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this

Let Sarah Palin, the self-proclaimed pit bull smear Obama and rally the base. While the electoral map is turning from red to purple to blue, McChange is most likely thinking past November and pondering his political legacy. At his age, how much is he going to accomplish in government going forward? Does he really want to be remembered as the loser of the nastiest, mud-slinging political campaign in modern history? Is that going to be his legacy? What does Sarah Palin have to lose? Not much.

By zeke

October 13, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this

I agree. Let Palin be the one who goes after Obama’s socialist liberal anti USA issues. McCain can destroy Obama if he can present the falacies of Obama’s tax lies and other socialist proposals! Problem is, like I believe Thomas Jefferson and before him an English official in the 1400’ or 1500’s said, “When the populace figures out it can vote themselves more and more from the government, they will vote for those promising the government dole”. WE HAVE REACHED THAT POINT, AND, IF NOT CORRECTED BY DECIDING WHO CAN VOTE ON WHAT ISSUES WITHOUT THEIR HANDS OUT, THE COUNTRY AS KNOWN WILL BE LOST! AND, THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO VOTE! READ IT!

By Ga Values

October 13, 2008 9:09 AM | Link to this

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/paulkrugman/index.html?inline=nyt-per

By Frost

October 13, 2008 9:12 AM | Link to this

My advice to McCain is to let Governor Palin take on Obama on the character issues.

She does not have character herself, seeing as we did that she is ethically challenged.DICK CHENEY will certainly look like Father Christams in comparison if she were to make it to the White House.

By Ga Values

October 13, 2008 9:13 AM | Link to this

Paul Krugman who writes for the NYT & teaches where I got my degree in Economics, just got a Nobel Prize. Good for him I thing he is a world class mind & apparently I’m not alone. Here’s a link to his this morning colume..

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/opinion/13krugman.html?ref=opinion

By Frost

October 13, 2008 9:15 AM | Link to this

John McCain starts the new week down in the polls an understatement ofcourse. He has been trailing for a month!!

Ur article is unusually short today.The writing is on the wall.Im glad u see that!!!!!

By GOPs got to go

October 13, 2008 9:16 AM | Link to this

I believe McCain will die in office and “Our Sarah” will start shooting any nay-sayers from a helicopter.

By deegee

October 13, 2008 9:19 AM | Link to this

And it is ironic that McChange found himself on the defense after a couple of town hall meetings. These meetings were supposed to be his strong suit. All it takes is a couple of his riled up followers to ask a couple of questions to throw his campaign off message. It doesn’t take long for the straight talk express to come off the tracks after Palin whips their base up into a frenzy.

By pj

October 13, 2008 9:24 AM | Link to this

I did not read all the posts, but I agree with the ones that I did read that think Palin is the deal killer. I was on the fence. The truth is that Obama could, indeed, have a little more experience. But Palin’s politics are outside of the mainstream. In fact, as a woman with a brain, I am offended by her “cutsey” way of getting around answering serious questions. I also find her race baiting on the campaign trail to be profoundly offensive. Finally, the thing that frightens me most is that, if elected, this woman, who appears to shun logical thought in favor of some type of folksy, home-spun showcasing, would be one heartbeat away from being in charge of it all. I cannot honestly, even in my worst nightmares, believe that this is what anyone TRULY wants.

By DJ

October 13, 2008 9:25 AM | Link to this

Jim - why don’t you just give McSame the advice you follow yourself: grossly simplify and distort everything to favor the right wing agenda, downplay the complete failure of the republican party to have a domestic agenda beyond protecting fetuses and school text book publishers, and care only about 51% of America. That’s the kind of leadership we need, and that’s the kind we’d get if America listens to you or John McSame.

By Republicans R Crooks

October 13, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this

NEWS FLASH: Ragnar Danneskjöld IS THE NEW FAKE ID OF THE FORMER CLOWN CALL JMBLAW….PASS IT ON.

By AmVet

October 13, 2008 9:34 AM | Link to this

My advice to McCain is to let Governor Palin take on Obama on the character issues.

That’s my advice. What’s yours?

That yellow journalists and faux conservatives should not “advise” him on ANYTHING.

He’s dead because you BushCo loyalists never wanted him to win the nomination in the first place. And then idly watched and tacitly supported the current administration’s approval ratings descending into the unfathomable range.

