Open thread: Obama statement on downgrade; Update: Delayed to 1:30; Update: Nothing new

posted at 12:40 pm on August 8, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

As I predicted earlier today, the White House has decided to get Barack Obama out of his bunker mode and have him issue a statement on the S&P downgrade today (as well as on Afghanistan) at 1 pm ET.  It’s difficult to predict which version of the administration spin he will back in his address.  Will it be that S&P is totally incompetent in its analysis, or that S&P is totally right about the politics of budgeting and that it’s all the fault of the Tea Party?  Trying to blend the two is a near impossibility, but I boldly predict that won’t daunt the President from an attempt to do so.

The breaking news flash specified a “statement” from Obama, not a press conference.  That makes it seem as though Obama won’t take questions from the press corps, but that could change.  If not, it won’t exactly be a profiles-in-courage moment from this generation’s ersatz Camelot.  Surprisingly, some Democrats are coming to the same conclusion, and lamenting what might have been:

At a New York political event last week, Republican and Democratic office-holders were all bemoaning President Obama’s handling of the debt-ceiling crisis when someone said, “Hillary would have been a better president.”

“Every single person nodded, including the Republicans,” reported one observer. …

Looking as if she were about to cry, an 83-year-old Obama supporter shook her head. “I’m so disappointed in him,” she said. “It’s true: Hillary is tougher.”

During the last few days, the whispers have swelled to an angry chorus of frustration about Obama’s perceived weaknesses. Many Democrats are furious and heartbroken at how ineffectual he seemed in dealing with Republican opponents over the debt ceiling, and liberals are particularly incensed by what they see as his capitulation to conservatives on fundamental liberal principles.

In Connecticut, a businessman who raised money for Obama in 2008 said, “I’m beyond disgusted.” In New Jersey, a teacher reported that even her friends in the Obama administration are grievously disillusioned with his lack of leadership—and many have begun to whisper about a Democratic challenge for the 2012 presidential nomination. “I think people are furtively hoping that Hillary runs,” she said.

I seriously doubt that Hillary would want to run in this environment, and I’m not so sure that the woman who presented Russia with the “reset” button would have been any better at this job than Obama.  She could hardly have been worse, though.  If she did run, it’s also questionable whether she would attract the hard Left that is expressing so much disappointment in Obama; Hillary is more of a centrist pragmatist than Obama, and that’s really saying something about Obama.

If this continues, though, we may yet see a semi-serious challenge in the primaries from someone on the Left with more credibility, which will erode Obama’s ability to shift to the center for the next election.

Update: The statement has been delayed until 1:30.  CBS’ Mark Knoller tweets: “Pres. Obama’s statement delayed till 130pm. Hope S&P doesn’t grade on fiscal punctuality. Could mean another downgrade.”

Update II: Forty-three minutes late now and no Obama.  I’ve updated the post photo accordingly.

Update III: Obama spoke for about ten minutes, and had absolutely nothing new to offer.  He hinted at having a plan to deal with tax reform and “modest” entitlement reform, but wouldn’t even commit to producing it.  NBC’s Chuck Todd nailed it on Twitter: “You get the sense, WH knew they had to say something given the news of the weekend but he didn’t have much NEW to say.”

 

Blowback

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Comment pages: 1 7 8 9

Hmmm lets see if this link works

http://youtu.be/qsMc-IswG3w

yeah, just about that right there

theflyonthewall on August 8, 2011 at 2:44 PM

I feel so reassured the president is not wavering or averting his gaze. He’s standing firm … eyes looking straight ahead into those headlights.

J_Crater on August 8, 2011 at 2:45 PM

“We knew from the outset that a prolonged debate over the debt ceiling, a debate where threat of default was used as a bargainging chip, could do enourmous damage to our economy and the world”

Then why didn’t Obama & Democrats increase the debt ceiling LAST FALL????

TN Mom on August 8, 2011 at 2:47 PM

Jumo Green is continuing the Tea Party Downgrade yet again.

Cindy Munford on August 8, 2011 at 2:40 PM

That woman is like a broken record. I don’t know why she’s a Fox News Contributor. They should put up a card-board cut out and play a recording.

