John McCain is being fed to the lions by the Republican Party

[Marco]

Yeah.

[chris]

How's that Obama doing declaring US policy in Germany?

Great, actually.  He's redefining a bruised alliance between Europe and America while McCain visits a German restaurant wishing he was in Germany making a speech in front of 200,000 cheering people.

How 'bout Obama get his ass back in the States and campaign THERE? He's already acting like he's got the election in the bag.

LOL thats EXACTLY what that guy on CNN said. word by word!

[AA7Dragoon]

You know, I took the bait but I really don't want to get into this.  I've been following this election since Day 1.  I spend at least 2 hours every day updating myself on both the Republican and Democrat campaigns.  What Obama is doing in the Middle-East and Europe is proving he can meet and receive the support of leaders and citizens which "skeptics" like yourself have been justifying as a reason not to vote for him.  You can't have your cake and eat it too. 

Have you seen the video clips of his visit?  In Germany yesterday, there were people waving American flags everywhere.  Not burning, waving!  There was one lamppost where people climbed up top, rolled up the European Union flag, and put up the American flag.  Does Obama have the election in the bag?  He will come November.  McCain is so pitiful, I almost feel sorry for the man.  When he's interviewed, he can't answer questions straight, he mumbles, and gives filibuster answers to take up air time.  But like I said, I'm not going to get into this because I will lay the smackdown on this thread.  Half of you are young and won't even be able to vote in this election anyway.  Let yourself mature a couple more years.  There's a lot more going on than who's a Republican or Democrat, Liberal or Conservative, White or Black.

[RazorclawX]

But like I said, I'm not going to get into this because I will lay the smackdown on this thread.  Half of you are young and won't even be able to vote in this election anyway.  Let yourself mature a couple more years.  There's a lot more going on than who's a Republican or Democrat, Liberal or Conservative, White or Black.

You talk down to people who don't support your candidate like they were less intelligent, defined, or mature.

Perhaps that person is actually you.

Your college education doesn't make you smarter than other people, it makes you college-educated. You can balk and joke about flipping burgers and look down on them all you want, but at the end of the day, you're still eating the burgers they're flipping.

[tipereth]

Armchair idealism is a really really bad idea. Nip that in the bud before it develops to something more.

[Rocco]

I don't think it will be as one sided as you think come November aa7, but we're getting ahead of ourselves here.

[Negi]

Let's put it this way, according to historical data, the party of a president who has presided over a recession that goes into election season has lost said election the vast majority of the time.  Assuming this trend continues, Barack Obama actually does have this election in the bag.

Additionally, John McCain's economic policy is atrocious.  Barack Obama's policy isn't the best that I've ever seen, but it actually addresses real problems in our economy.  Tax cuts are a horribly inefficient way of stimulating the economy.  RCX, while your statement about college education is mostly true, an introductory course in macroeconomics would vastly improve someone's understanding of modern economic theory as well as allow them to make a more informed decision about a candidate's policies.

Also, McCain's economic policy is transparently wrong-headed.  He has asserted that spending cuts in the government would more than pay for the tax cuts he plans to employ.  However, a quick look at CBO numbers shows how dreadfully wrong he is.  If military spending remains the same, the only places to cut spending are social security, medicare, medicaid, and a number of other very important programs to Americans.  To pay for McCain's tax cuts and rebates, we would have to end our social safety net as we know it.  In the next 10 years if McCain's tax cuts are implemented, the United States national debt will be at crisis levels. 

In fact, the national debt may very well reach crisis levels after our bailout of the banking system to prevent the next great depression.  Bush-McCain policies of deregulation may have damned us all. 

And that's why McCain is straight up retarded.

If you'd like to learn more, read Paul Krugman's articles in the New York Times as well as his NYTimes blog.  Paul Krugman is a professor of Economics at Princeton University, and has received the John Bates Clark medal for his contributions to the field. 

Also, for the record, he's not one of those Obama cultists.  He has been very critical of Obama since the beginning of the primaries, so don't worry about reading another lame love letter to Obama. 

[tipereth]

Maybe removing (or at least lowering) the social safety net is what we need. Maybe that will motivate people to stop leeching off the teat of the government, and try to accomplish something. I'm of course not referring to people who have no other choice, but to people who go to liberal arts colleges and come out as they went in, only now they have a degree certifying that they can read and write.

[Xenon]

For my own part, I am not so well satisfied of the goodness of this thing. I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. — I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. There is no country in the world where so many provisions are established for them; so many hospitals to receive them when they are sick or lame, founded and maintained by voluntary charities; so many alms-houses for the aged of both sexes, together with a solemn general law made by the rich to subject their estates to a heavy tax for the support of the poor. Under all these obligations, are our poor modest, humble, and thankful; and do they use their best endeavours to maintain themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burthen? — On the contrary, I affirm that there is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent. The day you passed that act, you took away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a dependance on somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health, for support in age or sickness. In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder that it has had its effect in the increase of poverty. Repeal that law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. St. Monday, and St. Tuesday, will cease to be holidays. SIX days shalt thou labour, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.