At least 75% of all Americans now disapprove of the Republicans, their failed administration, their repudiated ideology and their putrid efforts at effective governance.

And you loons think there is no connection?

You killed him, now go bury him…

Peter, good to see you again.

Re: our conversation from last week - I simply felt that buying any stocks, even with the intention of long term holding - was exceptionally risky.

And those stocks all took a horrific beating after the advice you received (and shared) to buy. They may rebound all the way back in the short term future, but that too seems unlikely.

The historical 8% benchmark for returns seems like it will be on hiatus for awhile. Have we hit the bottom yet? Who knows? But it seems that if there are ANY incidents worldwide, such as attacks, natural disasters, etc… these convulsions will continue.

In terms of dollar cost averaging, yes now is a good time to keep buying. But trying to load up on bargains is IMHO dangerous.

But I’m no professional trader, not a broker and certainly no economist!

Good day everyone - off to pay for the bailout…

By Copyleft

October 13, 2008 9:37 AM | Link to this

Laissez-faire is dead. Too bad it did so much damage on the way down, but at least we can safely ignore it as a proven failure from this point forward.

As for McLame: Why give advice to a sacrificial candidate?

By A Realist

October 13, 2008 9:38 AM | Link to this

My advice to McCain: give up.

By Shrugging Atlas

October 13, 2008 9:39 AM | Link to this

Jim, you have shown your true colors once again. You don’t want to actually talk about the issues, and you don’t want your candidate to talk about the issues. Your adivice is for the McSame ticket to talk about what’s wrong with Obama’s plans, and who he “associated” with in the past. This would have been your chance to step up and tell your candidate to talk about how good his own plans are. But he can’t, and you don’t want him to because you know his plans are worthless.

By Dusty

October 13, 2008 9:54 AM | Link to this

Jim Wooten, obviously you have upset the livid liberals as usual. They cannot stand the idea of their lord-come-lately losing. But you did ask for our opinions.

McCain should go (as the WSJ has done) and continually point out that “tax switches” are not tax cuts. He might also remind folks how “well” a Congress run by Democrats would be for a second time with a Democratic President and his aversion not only to real tax cuts but his veiled aversion to the military.

There is NO way I can picture Obama protecting America. I think terrorists would have the same feelings and “reve” up. In no time, Americans would be reminded how they were once protected by the good sense of George W. Bush.

Let Sarah Palin take care of the bad character traits of Obama. He has displayed them ever since he entered higher education. I don’t know whether he was influenced in a muslim grade school but he certainly was not an “all-American boy”( an American expression, not racism) in advanced education. Even later, his companions and his actions run contrary to most Americans. His wife has already expressed her feelings that she had finally found “one good thing in America”. I do not think it was Obama. Let Sarah Palin explain once more what it means to love America.

McCain is our hope in this debacle. There is the only one way I can define an American president like Obama: Disaster!!

By CommunistAJC

October 13, 2008 9:55 AM | Link to this

Investors’ Real Fear: A Socialist Tsunami

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, October 10, 2008 4:20 PM PT

The Crash: “Why has the market dropped so much?” everyone asks. What is it about the specter of our first socialist president and the end of capitalism as we know it that they don’t understand?

The freeze-up of the financial system — and government’s seeming inability to thaw it out — are a main concern, no doubt. But more people are also starting to look across the valley, as they say, at what’s in store once this crisis passes.

And right now it looks like the U.S., which built the mightiest, most prosperous economy the world has ever known, is about to turn its back on the free-enterprise system that made it all possible.

It isn’t only that the most anti-capitalist politician ever nominated by a major party is favored to take the White House. It’s that he’ll also have a filibuster-proof Congress led by politicians who are almost as liberal.

Throw in a media establishment dedicated to the implementation of a liberal agenda, and the smothering of dissent wherever it arises, and it’s no wonder panic has set in.

What is that agenda? It starts with a tax system right out of Marx: A massive redistribution of income — from each according to his ability, to each according to his need — all in the name of “neighborliness,” “patriotism,” “fairness” and “justice.”

It continues with a call for a new world order that turns its back on free trade, has no problem with government controlling the means of production, imposes global taxes to support continents where our interests are negligible, signs on to climate treaties that will sap billions more in U.S. productivity and wealth, and institutes an authoritarian health care system that will strip Americans’ freedoms and run up costs.