SlaveDog on August 8, 2011 at 2:47 PM

DOW -517 @2:49

petefrt on August 8, 2011 at 2:49 PM

Did y’all know that the Tea Party doesn’t want tax reform? So says the Dem talking head.

Cindy Munford on August 8, 2011 at 2:41 PM

I guess that Donk never heard the expanded acronym “Taxed Enough Already”?

Plus the fact that the Boston Tea Party was a revolt over TAXES went right over his head as well. These Donks are circling the wagons in desperation looking like insufferable fools to protect the last vestige of their shrinking credibility.

Geochelone on August 8, 2011 at 2:52 PM

I wish we had an American President, instead of an anti-American one.

kingsjester on August 8, 2011 at 2:53 PM

What part of ‘stop the spending’ is so hard to understand?

ajacksonian on August 8, 2011 at 2:53 PM

No he didn’t. As a matter of fact, he said that when congress comes back they’ll work on it. 5 more weeks of waiting for something to be done.

milwife88 on August 8, 2011 at 2:17 PM

Thank you, milwife88!

Obama’s lack of leadership is astounding!

wren on August 8, 2011 at 2:55 PM

On the upside, if you need a mortgage, 30 year fixed rates are under 4%.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 2:57 PM

I knew we should have extended Cash for Clunkers.

/

mankai on August 8, 2011 at 2:59 PM

Key West Reader on August 8, 2011 at 2:43 PM

Right, I can think of all kinds of tax reform the Tea Party would be for. And I bet they make more sense and have longer lasting benefits than the Dem’s ideas.

Cindy Munford on August 8, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Did he see his shadow, then retreat back into his burrow?

kregg on August 8, 2011 at 3:01 PM

Great Debt Debate

watch with muted speakers, the song is excruciating

scalleywag on August 8, 2011 at 3:05 PM

Pardon me if this has been posted, but WHOA!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfRMHBvy_GA&feature=related

Jeffster on August 8, 2011 at 3:08 PM

Future- 1
Obama- 0

rogerb on August 8, 2011 at 3:09 PM

I wish we had an American President, instead of an anti-American one.

kingsjester on August 8, 2011 at 2:53 PM

He is Captain ANTI-America.

PappyD61 on August 8, 2011 at 3:12 PM

OT: Even the Sun has it in for us let alone Obama,

Severe Solar Storms Could Paralyze Earth this Decade: NOAA

Yakko77 on August 8, 2011 at 3:17 PM

Looks like Rush may have nailed it.(The Fed manipulating the markets by massive buying in the futures market.) The market is suddenly rebounding for no apparent reason.

petefrt on August 8, 2011 at 3:19 PM

The Obama Downgrade.

Dr. Carlo Lombardi on August 8, 2011 at 3:21 PM

On the upside, if you need a mortgage, 30 year fixed rates are under 4%.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 2:57 PM

I’m in the real estate mortgage sector. Nobody has done anything since late May. Nothing.

Friend of mine has had his house listed for sale for over a year now. Recently after several price lowers, he’s attracting interest, but none of the potential buyers can get mortgages, because the banks and mortgage companies are simply sitting on their money and not lending.

Even the VA is telling the veterans “don’t come to us for a VA Loan unless the condition of the house you want to buy is absolutely perfect.”

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:21 PM

…an idle b*stard with leisure to watch the TV (and blog) today, I flipped to FoxBiz just as His Highness was finishing his speech.

Watching it in HD allows you to see tickers all ’round the main picture. While he was speaking, the sell-off reflected by the Dow, which was at -250 or so when I’d last seen it two hours before, was at -450, edging towards -500, and would hit -600 momentarily minutes later.

The more he spoke, the more value the stocks lost…it was like watching air go out of a balloon.

…and, what exactly did he say? What leadership did he bring to the market? Well, there was this nugget:

“Markets will rise and fall,” (Obama) said. “But this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be a triple-A country.”

…showing that he’s still not aware of how economies work. While very human creations, and as subject to fear and passion as are any of us, the markets react like a herd of horses: they follow the leader. Lacking a leader, they’ll fragment, and any savvy equiphile can push ‘em to a cliff and the weight of their numbers will have ‘em spilling over onto the rocks below.

What did we get for leadership? The same old chesnuts, that’s what. “Infrastructure” spending. The Dems haven’t yet disconnected their brain stems from the 1930′s and the skewed propaganda of the Roosevelt administration. “Education” spending.

…notice that Mr. O’s proposals for fiscal recovery always seems to involve turning to the most heavily unionized sectors of society and openning the checkbook. I’m surprised that he didn’t propose that the US buy boatloads of Volt’s from GM to either send to the PIGS countries in Europe or simply to sink them in the sea. That’d make the UAW happy.

Furthermore, the bit of the speech I caught, he didn’t sound like the “First Citizen” at all. He’s not our neighbor. He’s not even, a’ la FDR, a kindly, eloquent father figure radio voice.

Obama spoke like a king.

“How dare these mere S&P bankers rain on MY adminstration!”…all the while his minions and surrogates were spreading out the astroturf, blaming it all on the “peasants” of the Tea Party movement.

“The peasants are revolting, Mr. President!”
“Theyre sure are!”

Mr. Obama has never had to meet a payroll. He’s never really been fed from a payroll, as such. He’s been a “mentored” and groomed being his entire adult life, so it’s understandable that he doesn’t appreciate the ups and downs of business. As a “community organizer, his business has always been to make it possible for others to live off of the leavings of others…as he’s always done.

…so, for those of you who still have money not immediately committed to bills, food or taxes, buy gold or silver, park it in negotiable securities that haven’t tanked yet, or cash out and sew it into the mattress…and wait ’til 2012…and pray while you’re waiting that he doesn’t give too many more “pep talk” news conferences…the Dow can’t take much more of his encouragement.

Puritan1648 on August 8, 2011 at 3:27 PM

Even the VA is telling the veterans “don’t come to us for a VA Loan unless the condition of the house you want to buy is absolutely perfect.”

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:21 PM

It was that way a few years ago when I bought the house I’m in now. I found a couple “fixer-uppers” but the VA wouldn’t go for it but then I got lucky and found a real “turn key” house in my price range. It’s small, just under 1000 sq ft, but it’s in a decent neighborhood and need next to nothing fixed. I literally just turned the key and moved my stuff in.

Yakko77 on August 8, 2011 at 3:29 PM

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:21 PM

I bought a rental property last month. 3.85% fixed 15 year with 25% down, no points. Cash flow positive, ROI about 9%. I had a renter lined up before I bought it, so it worked out well. But where I live the rental market is very tight. Houses in good shape – not apartments – last a day or two on Craigslist. I had no problem getting a loan…and this was for an investment property to boot. I do have FICO of 790 and absolutely no debt, though so I guess that helps

Looking to buy another one soon.

Real estate is seIlling. When it’s priced right. I suspect your friend is still asking too much.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:29 PM

In case you haven’t seen this.

The Federal/State Government (backing one of Michelles signature issues) is subsidizing Retailers to build in Minority/Low-Income areas (in this instance $4.2 million).

http://www.retailwire.com/discussion/15428/government-incentives-for-food-deserts

We have a community here that fits this demographic and a lady shared with Mammy how people will load up their grocery carts and just walk out the doors and fill their car trunks.

They won’t stop them because they could be sued (they’ve bee told not to by the national chain’s leadership).

So are these subsidies/incentives going to help build these stores for the looters (that can’t get a Retailer to move in on their own)?

Are we going to be subdizing those Cart-fillers?

PappyD61 on August 8, 2011 at 3:31 PM

Real estate is seIlling. When it’s priced right. I suspect your friend is still asking too much.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:29 PM

He’s already got it nearly 100K below the assessed value. And the town he’s in has very up to date market assessments as there are a lot of sales each year in the town to analyze.

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:32 PM

Also RE: mortgages I think it’s a good thing that mortgage are harder to get. It should require 20% down. It should require 6 months cash reserves. It should require a high fico score. It should require stable income.

People make it sound like this is some kind of horrible development. It isn’t. It’s just a return to sane lending practices.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:35 PM

Watching it in HD allows you to see tickers all ’round the main picture. While he was speaking, the sell-off reflected by the Dow, which was at -250 or so when I’d last seen it two hours before, was at -450, edging towards -500, and would hit -600 momentarily minutes later.

Puritan1648 on August 8, 2011 at 3:27 PM

The Democrat Media is now “reporting” the 500 point drop, but all of them are omitting that most of that drop came right after O’bama’s non-speech.

They’re not abandoning him by any means.

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:35 PM

Maybe now someone will finally point out that every single part of Obowma’s ideology and resulting policies don’t work…

… They are not the smartest peoople in the room, and everything that they were taught in the liberal schools is a lie.

Seven Percent Solution on August 8, 2011 at 3:35 PM

I knew we should have extended Cash for Clunkers.

mankai on August 8, 2011 at 2:59 PM

…maybe we could trade in Obama…,

…not that I’m suggesting that we actually sell Mr. Obama…that’d be wrong…and politically incorrect…and nobody that I know of is in the market for a know-it-all….

…but, maybe we could sell his head.

* No rust, and hasn’t done much work, so no dents.

* Two big side doors for easy access.

* Working sound system (although it says the same thing over and over and over)

* Plenty of leg-room inside. Tons of trunk space. I mean that his head’s bloody empty, alright.

…we could take the check and put down on a Volt or a Smart car…if we could cash in Biden, Geithner, the EPA head and Axelrod, maybe we could get a Tesla….

Puritan1648 on August 8, 2011 at 3:36 PM

Also RE: mortgages I think it’s a good thing that mortgage are harder to get. It should require 20% down. It should require 6 months cash reserves. It should require a high fico score. It should require stable income.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:35 PM

30% down would be even better.

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:36 PM

He’s already got it nearly 100K below the assessed value. And the town he’s in has very up to date market assessments as there are a lot of sales each year in the town to analyze.

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:32 PM

Assessed values? LOL. Come on. That doesn’t mean a thing.

Real estate is like anything else. If it’s priced right it will sell. Real estate, cars, jewelry, baseball cards, doesn’t matter. The market sets the price. Doesn’t matter what some govt bureaucrat says the house “should be worth”. It matters what someone is willing to pay. And right now nobody is willing to buy the house for the price he is asking.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:37 PM

30% down would be even better.

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:36 PM

But what about all the poor and disadvantaged people? Shouldn’t they own a house? You sound like one of those racist terrorist tea party types.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:40 PM

The more that svoloch’ in the White House talks…

We have 530 days…(about what the Dow lost today)…until we can look up at the US Capitol and see a new President, a real President, being sworn in and maybe end this nightmare.

coldwarrior on August 8, 2011 at 3:41 PM

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:32 PM

Assessed values? LOL. Come on. That doesn’t mean a thing.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:37 PM

LOL, tell that to out State’s Tax Appeal Board.

As I said, the town in question has a ton of sales each year across all types of property. They base their valuations on all that data. Historically over the past 40 years this town’s assessments have always been within 5% of the actual market.

On the other hand, one town directly next door to this town, with a population almost the same, has had only 11 home sales in the past 12 months. That town’s assessments are a joke, but that is because there is too little data to work with.

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:49 PM

Of course all of the Dems from Obama on down are repeating the mantra that all of this fiscal mess is the fault of the Tea Party.

Has the Tea Party spent any part of the federal treasury? Can the Tea Party authorize and appropriate funds for any federal project? Does the Tea Party have the ability on their own to set fiscal policy for this nation?

But that’s OK. The svoloch’ in the White House says it is all the Tea Party’s fault….so might as well pack it in. The Dow will be above 16,000 tomorrow, thanks to Obama telling all of us that it is the Tea Party’s fault.

Putz.

coldwarrior on August 8, 2011 at 3:50 PM

30% down would be even better.

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:36 PM

But what about all the poor and disadvantaged people? Shouldn’t they own a house? You sound like one of those racist terrorist tea party types.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:40 PM

Don’t worry, Holder has them taken care of too.

The Department of Justice is executing a “Witch Hunt” against banks. Through the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, Attorney General Eric Holder is forcing banks to “relax their mortgage underwriting standards and approve loans for minorities with poor credit as part of a new crackdown on alleged discrimination,” according to a published report by Investor’s Business Daily after reviewing court documents. The DOJ has already extorted $20 million for weak and poor credit loans from banks that “settled out of court rather than battle the federal government and risk being branded racist.”

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/bobbeauprez/2011/07/31/eric_holders_newest_witch_hunt

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:51 PM

I see Fannie and Freddie just got downgraded.