-Benjamin Franklin. Oh noes, what a hatemonger 

[AA7Dragoon]

You talk down to people who don't support your candidate like they were less intelligent, defined, or mature.

Perhaps that person is actually you.

Your college education doesn't make you smarter than other people, it makes you college-educated. You can balk and joke about flipping burgers and look down on them all you want, but at the end of the day, you're still eating the burgers they're flipping.

I'm not talking down to anyone, RCX nor making fun of anyone flipping burgers.  Actually, my boyfriend flips burgers while he's in college.  

What I am saying is I've taught teenagers and I was personally surprised at how little they knew about politics, current events, history.  A lot of it is learned from what they've heard parents and relatives say.

[youtube=425,350]u-R5Vh5tOWk[/youtube]

[Negi]

Response to Tipereth:

We have a historical example of what happens without a social safety net.  Look at America in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  We had the old and poor dying from treatable diseases.  We had starvation.  We had a small group of plutocrats in control of all wealth.  We had a large group of people *gasp* willing to exchange capitalism for communism.  We had corruption on all levels of government.  

It is also a fallacy to note the dependence of people on the "teat of the government."  There will be abuse of every good system, but isn't it a worthy goal to try to give every American child the ability to go to college.  Should we all have a chance at the American dream, or should we be limited by our parents' socioeconomic status?  If you believe that being born into a rich family is sufficient for determining future success, then your viewpoint is at least intellectually honest.  If you believe the old and poor should die in the streets, then your viewpoint is intellectually honest.  However, if you believe that every person, rich or poor should be at least given the chance at a good life, then you are just shortsighted or misinformed.  That is all.

[Xenon]

One of the things that Ron Paul has damn right

The Medicare “trust fund” is already badly in the red, and the only solution will be a dramatic increase in payroll taxes for younger workers.  The National Taxpayers Union reports that Medicare will consume nearly 40% of the nation’s GDP after several decades because of the new drug benefit.  That’s not 40% of federal revenues, or 40% of federal spending, but rather 40 % of the nation’s entire private sector output!

The official national debt figure, now approaching $9 trillion, reflects only what the federal government owes in current debts on money already borrowed.  It does not reflect what the federal government has promised to pay millions of Americans in entitlement benefits down the road.  Those future obligations put our real debt figure at roughly fifty trillion dollars- a staggering sum that is about as large as the total household net worth of the entire United States.  Your share of this fifty trillion amounts to about $175,000.

Don’t believe for a second that we can grow our way out of the problem through a prosperous economy that yields higher future tax revenues.  If present trends continue, by 2040 the entire federal budget will be consumed by Social Security and Medicare alone. The only options for balancing the budget would be cutting total federal spending by about 60%, or doubling federal taxes.  To close the long-term entitlement gap, the U.S. economy would have to grow by double digits every year for the next 75 years.

The answer to these critical financial realities is simple, but not easy: We must rethink the very role of government in our society.  Anything less, any tinkering or “reform,” won’t cut it.  A good start would be for Congress to repeal the Medicare prescription drug bill.

But hey, it doesn't matter if we're bankrupt as long as we're all equally bankrupt. 

[wibod]

Wasn't that the bill that was put in place a few years back that caused a bunch of senators with ties to the pharmaceutical industry to jump ship and take up board positions? If that is the case; lol.

[tipereth]

Negi>

I personally feel that one of the major detractors to our society (and economy) is the ever increasing glorification of a college degree. In my opinion, there are only two valid reasons to go to college. You want to learn something, or you want to enlighten yourself. Either way, you do it because you WANT to, not because it's expected of you. I have no problem with people who are genuinely interested in the things they study. I have a massive problem with people who go to college for a degree. The fact that a college degree is part of 'The American Dream' is something that needs to change. A history (or english or even science)  major who isn't especially interested in their field is just so much more unskilled labor.

[RazorclawX]

Let's put it this way, according to historical data, the party of a president who has presided over a recession that goes into election season has lost said election the vast majority of the time.  Assuming this trend continues, Barack Obama actually does have this election in the bag.

And therein lies the problem. The first thing that has to be done to fix the economy is to get the government to stop spending money. Historically speaking when the President and Congress are controlled by different political parties nothing gets done-- and consequently, the government doesn't spend a lot of money. This is the secret of success to President Clinton: Clinton was literally hamstringed by the Republican Congress between the Federal budget and Monica Lewinsky and then some.

McCain having a lousy economic policy becomes inconsequential because the Democrats will continue to hold control of Congress going into the next term (this isn't a 'maybe', this is a fact). At this point Congress will get their heads out of their collective asses and realize THEY have the true power, and seek to assert it in defiance of the President.

That is why it is important to have McCain as the President of the United States. Once you put him there he'll be hamstringed for four years and government spending will at the very least slow, if not reverse.

If Obama wins the Presidency (which is more or less inevitable, but the possibility still exists he could lose which is why I will never say he 'won' until it's over) he will be put in the same position President George W. Bush was in when he took office, and a very distinct possibility we will be stuck with yet another flavor of the Rubber-Stamp Congress.