All the while, it ensures that nothing — absolutely nothing — will be done to secure a sufficient, terror-proof supply of our economic lifeblood — oil — a resource we’ll need much more of in the years ahead.

The businesses that create jobs and generate wealth are already discounting the future based on what they know about Obama’s plans to raise income, capital gains, dividend and payroll taxes, and his various other economy-crippling policies. Which helps explain why world stock markets have been so topsy-turvy.

But don’t take our word for it. One hundred economists, five Nobel winners among them, have signed a letter noting just that:

“The prospect of such tax-rate increases in 2010 is already a drag on the economy,” they wrote, noting that the potential of higher taxes in the next year or two is reducing hiring and investment.

It was “misguided tax hikes and protectionism, enacted when the U.S. economy was weak in the early 1930s,” the economists remind us, that “greatly increased the severity of the Great Depression.”

We can’t afford to repeat these grave errors.

Yet much of the electorate is determined to vote for the candidate most likely to make them. If he wins, what we consider to be a crisis in today’s economy will be a routine affair in tomorrow’s.

By Lauren

October 13, 2008 9:58 AM | Link to this

My advice to McCain: Give up and go home. Jeez, can’t you see when you are beat? My other advice, get ready to receive a buttwhipping.

By DJ

October 13, 2008 10:03 AM | Link to this

Wooten is a right-wing a##-kissing sycophant (and ideologue) - of course he would think that is exactly how John McSame should play it.

How novel - a yellow journalist suggesting that a politician run on character assassination instead of discussing the issues. So much for the “lib-a-rule media” Jimmy boy.

When will you right-wing apologists admit that the overwhelming evidence, in the press, in the polls, in the actions of the people, is saying that after 28 years, we are tired of the same one-note policies pushed by a narrow spectrum of republican ideologues (who don’t even represent the majority of the republican party, much less america) and we want something different. the republicans have been offering the exact same thing for 28 years and this year is no different.

America is saying “no thanks” but “the base” is just oblivious. You are going to get your heads handed to you on election day and you’ll spend the next four years alternating between making excuses for why McLame LOST and doing everything you possibly can to paralyze the Obama administration. Real F’n patriots you all are. Real Americans.

I can’t wait for Obama’s first supreme court nomination chance. Hey Wooten and all you right-wing knuckle-draggers: it’s pronounced “NEW-clear Option”, not “Nuk-U-ler Option”. How do you spell p-a-y-b-a-c-k? And that goes for your little lap-dog Joe Liberman, too. Hey Joe - you can kiss your committee power goodbye. You might as well just come out of that little closet you are hiding in and admit to the world that you are one of the republickers. Or are you ashamed?

By Dusty

October 13, 2008 10:04 AM | Link to this

If anyone does not believe that Democrat Obama would be a disaster, should read the liberal posts here today. Everything from pure hate to scatological comments to plain old distaste for anyone expressing love of country. Obama types???

Yeah, go for it, libs. Show your true colors. Better to show them now for rejection than let Obama run this country like an indoctrination camp for socialism.

By McBush

October 13, 2008 10:10 AM | Link to this

McCain makes a racist remark!

“We’re going to spend a lot of time and after I whip his you-know-what in this debate, we’re going to be going out 24/7,” McCain said of Democratic rival Barack Obama.

That’s obviously a racist remark to the day when African slaves were whipped.

By Lauren

October 13, 2008 10:11 AM | Link to this

Dusty, no one agrees with you except the other kool-aid drinkers. You know, the same people who told us that W was a great choice. You all have lost all your credibility. You know nothing about what is the right thing to do. Face it, Obama will win mostly because the Republicans have totally screwed up and are being soundly rejected. If you don’t want to accept that then fine, but that is the way lots of elections go. People not only vote FOR someone they also vote AGAINST someone. All you hateful righties can do is scream “socialism” and say we don’t love our country like you do. Blow it out your a$$!

By Al Brazzier

October 13, 2008 10:14 AM | Link to this

My advise to McCain at this point would be to quickly change his name to……… Mohammed Hussein McCain. He must also announce his intent on implementing Sharia Law to a Nation that wants to keep God out of Congress. I hope that I have your attention.

