Forgotten Man Author: Dont Repeat Mistakes of the New Deal

"THE historical model that the Democrats are choosing to hold up as they ponder our financial crisis isn't Harry Truman's Fair Deal or Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. It is Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. At least three economic reforms under discussion now were also central in the New Deal package. Trouble is, these reforms didn't necessarily work well when they were first tried - and some failed outright."

More:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11102008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/dont_repeat_errors_of_new_deal_137967.htm

The American Dream Goes On

"Partly because some have moved up, as economist Stephen Rose points out. There are 12 percent more households earning in excess of $100,000 than 20 or so years ago. And those making less than $30,000 have not increased. So virtually the entire "decline" of the middle-class group has come from people moving up the income ladder, not down."

http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2008/06/13/the-american-dream-goes-on.html?PageNr=1

Check out Stu's post on Glenn Beck for more links


http://www.glennbeck.com/content/blog/index.php?page=post&blog=stu&post_id=110

Can We Now Dispense With Some Myths?

Welcome to the wilderness, how long do you want to stay there?

We got the results I feared. I was hoping for a different result, but in the end the pollsters were again correct and it was a 5 point win for Obama, with a devastating down ballot result. When you end the night being glad that Ted Stevens might eek out a victory, that is a bad sign.

So here are some things that I think we now know for the future. If we want to get this country back on the right track, we better learn these and act on them:

1) People are not afraid of Socialism, it is an acceptable political outcome. I'm going to be thinking a long time on why this is, but I think that it is a combination of lack of education within the electorate, a generation has passed since Carter, and the illusionary success of European socialism in our globalized economy.

2) