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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sdgla who wrote (93139)	11/2/2008 8:12:11 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Respond to of 541374

"I'm interested in reading what BO is right on.... please elaborate." I can help you there, and I will, but I've got a dinner at my inlaw's place first. Ed

To: Sdgla who wrote (93139)	11/2/2008 11:48:23 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 541374

I'm interested in reading what BO is right on.... please elaborate. Domestic issues. He's right about the economy. The McCain/Republican mantra that you can stimulate the economy and raise all ships by continuing to shower wealth on those who employ the rest of us has a place and a time. That place and time, however, are not where and when the bottleneck to economic growth is demand rather than production capacity. Even when the tax cuts that were supposed to create more wealth for "investment in job creation" were initiated, we had excess manufacturing capacity that was huge. When there is excess production capacity no one wants to add to the excess by building more factories or employing more workers. Bush partially offset that by creating a huge defense industry demand with the war in Iraq but that's only a temporary fix and that money is not investment money, it's down the drain money. Obama and his advisors understand that the primary problem with the economy is that there is inadequate demand. That means that you have to give a boost on the demand side of the economic equation. You can do that through federal tax cuts for the average family who will, unlike the average wealthy family, have needs that will require that money to be put into circulation pulling down inventories and stimulating profits and jobs. They also understand that we need to create new construction and new industries that will encourage the flow of spending into areas that provide long term economic and other societal benefits. That means creating incentives and allocating spending for infrastructure, stem cell research, alternative energy technologies and products, education, etc. So the McCain "cut taxes and create jobs" mantra is right for some times but wrong for now. And Obama is right. Cont'd next post with a look at what's wrong with corporate American and how McCain and Obama differ. Ed

To: Sdgla who wrote (93139)	11/3/2008 12:15:30 AM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541374

Domestic issue number 2. Obama is "right" on the issue of corporate regulation. Corporations are artificial entities that have life only through law. They can be Frankensteins or Lee Majors, depending on how they're programmed. They're programmed through regulation. When corporations were allowed to go public and became more and more easily traded on national and international markets there was the potential for a disconnect between two very important and seemingly unseverable limbs of the corporate body. One was a disconnect between ownership and management control, the other was a disconnect between short term profits and the long term health of the corporation. Ownership and management control... When the corporations were allowed to grow to huge proportions and the number of owners were allowed to grow exponentially, the ability of any one owner, and therefor of many small, disconnected owners, to exercise effective control over management was critically curtailed. That created a void that was filled by a combination of boards and management that shared a symbiotic relationship often typified by the personal profit self interest of the management and the boards. A willing group of enablers who also profited were accountants, investment bankers and big money interests. It was a situation that screamed for better regulation to protect the investors and, because of the importance of these huge corporations to the national economy, the general public as a whole. But, through the negligence or ignorance, or worse, of our Democratic and Republican legislators and of the Executives in power, there was little regulation, even when it was apparent that corporations were being raided by management and were rife with fraud and graft. Short term versus long term profits. Private companies would have not only exercised markedly better control over management but they would have, through self interest, been much more attuned to the long term health of their companies. Let the next guy worry about tomorrow isn't such an appealing concept when the next guy is you. If multinational corporations that help determine the soundness of our economy cannot be structured to factor the long term health of the corporation into their decision making process, we're in big trouble and doomed to repeat the cycle of raiding the company for short term profits and leaving someone else to hold the bag. Obama sees that, McCain sees little of it. Obama will regulate more disclosure and may place limits on executive pay, McCain will have the same people in place that manned the stations for Bush/Cheney. Obama is right. Cont'd with foreign policy. Ed

To: Sdgla who wrote (93139)	11/3/2008 12:27:37 AM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541374

Foreign policy. Foreign policy is easy. McCain thinks you can use conventional military force to "win" wars where winning the war means changing the course of another nation's people, including changing their culture. He thinks "we're" winning in Iraq, and that we can win. He thinks, as does the current Israeli government, that you can shoot into the village and kill more terrorists than you create. He doesn't believe in giving an inch and he's simply wrong...wrong from a historical point of view and wrong from a logical point of view. Obama understands that other cultures will come to their own wisdom and their own mores gradually and that you cannot force such changes at the point of a gun. Obama understands that if you shoot into the village you're likely to miss the terrorist and create a lot more people willing to die for a cause...the cause of killing your people. Obama is willing to use force in self defense, a situation where the mission is ALWAYS justified and the mission is always doable, and where the rest of the world will not feel threatened by our actions and will not continue to forge military and economic alliances that threaten our interests. Obama is willing to talk to rogue nations and to use diplomatic and economic tools of persuasion to create incentives and disincentives that favor our interests. Obama is the future. McCain is the discredited past. Ed