By steve-o

October 13, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this

You all keep saying Obama will be a disaster. Lauren is right you are the same people who told us Bush would be great. Why should we listen to you! There is no way Obama can do worse than Bush. No way!

By Republicans R Crooks

October 13, 2008 10:16 AM | Link to this

We are going to wipe republicans from the face of washington dc on 11/4/2008….Landslide for president, the house, and the senate in favor of the democrats…..THEN WE SHOULD BEGIN OPERATION PAY BACK AGAINST OUR FORMER RULERS….Put them all in prison….forever….

By Ga Values

October 13, 2008 10:18 AM | Link to this

Good read for us old Business types who like the facts..

Economic View Got $700 Billion? Sweat the Details

By ALAN S. BLINDER Published: October 11, 2008 THE House of Representatives was against the bailout bill before it was for it. But now it’s the law of the land, and the hard part begins: putting this $700 billion plan into effect under legislative guidelines that are, shall we say, vague. Never has that cliché “the devil is in the details” been more appropriate. The bill that Congress passed was a huge improvement over the embarrassing two-and-a-half-page document that Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, originally submitted. Mr. Paulson requested basically unlimited power with minimal oversight, little accountability and no judicial review.

The law that Congress passed grants him huge authority by, for example, giving only sparse and general guidelines on how the $700 billion is to be used. But it layers on so much oversight and accountability — and, of course, judicial review — that Mr. Paulson’s successor will probably rue the day he inherits the authority.

Even so, the “details” in which “the devil” lurks are many and consequential. I’ll focus on just three.

WHICH ASSETS? The most basic issue is, what kinds of assets should Treasury buy? By law, the government must concentrate on “mortgages and any securities, obligations or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages.” But the secretary is also authorized to buy “any other instrument” that he and the Federal Reserve chairman decide “is necessary to promote financial market stability.” That encompasses almost anything. But to simplify a much more complicated reality, the plan includes these broad choices for what the government can buy:

•

Whole mortgages and pools of mortgages — the idea being to refinance them into new mortgages that homeowners can afford, thus stemming the tide of foreclosures and consequent fire sales of homes. This is a strategy that I have long favored.

•

Mortgage-backed securities and their variants — the idea being to breathe some life into moribund markets that are now dragging down financial institutions. This is the strategy on which Mr. Paulson is widely expected to concentrate. Perhaps for that reason, Congress explicitly instructed him to devote some money — it does not say how much — to the first strategy.

•

Equity stakes in ailing banks and other financial businesses — the idea being that many of these institutions need to be recapitalized before they can resume regular lending. This strategy seems to have emerged recently as the favorite of the financier George Soros and the Nobel laureate economists Edmund S. Phelps and Joseph E. Stiglitz, among others. The new law does not explicitly authorize injecting new capital into banks, but it certainly allows it.

These three strategies are not mutually exclusive and, in the end, Treasury will probably do some of each. But how the $700 billion is apportioned matters greatly. My own favorite remains the first. (Disclosure: I have an investment in a fund that would probably profit most from the second approach.)

AT WHAT PRICES? A second critical question is how much Treasury should pay for what it buys. The rescue plan’s operations will not be like buying stocks or bonds of publicly traded companies at observable market prices. Put simply, Treasury has two basic choices.

The first, which I have long favored, is to buy “at market,” or rather as close to market as possible, given that many markets are now dysfunctional. Doing so is the best way to protect taxpayers against loss or chicanery, to avoid favoritism and conflicts of interest, and to render moot the many questions — often highly political — that arise whenever the government starts bestowing gifts on favored sellers. After all, if the government buys assets only at market prices, there are no gifts to bestow.

But buying at market does have two drawbacks. First, it may be applicable only to assets that can be bought at auction — which is how the prices would be determined. Second, it does not directly infuse any new capital into banks. However, if purchases of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities catalyze the restoration of normal markets, banks will reap large indirect benefits.

The other approach is to buy “above market,” which is a backdoor way of recapitalizing banks. To the extent the government follows this route, the names of the sellers become crucial. It is impossible to infuse capital “equally” into every needy financial institution; no one even knows what that means. If the government buys assets at above-market prices, it will have to make numerous decisions about which institutions receive gifts and which do not. Even a saint would have a hard time doing that “right.” And there appears to be an acute shortage of saints in our financial markets.