Ronnie on August 8, 2011 at 3:54 PM

The Democrat Media is now “reporting” the 500 point drop, but all of them are omitting that most of that drop came right after O’bama’s non-speech.

They’re not abandoning him by any means.

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:35 PM

It started falling as soon as he started talking. I was watching.

Cause and effect. Zero talks, money walks.

BobMbx on August 8, 2011 at 3:54 PM

F&F just got an F. Ha ha.

Uncle Sams Nephew on August 8, 2011 at 3:54 PM

Del Dolemonte on August 8, 2011 at 3:49 PM

The fact it’s not selling means it is overpriced. What you should tell your friend to do is find the same house for sale in his ‘hood. Price his 15% less. It will sell right away.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:56 PM

But what about all the poor and disadvantaged people? Shouldn’t they own a house? You sound like one of those racist terrorist tea party types.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:40 PM

Thank God poor people don’t own stocks. After today, they would most likely qualify for federal stock loss compensation.

BobMbx on August 8, 2011 at 3:56 PM

On a brighter note…barley futures are stable! Beer prices should be fine for the foreseeable future at least!

BadMojo on August 8, 2011 at 3:52 PM

THANK GOD!!

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:56 PM

Doesn’t matter what some govt bureaucrat says the house “should be worth”. It matters what someone is willing to pay.

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:37 PM

…back 4.5 years ago, when we bought the house I plan to die in (a now 100 year old frame house of about 1400 sqft and a .3 acre lot downtown in a 4000-person town in South Texas), we ran into “some govt bureaucrat” when we submitted to the VA for a loan.

The seller was asking about 89K (and, to give you a picture of the town, that was toward the top of the market here in the 900-1500 sqft. price range), but the VA gentlemen said no-go. They’d finance about 75K. We were bummed…until the seller snapped it up.

The previous owner had had this place on the market for 18 or so months, was already living in a double-wide in a trailer park up in San Antonio to be next to family. She’d only had the place for 2-3 or so years, and wanted shed of it. After hearing her reply, my wife and I began dancing around our mortgage guy’s desk, and the mortgage guy joined in.

…so, 75K at 5.75, only a few closing/paperwork costs, rate knocked down a full point by the folks over at TexVet, as I qualified for their assistance, as well. That made it 4.75, four years prior to the current implosion. It helps to have a mortgage dude who a) likes what he does for a living, b) knows veterans’ issues, and c) isn’t afraid to work with people who don’t look like lift their little fingers when drinking tea.

…but, the VA guys were almost a deal killer.

…good thing I don’t have any desire to move. Ours is an investment property inasmuch as we’ve invested in it (metal roof, modern windows, new flooring in a couple of rooms) to make it more “our” home, not some pile of lumber that folks have come and gone through over the last 100 years.

All the normal house-buying metrics turned out roses: the town turned out to be a good choice, and the school system is the best we’ve see yet (and mother and I have put two kids all the way through school, with two more still in the system…so we’re informed consumers of the education industry’s product).

…sometimes, it isn’t the bureaucrats, the market or even the economy in general…it’s a mix of having realistic expectations based on a good appraisal of your family’s realistic needs, and being lucky/blessed/stumbling into good people along the way to help you.

…but, it’s still down to your effort and application…without that, you’re sunk. Feel free to convey that sentiment to the White House.

Puritan1648 on August 8, 2011 at 3:58 PM

Oh, lost in all the news today is the story that AIG has sued Bank of America for $10B. Charges them with fraud concerning mortgage-backed securities.

The sharks begin to eat each other.

BobMbx on August 8, 2011 at 4:00 PM

10,812. Boo yaa.

j_galt on August 8, 2011 at 4:03 PM

Dow -633…thank you Mr.President.

d1carter on August 8, 2011 at 4:03 PM

ARRGGHHH!!! While the rest of the world now understands that the U.S. government needs to cut spending, I just received this email from Rep. Nancy Pelosi:

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi invites you to an
Autumn Grants Workshop

What: Join the Office of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi for a grants workshop to answer your questions about federal funding, grant-seeking and grant-writing basics.

When: 9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Friday, September 9th, 2011

Where: San Francisco Federal Building
90-7th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Map it!

