I know I've obtained a reputation in certain circles as an Obama apologist because I don't believe that disappointing policy outcomes out financial regulation or the public option or immigration reform or climate change are primarily attributable to poor legislative tactics or a lack of "leadership" on Obama's part. But that's largely because I believe all critiques of Obama that aren't critiques of his macroeconomic management are slighting the role that poor macroeconomic management has played in exacerbating everything else.

Obama lives in a world-of-the-possible that is defined by how much risk there is in taking a stand and failing, as opposed to doing what needs to be done and exerting leadership to expand that world; for reasons that are not clear to me, and might require an advanced degree in psychology to credibly speculate about, he would rather stay out of fights he thinks there is no chance he can win, and where he thinks a win is possible, will sell off and sell out and make deals on key elements that only end up further blurring the line between Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, and not improving the policy by much, just to make sure he gets the win.  Inevitably, those he tried hardest to please don't end up cooperating in the end, but they still manage to get most of what they wanted without having to vote for it.  The legislation ends up weak and inadequate, but that matters less, apparently, than that "W."

Obama lives in a world of something-is-better-than-nothing, but seems content to keep the bar for "something" low rather than risk setting it higher.

If he couldn't be bold on the economy when he had all the political capital, the will of the people and an energized Congress in his favor, he's not going to do it now.

Choosing Tim Geithner to head Treasury should have told us all we needed to know about what kind of leadership Obama was going to provide on economic issues, and I have seen nothing in the years since that proves that wrong.

no. 1 on that list was doubling the amount of the stimulous bill, from 750 bill, to 1.5 trillion.

no. 2 was making the bulk of the stimulous funds actual payments, rather than 40% of it tax cuts or credits.

in fairness to obama, he may well not have been able to push through double what he got, with recalcitrent republicans working diligently against him, but there's no evidence he made any effort to.

is it to late to do anything? no, of course not, nothing's cast in bronze. the problem is obama seems mesmerized by geithner, and totally unwilling/unable to consider alternate economic paths. somehow (maybe his complete lack of formal education in economics?), the keynesian economic model, used by fdr to start digging us out of the great depression, appears to be a concept foreign to him, and certainly anathema to geithner and his banker/conservative/republican pals.

But how do you associate that "all economically powerful" notion, with the global economy?

Personally, I believe that the economy will look substantially better in a year than it does now, but if you don't, shouldn't you be looking at global indicators, not just domestic.

Prime example of what has me freaked out right now is this:

Link

Obama has very little rea infuence on this, but the most direct influence he has, he just used by releasing the strategic reserves (which I think shows the real concerns that the white house has about the next 12-16 months).

If oil hits $115 or $120 a barrell, we are double dipping regardless of how much stimulus is or was pumped into the economy and it has to do with Libya, drilling and refining capacity and a bunch of other factors disconnected from actual demand.

This is not to excuse the President and any blame he deserves for his policies. But I think that comments here can be frustratingly narrow in scope, particularly when housing surplus, oil, Greek default, Japanese economic stall, and a host of other issues outside of his control are just as, if not more, material to our economy and jobs outlook than the stimulus.

In any event, I believe, as Bill Clinton recently noted, that there is enough money sitting in banks waiting to be spent to rescue our economy and the globe's economy.

Our real focus should be in forcing (or making it unbearably advantageous) for those banks to release the funds they are sitting on.  That way the stimulus is pushed through globally and the taxpayers aren't taking the hit.

Instead of our debating on government stimulus, which is a drop in the bucket. our time is better spent hammering the banks and using whatever leverage we have to get them investing and lending again.

Look at our economy from that 100,000 foot level -- look at the foundations - energy, housing, health care, security, transportation, education, banking finance - WHAT isn't rotting? WHAT isn't going to hell in a hand basket?

NO ONE could have radically changed 1 of these huge foundations, but, they could have kicked & cajoled & coerced & pleaded & begged & threatened ... and gotten it moving in a better direction.

Geithner, Summers, Rahm, Bernanke, ... GIVE ME A F'KING BREAK.

Clinton III, DLC Blue Dog NEO LIB Sell Out Heaven.

ONE huge problem 0bummer has is that too many people don't trust him - he's just another lying double speaking f'king fraud making excuses while private jetting around to chow down on prime rib, lobster and caviar.

He can fire side tweet away from now till hell freezes over, and for tooooooooooo many THE QUESTION will be, if and randomly when they pay attention - THE QUESTION will be:

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

He really should just focus on LOTE LOTE LOTE - as long as a 13th century loony tune like bachman is his opponent, he'll get all kinds of LOTE voters -

NO ME, but, there are plenty.

2010 was a pivotal year for me - I wrote in "medicare for all" INSTEAD of checking off the names of usual crowd of Washington political pathetics, pathetics wasting "leader" pay in the "Democratic" party while mouth breathing right wing talking points - and while I lost, at least I don't vote for patty chris ron gary dwight jim jay
maria && am now stuck listening to their whiny ass excuses for losing, again, to lying thieves.