MINIMIZING CONFLICTS OF INTEREST Which brings me to the third big issue: conflicts of interest. Starting from scratch, Treasury must buy, manage and ultimately sell up to $700 billion worth of diverse and complex assets. That’s a larger balance sheet than Lehman Brothers had when it folded, and almost as large as the Federal Reserve had when the crisis started. Because Treasury lacks the staff resources to do the job, it must outsource most of the work to private companies.

Perhaps you’ve noticed how well the Bush administration has outsourced other government functions. But even if Mr. Paulson is the most trustworthy person ever to work for George W. Bush, he faces an insoluble problem: to acquire the necessary expertise, he will have to hire companies with extensive experience in and knowledge of mortgage-related assets.

Now swallow hard and imagine that all these companies and people are 100 percent honest and public-spirited. It is nonetheless true that virtually every one of them has a vested interest in which assets are bought and sold, at what prices, and so on. Conflicts are unavoidable if Treasury hires from “the industry.” But from where else can the expertise come? So we all need to watch the conflict-of-interest policies that Treasury promulgates and follows.

THIS brings me back to the second question. The more the government strays from the sanctuary of buying at market prices, the deeper and more extensive the potential conflicts of interest become.

I’ve already conceded that these purchases cannot be limited to plain-vanilla, auctionable assets. So perfection is unattainable. But as much as humanly possible, the government should buy at fair market prices, for the devil surely lurks in that little “detail.”

Alan S. Blinder is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve. He has advised many Democratic politicians

By hillbilly ragger

October 13, 2008 10:18 AM | Link to this

Right, Jim. I’m gonna listen to the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, the one that famously declared those too poor to pay income taxes “Lucky Duckies.”

These guys play it right down the middle!

By Republicans R Crooks

October 13, 2008 10:20 AM | Link to this

Dusty confuses love of country with love of republicans. No one loves republicans, not even their own spouses and children. Did you know that Republicans are replacing lab rats as experimental animals? There are three reasons for this: 1) Republicans are cheaper than lab rats, 2) There are some things even a rat will not do, and my favorite 3) the lab techs do not become emotionally attached to Republicans the way they do with lab rats.

By JD

October 13, 2008 10:20 AM | Link to this

An Ohio resident is prepared to testify ACORN registered him to vote a modest 72 times.

ACORN’s defense?

The man is a liar. He only registered 18 times.

And ACORN only registered him 15 times.

Ingenious! ACORN claims to only be 20% of the crook the man has said.

That then is not evidence of voter fraud according to ACORN.

Obama must be so proud!

By CommunistAJC

October 13, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this

steve-o, We were right. Bush is 100% better than John F Kerry. Next!

By Cherokee

October 13, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this

Alvin @ 8:51. Brilliant.

Dusty says: “they were once protected by the good sense of George W. Bush”

I realize there’s no chance for intelligent discussion with you Dusty, but do you remember when 9-11 occurred? As I recall it was on Dubya’s watch, after he ignored the Daily Briefing titled “bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US.”

Yeah, he did a wonderful job of protecting us….

By Dusty

October 13, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this

McBush, @10:10

YOU have made a discriminatory remark about a candidate for the presidency of the USA. You should be assailed for making false statements, using poor judgment and inciting racism. Or should I say, acting like a liberal?

By Thinking Correctly

October 13, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this

Jim - and first let me preface I hope this doesn’t hurt your feelings, after your recent column about how democrats post remarks on your blog that actually question your conclusions (their nerve!) - but, since you asked, my advice to you would be to keep giving Republicans advice (and I really hope they’ll listen). This will ensure Democrats remain in power for years to come.

By CommunistAJC

October 13, 2008 10:23 AM | Link to this

Lauren, Um, I hate to break your wittle heart but we’re not the idiots drinking the Savior Obama Hussien kool aid like you are. Go sell stupid somewhere else.

By Lauren

October 13, 2008 10:24 AM | Link to this

You folks who use this blog to cut and paste lenghtly articals are blowhards and bores. Give us a break!

By CommunistAJC

October 13, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this

Republicans R Crooks, I’d love to see you come to my house and try to put me in jail because I voted for someone whom you don’t like. I have three numbers for you. 3-5-7.

