Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pompsander who wrote (15445)	7/16/2009 2:05:50 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 103300

(Red meat for the baying hounds.... :-) Poor, Persecuted Sarah Palin The GOP embraces the culture of victimhood. By THOMAS FRANK The Wall Street Journal OPINION: THE TILTING YARD JULY 15, 2009 online.wsj.com When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced her resignation two weeks ago it was after a series of strange, petty bouts with her detractors. Many "frivolous ethics violations" had been alleged against her, she noted. David Letterman had told an ugly joke about her daughter. A blogger had posted something that was probably not true. Someone had photoshopped a radio talker's face onto a picture of her baby -- a "malicious desecration" of the image, in the words of Ms. Palin's spokeswoman. Team Palin got duly indignant at each of these. They took special, detailed offense. They issued statements magnifying their wounds. And, finally, the governor resigned her office, a good woman cruelly wronged. The culture's fantastically unfair treatment of middle Americans is the main lesson that many will no doubt take away from Ms. Palin's time in the national spotlight. In fact, it may be the only lesson. We don't really know where the former vice presidential candidate stands on most issues. We know only that she is constantly being maligned, that when we turn on the TV and see her fair face beaming, we are about to hear that some liberal someone has slurred this noble lady yet again. Indeed, if political figures stand for ideas, victimization is what Ms. Palin is all about. It is her brand, her myth. Ronald Reagan stood tall. John McCain was about service. Barack Obama has hope. Sarah Palin is a collector of grievances. She runs for high office by griping. This is no small thing, mind you. The piling-up of petty complaints is an important aspect of conservative movement culture. For those who believe that American life consists of the trampling of Middle America by the "elites" -- that our culture is one big insult to the pious and the patriotic and the traditional -- Sarah Palin's long list of unfair and disrespectful treatment is one of her most attractive features. Like Oliver North, Robert Bork, and Clarence Thomas, she is known not for her ideas but as a martyr, a symbol of the culture-war crimes of the left. To become a symbol of this stature Ms. Palin has had to do the opposite of most public figures. Where others learn to take hostility in stride, she and her fans have developed the thinnest of skins. They find offense in the most harmless remarks and diabolical calculation in the inflections of the anchorman's voice. They take insults out of context to make them seem even more insulting. They pay close attention to voices that are ordinarily ignored, relishing every blogger's sneer, every celebrity's slight, every crazy Internet rumor. This has been Ms. Palin's assigned role ever since she stepped on the national stage last summer. Indeed, she has stuck to it so unswervingly that one suspects it was settled on even before she was picked for the VP slot, that it was imposed on her by a roomful of GOP image consultants: Ms. Palin was to be the candidate on a cross. Resentment was, for example, the most-noticed theme in her famous speech at the Republican convention in September, when she introduced herself to America by taking umbrage at those Democrats who "seem to look down on" small-town ways. Before long she had become a full-time victim of the media, deploring "the bitter shots" they took at her. She imagined that reporters were threatening her First Amendment rights by criticizing her. She found a fellow underdog in Joe the Plumber, and after reviewing his mistreatment by the media she made him part of her stump routine. But the template was apparently set even before her big roll-out. In an essay in The Weekly Standard that was written before Ms. Palin's celebrated debut in St. Paul, William Kristol somehow already knew that liberals "will ridicule her and patronize her. They will distort her words and caricature her biography. They will appeal, sometimes explicitly, to anti-small town and anti-religious prejudice." And all this contempt will serve an important propaganda purpose, he continued, with Ms. Palin becoming a "powerful symbol" for "lots of Americans who are told every day that to be even a bit conservative or Christian or old-fashioned is bad form." Mr. Kristol's magazine has beat the persecution drum ever since. Its current issue features a cover story about Ms. Palin's suffering by Matthew Continetti, who is actually said to be writing a book titled, "The Persecution of Sarah Palin." In the course of Mr. Continetti's essay he admits to collecting insults of Ms. Palin, which he stores in a computer file that he says is seven pages long. My advice to Mr. Continetti: Put your insult collection aside for a moment and ask instead why people like Ms. Palin savor insults in the first place. The answer may not endear you to Weekly Standard readers, but it will take you a lot further toward understanding the world we live in. Write to thomas@wsj.com Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

To: pompsander who wrote (15445)	7/16/2009 4:30:48 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

Palin: Voters may not care she quit By Peter Grier \| 07.16.09 features.csmonitor.com It looks like ordinary voters may not care as much about Sarah Palin’s resignation as pundits do. Yes, her diction was kind of loopy, yes, the timing was odd, and yes, Alaskans will now have to get used to a new governor. But the whole affair does not appear to have budged her national poll numbers very much, going by a Gallup survey released Thursday. Last November, the American public was pretty much split into competing camps about the losing GOP VP candidate. Forty-eight percent viewed her favorably, and 47 percent viewed her unfavorably, according to Gallup data. And now? It’s 43 percent favorable, 45 percent unfavorable, according to a Gallup poll taken from July 10-12. “This suggests no widespread deterioration in her image after her surprising decision to resign her post as governor with more than a year left in her term,” writes Gallup analyst Jeffrey M. Jones. In fact, the most startling thing about the new numbers may be that 12 percent of respondents said they have no opinion about Ms. Palin at all – good or bad. As to her relative standing in the GOP, she remains as popular as any of the other potential 2012 nominees that have been coughed up by The Great Mentioner. Palin is the choice of 21 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents for the party’s 2012 nomination, according to Gallup. Mitt Romney does slightly better – he’s the choice of 26 percent – but the pair could be said to be tied, because that five point lead is within the poll’s margin of error.