9:00 a.m. Overview of the Federal Grants Process: Learn how Congresswoman Pelosi’s Congressional Office can help constituents seek federal grants with resources, information, and assistance.

http://email.capitolhillnewsonline.com/q/DylKJb_URAKHA_SKaORtHH9AMMwqXxMEHjTZkM4cNiZ1KH9QroRjdjSXu

Rather than looking for new ways to spend the TAX PAYER’S money, Nancy Pelosi should be back in Washington figuring out what can be cut to balance the budget!

wren on August 8, 2011 at 4:04 PM

-634 is the final number. Booyah!

Chuck Schick on August 8, 2011 at 4:05 PM

Beware of a sheep in Clinton clothing.

As to the statement above that Hillary Clinton is a centrist and pragmatist, I’ll go with the second, but not the first.

If you look at her background, she comes from the same intellectual breeding ground as Obama, the Alinsky School.

But, she’s enough of a pragmatist to know that she could never win a national election from that place. So, she massages her message.

I supported her, early and often, until after the primary. But, given the odd performance she’s given since, I agree she couldn’t have been worse than Obama but only because it’s difficult to become less a person as long as you remain a carbon unit on the planet earth. It’s difficult, in physics, to go negative as an organism.

But, I’m not convinced that Hillary Clinton is any grand bargain for the nation. Or a plum we missed picking.

If you want strength and backbone, along with consistency and principles, we’re probably better served to look to another woman from the 2008 election. A Do-Over in 2012 is a good idea. But the wind of change actually blows from a cold, northern state other than New York. On the other side of the country, actually.

IndieDogg on August 8, 2011 at 4:05 PM

IndieDogg on August 8, 2011 at 4:05 PM

Wouldn’t trust her as far as you could throw her.. Beck predicted that she would swope in to “save the day”, and she’s more radical than Obama.. Everyone saying, thank you Hillary for saving the day…

reshas1 on August 8, 2011 at 4:09 PM

-634 is the final number. Booyah!

Chuck Schick on August 8, 2011 at 4:05 PM

Ouch. How’s that financial raping feel folks? The political class will always sell your assets down the river.

j_galt on August 8, 2011 at 4:09 PM

The market is down 630 points. That’s wall streets answer to Failbama’s redux speech.

dogsoldier on August 8, 2011 at 4:10 PM

Down more than 600?

Meh…its just rich people.

BobMbx on August 8, 2011 at 4:15 PM

- 634. Thanks Obama.

vcferlita on August 8, 2011 at 4:17 PM

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi invites you to an
Autumn Grants Workshop

Here’s my grant request:

“A Study to determine the nominal depth of penetration during anal sex between males, and its effect on water quality in the Bering Sea. $4,000,000.42″

BobMbx on August 8, 2011 at 4:18 PM

But what about all the poor and disadvantaged people? Shouldn’t they own a house?

angryed on August 8, 2011 at 3:40 PM

…allow me to quote the most fiscally ignorant person I know: myself (quoting myself is a bad habit I indulge in more and more the older I get):

it’s a mix of having realistic expectations based on a good appraisal of your family’s realistic needs, and being lucky/blessed/stumbling into good people along the way to help you…but, it’s still down to your effort and application…

…remember that woman who rose to blogosphere stardom prior to the 2008 election…dancing joyfully that the election of Mr. Obama would mean that she would no longer need to worry about her mortgage (rent?), her bills, etc.? I wonder where she lives now. I wonder how her bills are doin’….

…I remember another woman from the same general timeframe extolling the future under Obama, who was bamboozled, as I remember it, into lining up to pick up some “free money” somewhere in her neighborhood…asked by a reporter, she didn’t know where Mr. O, the purported source of this largess, would get the money (“Obama money”, she called it)…”From his stash”, she said….

…and, with tons of stimulus money still not committed (as I understand it), but sitting in a slush fund for the current administration…and with people like Rep. Frank eager as a beaver to see basic banking essentials turned on their heads to get “Obama money” to such people, and with Mr. Holder threatening and coercing banks into dangerous lending policies, I wonder how we’re able to called these people “disadvantaged” any longer.