By CommunistAJC

October 13, 2008 10:31 AM | Link to this

Lauren, Those articles were meant for people who can actually read. Now go back to your coloring books and let the grownups chat. Give us a break!

By Dusty

October 13, 2008 10:31 AM | Link to this

Dear Lauren and other Obama indoctrinates,

I had rather drink KoolAid than Poison Punch offered by liberals. Obviously you have already been brain washed. Just here from Venezuela?

By Keeping It Real

October 13, 2008 10:34 AM | Link to this

Alvin,

Great post. If Obama had McCain’s rap sheet, he would be behind by 20 points. It says it all with no further need for comment.Have a good day.

By Lauren

October 13, 2008 10:35 AM | Link to this

JD & CommunistAJC, you can call me stupid, ignorant and slutty (what that has to do with this I don’t know. Oh yes I am a woman and that is the best you can do) but the fact remains Obama is going to win and McCain is going to lose. Let me put that another way, your party sucks A$$ and is being fired! Let me rephrase that- if I am ignorant then you are idiotic because at least I can see the handwriting on the wall. You two are reacting like a couple of sexually retarded buttholes. McCain is going to loose mothers!! HaHaHa! Losers. Suck on that!

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 13, 2008 10:35 AM | Link to this

My Advice for McCain?

Admit defeat, pack up head back to AZ and attempt to redeem what’s left of your reputation.

By Lauren

October 13, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this

You Republicans are so pathetic! Everyone who disagrees with you is stupid and hates America! Really? No wonder you are losing.

By Dusty

October 13, 2008 10:41 AM | Link to this

Cherokee 10:21

George W. Bush had been president in a little less time than it takes to produce a tiny baby. He took over a slashed military from President Clinton (D). He took over a flawed CIA and FBI. He worked with what he had and kept us safe.

Go ahead and be an Bush-hate ingrate. You don’t deserve what you got but you got it anyway. NOW you want to give it away.

Well, you will not give away my freedom without a fight to keep it. McCain/Palin 2008.

By getalife

October 13, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this

I advise him to retire after he loses.

By AmVet

October 13, 2008 10:43 AM | Link to this

You all keep saying Obama will be a disaster. Lauren is right you are the same people who told us Bush would be great. Why should we listen to you! There is no way Obama can do worse than Bush. No way!

steve-o, though, I agree that it is pretty hard to imagine a president Obama doing a worse job than GWB, anything is possible.

But Lauren’s point is undeniable.

Anyone can make a mistake. We all do.

But in the face of overwhelming evidence, these Bush apologists and enablers lacked the courage to come clean about the over riding and long standing duplicity and ineptitude of this administration and their fatally flawed ideology.

And they continue to try and cloak these failures with meaningless demagoguery with terms such as “conservative”.

I said years ago they are, in many ways, OBVIOUSLY the very antithesis of American conservatism. But yet they persist in trying to delude people, though mainly themselves anymore, that they have any claim to this word.

And they have irrefutably put, in most American’s minds, grave doubt as to their ability to size up competence and integrity.

And the American people recognize this. And will hold them fundamentally responsible for being a bunch of Nero’s fiddling while Rome burned. (though that is a myth, as the violin wasn’t invented for another thousand years.)

But we all get the point…

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

October 13, 2008 10:43 AM | Link to this

Dear Alvin @ 8:51, I hate to interrupt a good whine, and this spam is previously posted on this blog, but if Chauncey were a conservative instead of a Marxist, he would be ahead by 25 points. Racism is not the problem, Marxism is.

Dear GA Values @ 9:02, I would urge you to consider WCLV online. Great music, no NPR - and a commercial station, no begging for money. I think it is the best classical station in the country, with WDAV a close second. Re: Krugman, perhaps now Obama and the leftists will abandon the silly NAFTA “renegotiation” stuff. I have to admit, I was unaware of Krugman’s work in trade theory – I simply associated him with Enron. Not fair to him I suppose.

Dear Dusty @ 10:04, maybe it is a genetic thing – our leftists seem to be motivated by hatred, just oozes out. We used to have a few thoughtful leftists here – Southern Democrat and Shar come to mind quickly. I suspect they are embarrassed by the recent representation of their ideology on the blog.

