And what if the moon is made of green cheese? “What if’s” need some sort of basis in reality. The so-called “stimulus” can’t work (neither could Bush’s bailout, as we’ve seen) because it violates all sound economic principles. The problem with the Left is they live in the hypotheticals, and refuse to see the reality of their policies. This is demonstrated time and again in their efforts at Utopian engineering, and is the only way Keynesian economics still exist as anything other than the punchline to a very bad joke.

DrMagnolias on April 7, 2009 at 6:01 AM

I’d love for leftists to point to one place where their policies work long-term. They continually cite Europe without recognizing that Europe will be broke and overrun by Muslims within two generations. That isn’t “working”, that’s slow-motion civilizational suicide. Socialism of the European type is like putting a seat cushion in the handbasket you’re riding to hell. Yeah, it’s a tad more comfortable, but you’re going to the same place the old Soviet Union went, which is the ash heap of history. Economics has come a long way since Keynes. Unfortunately, none of that way supports Keynesianism. Here’s my favorite short layman’s piece on why the stimulus won’t work.

http://www.theweek.com/article/index/93473/The_selfdefeating_stimulus

Pardon me, Proud Rino, but have you read her dissertation from Princeton?

“Dumbing down” is being kind.

gridlock2 on April 7, 2009 at 6:36 AM

I’m not a Princeton grad, but one of my best friends is. Suffice it to say, he was pretty embarrassed when the excerpts came out. There is some evidence that affirmative action has the effect of gaining its beneficiaries admittance to schools one tier above their actual abilities. In Michelle’s case, I think it was two, since she was AA and a legacy due to her brother’s attending Princeton, and in Barack’s it was at least one also. In fact, here’s a real scholar on the quality of Obama’s intellect:

http://easyopinions.blogspot.com/2009/04/richard-epstein-discusses-barack-obama.html

“I like Obama but I reject the suggestion that he is an intellectual. He is an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual.”

The fundamental mistake of his entire world view is that he treats contracts as devices for exploitation and not as devices for mutual gain, and he assumes that redistribution can take place without any negative impact upon production.

If you live in that kind of a fairy land, which I think he does, every one of his major social and economic initiatives are going to misfire. And, if they succeed, God forbid, in getting through, they are going to intensify the downturn that we have already experienced. He is the wrong guy for the job based on his intellectual format. The question is whether you can force him back.

My favorite little detail to come out of the entire marathon Presidential campaign was that when she left her job, they didn’t hire a replacement. Anyone who’s ever held a position of importance in an organization (which will automatically exclude our resident trolls from this knowledge) knows that only means your role in the organization’s success was non-existent or symbolic. The 35,000 people who answered this CNN poll “Yes” should be tracked down and barred from every voting again without undergoing some serious education.

venividivici on April 7, 2009 at 8:20 AM