Comments on: Assessing the Obama Presidency

By: collin

collin — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 15:13:47 +0000

Nobody is saying it has nothing to with George Alexander….The primary reason for the fall of oil is US fracking and technology. Ten times “Yes.” But there could be other reasons for oil around $50/barrel, instead of $60/barrel, because every single time Saudia Arabia tries to cut back production, Iran can fill in and decrease the Saudia’s net revenue. The Iran deal sounds like a minor Supply Side argument in the oil markets.

By: TR5749

TR5749 — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 04:21:21 +0000

However else the rest of his administration grades out, Obama did a very good job on space policy, opening it up to competition and private enterprises. I would not be surprised if, 20 years from now, that is what he is most remembered for.

By: TR5749

TR5749 — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 04:19:06 +0000

“I still wish libertarians would look at the Iran nuclear deal as a positive because it is limiting the ability of Saudia Arabia from dominating the oil markets.”

George P. Mitchell had more to do with that than the Iran deal ever will

By: ColoComment

ColoComment — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 21:42:00 +0000

Ergo: Trump

By: freetofu

freetofu — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 21:06:12 +0000

IMO foreign policy is the one area where libertarians tend to be not crazy. Some of them anyways.

By: freetofu

freetofu — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 20:55:43 +0000

Trying to avoid commenting here, not entirely without success obviously. Just thought I’d mention that Assad let all the jihadists out of prison so that they’d become take over the opposition and make any support for them dangerous. This was a pretty brilliantly Machiavellian move, if obviously completely amoral. Anyway in such a situation it’s about as hard to see a clear solution as it is to place blame on anybody but Assad.

By: phil

phil — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 20:47:27 +0000

A “baloney sandwich on two levels” is just a baloney club.

By: Lord

Lord — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 19:40:17 +0000

His approval ratings are average with respect to post war presidents. Average isn’t bad. Not as much as hoped I am sure, but many do much worse. The stimulus did have an effect on employment not getting worse, largely at the state and local government level, but no, it didn’t do much to increase it. And his employment record is better than most given he has decreased federal employment over his term rather than increased it. Legislative accomplishments are still accomplishments given the difficulty. While insurance and health are only loosely connected, they are much better connected on public spending since it is on such basic needed care. (And yes, with 70% of spending above average, it is real coverage, though mostly it is coverage that is saving the government money who would be stuck with the bill in any event.) Syria was largely a civil war and staying out was the best option. Policeman of the world and nation builders are always misguided, and light touch foreign policy about the best accomplishment, a tremendous improvement over Iraq. If Republicans thought he should side with them over his own party and more than he did (and yes, he often did, from sequestration to tax cuts) they are just loons. Are we to believe all congressional Democrats were also polarized? The most ludicrous is that they wanted compromise as their total opposition to Obamacare and inability to offer anything demonstrated. As the majority of the majority rule they adopted showed, they were too obsessed with their own unity to attract any. It may have been their own internal strains and weaknesses that would later result in populism that drove them to this.

By: collin

collin — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 17:28:35 +0000

I totally agree that Obama should have NOT signaled any national interest in Syria and any assistance is giving the rebels hope that will not come. (Didn’t the Civil War start before we left Iraq?)

And yes, maybe the Russians might crack the Syrian code and protect Assad final victory. However:
1) They have been there over a year and still have not won. Not a good sign and I believe Putin announced troop removals six months. Putin has sucked into Mission Creep here and who knows when the troop removals are.
2) I know the decision is not popular in Russia so we don’t know if it will hurt Putin or Russia. Russia tends not to hold open polling.

By: asdf

asdf — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 16:14:38 +0000

And yet what did Republicans learn from all this?

Romney got as many white votes as Reagan and lost. The Republican response is to import more D voters and recycle Reagan era ideas that are totally exhausted.

Republicans need to realize that the other side is a collection of anti-American freaks that have one goal and one goal only, the subjugation and domination of Core America. They pursue this goal ruthlessly, and their hatred for Core America is of a particularly virulent variety. All of their policies are just veiled excuses to reduce Core America to facilitate their own interests.

Republicans never got his message, partly because a lot of the GOPe hates Core America too. They are an extremely decadent and immoral group of Washington Generals. And their pathetic ideological justifications for their weakness are easy to see through.

Core America though is starting to realize that the Dems have got it right. In any society in which people are too dissimilar, life is interest group politics. These freaks represent an irreconcilable group of interests to their own. They are learning from their enemy that this is a war that ends in unconditional surrender by one side or the other. And they are fighting back for their right to exist.