Seems to me that they’re part of the “in-crowd”…there is no advantage more lucrative than to be disadvantaged today…we live in a nation which needn’t defend itself any longer (after all, it just means that people will die)…it needn’t manufacture any longer (after all, manufacturing is so dirty and un-green)…evidently doesn’t need to mine or wrest its own on-shore resources from the earth (after all, oil isn’t green, and it hurts lizards and stuff)…and evidently the printing presses at the Treasury are still in operation.

…so, why worry….

…except that this last one sounds so much like “I must still have money…I still have checks in my checkbook!” that I’d hear from young soldiers when I was a weary, broke sergeant years and years ago…maybe some folks at the S&P know that “still have checks in my checkbook” dodge, too….

Puritan1648 on August 8, 2011 at 4:22 PM

In Connecticut, a businessman who raised money for Obama in 2008 said, “I’m beyond disgusted.”

Geez…what more did these people need to figure out what this guy really is?

Amazing…

Dr. ZhivBlago on August 8, 2011 at 4:31 PM

The head of Google was on with Cavuto, he says 3% growth produces wealth. I thought wealth was bad.

Cindy Munford on August 8, 2011 at 4:32 PM

The picture is PERFECT , he is AWOL! ALWAYS.
I am beginning to believe he thinks he is MIGHTY MOUSE and his motto is ” HERE I am to save the day.”
That some how his mere presence will solve it!
We are in Deep DO DO batman, We need a leader, not some college jerkoff.

ColdWarrior57 on August 8, 2011 at 4:44 PM

I agree she couldn’t have been worse than Obama but only because it’s difficult to become less a person as long as you remain a carbon unit on the planet earth.

…it’s sort of like looking back with rosy specks at the woeful 2008 season and having to pick between Lucifer and Cthulu…between Stalin and Hitler…and, yeah, I own that I introduced Hitler into the debate…sometimes he’s apropos….

If you want strength and backbone, along with consistency and principles, we’re probably better served to look to another woman from the 2008 election.

IndieDogg on August 8, 2011 at 4:05 PM

…once again, we’re making “feel-good” references here…the aforementioned Mr. Hitler had “consistency and principles”, too. Read “Mein Kampf” some time. Mr. Stalin was pretty consistent, too, if you consider that his princples were related less to Marx and Engels than to a mix of Ivan the Terrible and Caligula….

…it isn’t how consistent to ones principles, but what those principles are and how they’ve put them into practice in the past which are wiser metrics for any elective public servant. What did Obama say when campaigning? Watch it! You’ll have to distill a lot of empty, sugar’d air to get anything substantive from Mr. O, who generally speaks in cotton candy terms. What did Ms. Clinton say she wanted for us? Note that both wanted stuff for us, as if we weren’t smart enough to want and work and get for ourselves.

…with few exceptions, the Democratic party has shown itself to be blind and tone-deaf, with a loop of FDR running loudly in their skulls…if only they were toothless, too.

Puritan1648 on August 8, 2011 at 4:46 PM

Whooo hooo down 634, thats change you can believe in, hell I dont own any stocks and this is depressing me ! I could use a 3 day drunk after this!!!!

ColdWarrior57 on August 8, 2011 at 5:05 PM

BTW – S&P said both Paul Ryan’s budget and the Cut, Cap & Balance plan which were passed in the House would have avoided a downgrade if either one had been passed by the Senate.

The Democrats own this Downgrade.

And if the conservative Republicans don’t hammer this point OVER AND OVER AND OVER… then there’s just no hope for them whatsoever.

DaSaintFan on August 8, 2011 at 5:14 PM

Sure just look up last week’s speech and there ya go.

Key West Reader on August 8, 2011 at 2:18 PM

Thanks for your help, Kanye. Reading the gallows humor here has been good therapy during what might otherwise have been an Observation Deck sort of day.

Jaibones on August 8, 2011 at 5:33 PM

-634 is the final number. Booyah!

Chuck Schick on August 8, 2011 at 4:05 PM

6+3+4 = 13
1+3 = 4

Just 4 years of this turd.

SouthernGent on August 8, 2011 at 5:40 PM

Needs new teleprompter, head wagging getting tiring.

tarpon on August 9, 2011 at 8:52 AM

This man speaks for alot of AMERICA.
http://moonbattery.com/?p=912#comment-7192

ColdWarrior57 on August 9, 2011 at 8:28 PM

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