To: pompsander who wrote (15445)	7/16/2009 4:32:41 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

Romney leads Palin in cash and new poll blogs.usatoday.com Mitt Romney is beating Sarah Palin -- both closely watched as potential GOP presidential contenders in 2012 -- by two measures today: PAC cash and polling. (We must warn readers, of course, that polls are a snapshot of public opinion and are not forecasts for an election that is more than three years away.) First, the news on money. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, hauled in more than $1.6 million through his political action committee, Free and Strong America PAC, in the first half of the year. Palin, who'll step down as Alaska governor later this month, raised about $733,000 since January, as we told you earlier this week. Romney has also donated to more candidates. His PAC's contributions to various local and federal candidates, including the GOP candidates for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, total about $74,000. A breakdown of Romney's donations is here. Meanwhile, Palin gave $5,000 to Arizona Sen. (and former running mate) John McCain and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, both Republicans. Now, the public-opinion perspective. More Republicans prefer Romney as their party's pick for president in 2012, according to a Gallup Poll out today. About 26% of Republicans and independents who lean Republican said they would most likely support Romney, while Palin was tops for 21% of those polled. (Rounding out the list was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 19%, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 14%, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty with 3% and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour with 2%.) But while slightly more Republicans choose Romney over Palin for the nomination, the Alaska governor and former vice-presidential nominee gets a much higher favorability rating. More than seven in 10 Republicans say they have a favorable view of Palin, while a little over half of Republicans say the same about Romney. (Reported by USA TODAY intern Seung Min Kim) Posted by Fredreka Schouten at 02:51 PM/ET, July 16, 2009

To: pompsander who wrote (15445)	7/16/2009 10:45:00 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	1 Recommendation Respond to of 103300

STATEMENT ON U.S. ECONOMIC OUTLOOK BY DR. NOURIEL ROUBINI The following is a statement from Dr. Nouriel Roubini, Chairman of RGE Monitor and Professor, New York University, Stern School of Business: “It has been widely reported today that I have stated that the recession will be over “this year” and that I have “improved” my economic outlook. Despite those reports - however – my views expressed today are no different than the views I have expressed previously. If anything my views were taken out of context. “I have said on numerous occasions that the recession would last roughly 24 months. Therefore, we are 19 months into that recession. If as I predicted the recession is over by year end, it will have lasted 24 months with a recovery only beginning in 2010. Simply put I am not forecasting economic growth before year’s end. “Indeed, last year I argued that this will be a long and deep and protracted U-shaped recession that would last 24 months. Meanwhile, the consensus argued that this would be a short and shallow V-shaped 8 months long recession (like those in 1990-91 and 2001). That debate is over today as we are in the 19th month of a severe recession; so the V is out of the window and we are in a deep U-shaped recession. If that recession were to be over by year end – as I have consistently predicted – it would have lasted 24 months and thus been three times longer than the previous two and five times deeper – in terms of cumulative GDP contraction – than the previous two. So, there is nothing new in my remarks today about the recession being over at the end of this year. “I have also consistently argued – including in my remarks today - that while the consensus predicts that the US economy will go back close to potential growth by next year, I see instead a shallow, below-par and below-trend recovery where growth will average about 1% in the next couple of years when potential is probably closer to 2.75%. “I have also consistently argued that there is a risk of a double-dip W-shaped recession toward the end of 2010, as a tough policy dilemma will emerge next year: on one side, early exit from monetary and fiscal easing would tip the economy into a new recession as the recovery is anemic and deflationary pressures are dominant. On the other side, maintaining large budget deficits and continued monetization of such deficits would eventually increase long term interest rates (because of concerns about medium term fiscal sustainability and because of an increase in expected inflation) and thus would lead to a crowding out of private demand. “While the recession will be over by the end of the year the recovery will be weak given the debt overhang in the household sector, the financial system and the corporate sector; and now there is also a massive re-leveraging of the public sector with unsustainable fiscal deficits and public debt accumulation. “Also, as I fleshed out in detail in recent remarks the labor market is still very weak: I predict a peak unemployment rate of close to 11% in 2010. Such large unemployment rate will have negative effects on labor income and consumption growth; will postpone the bottoming out of the housing sector; will lead to larger defaults and losses on bank loans (residential and commercial mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, leveraged loans); will increase the size of the budget deficit (even before any additional stimulus is implemented); and will increase protectionist pressures. “So, yes there is light at the end of the tunnel for the US and the global economy; but as I have consistently argued the recession will continue through the end of the year, and the recovery will be weak and at risk of a double dip, as the challenge of getting right the timing and size of the exit strategy for monetary and fiscal policy easing will be daunting. “RGE Monitor will soon release our updated U.S. and Global Economic Outlook. A preview of the U.S. Outlook is available on our website: www.rgemonitor.com”