Dear Lauren the moonbat @ 10:11, “You all have lost all your credibility” - you need to appreciate that the cult worship thing is exclusive to leftists. Conservatives do not care about “credibility,” but only the quality of the argument. Yours is deficient.

By Dusty

October 13, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this

Mrs. Godzilla,@10:35

My advice to you: Go back to being IN THE NEWS and use other people’s ideas. Maybe then you can rid yourself of the reputation you have acquired.

By charles corley

October 13, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this

Goooooood morning/ my advice to john would be to come clean and tell us if he was trying to get out of the navy when he was shot down because the enemy had started shooting back and why didn’t his father meet him when he returned fron vietnam and why his father later committed suicide.

By Cornbread Fred

October 13, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this

Good morning, Jim! You are a stink-stirrer, kind of like the old Wally George show. Wally made right-wingers look ridiculous, just like Clinton did for the lefties. Isn’t this fun, getting the lefties and righties at each others’ throats as America’s enemies laugh? On this blog I see liberals and conservatives use the very same methods: name-calling, card-stacking, demonizing the other side, insisting on a binary choice, glittering generalities, all right out of the textbooks on propaganda usage. One side looks no better to me than the other. For shame!

By Bella

October 13, 2008 10:47 AM | Link to this

Lauren, you are NASTY. Put a lid on it, pullleeeassseee!!!!!

By AmVet

October 13, 2008 10:48 AM | Link to this

Dusty, I think there is a lodge in Idaho that is looking for you.

Or maybe a compound in Waco.

By Ricecakes

October 13, 2008 10:48 AM | Link to this

WOW, ALVIN! Your posting is AWESOME and on point.

By Haha!

October 13, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this

It seems that many of the Republican comments on this board are racists. Read the subtext! How can you live with yourselves.

I forget, God gives us the right to be ignorant, hateful, and prejudice.

Do you fear all Muslims? Or fear what you can never understand?

By GA4OBAMA

October 13, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this

how can mccain promise all these tax cuts, fund a war in iraq and afghanistan, and balance the budget (which he has promised to do his first term)? sounds like a bush 41 repeat me to me “read my lips, no new taxes”. but once bush 41 was in offices taxes were raised. and don’t say by getting rid of earmarks (which can’t be done because they are actually necessary) because earmarks don’t make up enough of the budget.

By Lauren

October 13, 2008 10:51 AM | Link to this

If I misspelled anything I am sure it was a type-o. But I can see why I simpleton like you thinks a type-o means a person is stupid. Afterall you think Bush is a good man simplly because he says he loves Jesus and you think Obama is a bad man because his middle name is Hussein. You Republicans can feel proud of yourselves if you like but the rest of the country HATES you. You need to understand that. We fricking hate you. If you don’t believe me now then you will when you wake up in the morning on Nov.5th. The only arguments you have is to call me slutty and stupid. That’s it. That is the beginning and end of your argument. Bravo! Very compelling. Tell me another and make sure you get Communist and Marxist in there again. Because it is so convincing. Tell me this, if McCain is so great and your arguments so wise then why is McCain losing? And give me a real answer. I dare you.

By MikeB

October 13, 2008 10:52 AM | Link to this

Funny Jim- I did not know Obama’s brainwashing of the gulible, idealistic left, included unleashing a torrent of snide “we are gonna win, so get used to it” posts on these blogs.

McCain is within the Margin of error in the polls which means its alot closer thean the Democratic party and their wingnut bloggers would like you too believe (Drown me out with your sensless posts libs..But its true)

Secondly If you get your news from a variety of sources, you will see that The news out of Illinois is not good for Obama. His developer pal(and now a resident of the IL Dept. of Correction) is starting to sing…….. **Tony Rezko is outling the relationships that are the

The Chicago Machine Tony Rezko now is talking about the Giannoulias brothers and Broadway Bank….. A bank owned by the brothers that verified and validated $450k in bad checks Rezko wrote in Las Vegas knowing they were bogus.

A bank that holds or has held the money you dopes donate to Obamas campaign.

