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

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (179052)	1/11/2012 1:22:06 PM
From: Cogito	Respond to of 541778

Brooks is funny. He's capable of being quite reasonable some of the time, and he is in much of that piece. Then he goes here: >>If you’ll forgive some outside advice, President Obama might consider running for re-election as Luther. It’s not enough to pick a series of small squabbles and then win as the least ugly man in the room. He might run as someone who believes in government but sees how much it needs to be cleansed and purified. Make the tax code simple. Make job training simple. Make Medicare simple. Every week choose a rent-seeker to hold up for ridicule and renunciation. Change the Congressional rules. Simplify the legal thickets that undermine responsibility. << He's saying Obama should just do all that stuff so people can have faith in their government again? Right. Because I'm sure the Republicans will join with him in a spirit of bipartisan cooperation, putting America first, to get all of that done. The goals Brooks is setting out for Obama are like a lot of what we get from conservatives. Ridiculously broad, but stated in such a way as to make anyone who disagrees with the speaker seem like a jerk. Yes. Let's just "make job training simple." Then we can start on the rest of that stuff the next day.

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (179052)	1/11/2012 2:28:46 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 541778

Every time I read Brooks, or almost every time, the first paragraph or two makes a bit of sense. That is the frame for the piece. But then when he either gets down in the weeds or proposes solutions or gets specific, I, once again, conclude I'm wasting my time. And so I don't read him. I only read this one because you posted it. And, same reaction. The last bit about Luther--I see Allen has already responded--is just silly. "Make medicare simple"?? Please. Medicare is simple compared to my other health insurance issues. If everyone had medicare, health insurance would be much simpler. It's that kind of suggestion that indicates he's out of touch.