A bank run by close personal friend of Obama,* Alexi Giannoulias*-

-Giannoulias was promoted by Obama to run for state treasurer of Illinois, while every other politico ran the other way. (They knew he was dirty)

-Giannoulias was Broadway Bank’s vice president and chief loan officer under whose watch more than $15 million in loans was approved. Some of these loans went to Michael “Jaws” Giorango, a Chicagoan with deep ties to organized crime twice convicted of bookmaking and running a nationwide prostitution ring.

Dimitri Giannoulias Was pushed by Tony Rezko to be appointed to the IL Finance Authority. he also serves on the BOD of Crossroad Funds whose intersts include community organizing and economic development in low-income communities. Not abad thing on its own, but when the benefactor of the funds philanthropy is ACORN…… TROUBLE.

So let the libs drown that….. Once the regular media gets wind, they will not be able to ignore it any longer.

I say handle three things tomorrow night.

Economy- connecting the dots to Clinton Fannie and Freddie, taxes & small business pain and the above

Do this and its * McCain/ Palin 2008*

By AmVet

October 13, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this

On Wednesday October 15 at 6 p.m., Ralph Nader is holding a rally at Cooper Union.

Then the next day, Thursday October 16 at noon, he’ll be protesting on Wall Street.

At those events, Nader and Gonzalez will be calling for an end to the bailout of Wall Street’s crooks.

They will be calling for jail time for corporate crime.

And they will demand that Wall Street be forced to pay for this mess through a securities speculation tax — starting with a tax on derivatives.

Check out the details at votenader.org/nyc.

And love him or hate him you gotta admire his sense of humor!

He’ll have a giant inflatable pig — to represent Wall Street’s sustained orgy of excess and reckless behavior.

And a giant inflatable screw — to represent what the bailout means for the taxpayer.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

October 13, 2008 10:54 AM | Link to this

Dear GA Values @ 10:18, I still think the jbmlaw solution was better – govt guarantee short-term interbank loans, or otherwise participate more actively in the overnight Fed funds market. The lack of trust among banks is the entire reason the value of the mortgage pools has gone to $0. Buying at market, of course, only guarantees the loss at the lowest possible value; no bank will sell, thus the liquidity seizure will persist due to lack of participation.

The way to free up the liquidity is (1) abolish the mark-to-market rule, now accomplished, and (2) facilitate interbank lending. The $700 billion Rube Goldberg legislation neither addresses the cause of the problem, nor as reflected in the article, does anything to cure it.

By PJ

October 13, 2008 10:54 AM | Link to this

McCain clearly needs all of the advice he can get but at this point it’s irrelevant. He IS his own man which mean, he listens to no one—including voters, paid advisers, his wife, his mistresses, his kids. No one. So, advise away Republicans. Johnny’s got his own kooky, er, rock solid, plans.

By GA4MCCAIN

October 13, 2008 10:55 AM | Link to this

how can obama promise all these tax cuts, fund a war in iraq and afghanistan, and balance the budget (which he has promised to do his first term)?

By Robert

October 13, 2008 10:59 AM | Link to this

McCain’s inept campaign isn’t the problem. The Senator’s selection of Sarah Palin is what has driven many independent, and some Republican, voters toward Obama. As a Democrat, I was willing to consider voting for McCain until he chose someone so woefully ill-prepared for the Vice Presidency. My family members, who are more of the GOP persuasion, have indicated that they fear Palin would become President and we would really but up the creek then. Therefore, they are voting for Obama. Putting aside what the selection of Governor Palin says about Senator McCain’s readiness for the hard decisions a President will be forced to make, at a root level, many people, particularly those outside the GOP base, are extremely uncomfortable with Sarah Palin being sworn in to office as Vice President. As far as advice for McCain on what to do about this problem, the only solution is to drop Palin from the ticket, but that isn’t going to happen so Obama is going to become the next President. There is no solution for McCain, but this should serve as an example to future candidates to put their country first when making their selection of running mate, instead of gambling the nation’s future on a gimmick.

By Dusty

October 13, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this

AmVet,10:43

Sorry but there was no mistake with George W. Bush.

If you want to forget all the important things he did, that is your privilege and your depression. I say save the country any day from terrorism even if our stock market fluctuates or dives. Bush protected up and, with our military, released two countries from tyranny.

You can present all the propaganda you want. Bush was not any more perfect than the rest of us but BUSH KEPT THIS COUNTRY SAFE AND SOUND. Name me another one that is as free and protective of it’s citizens. Well???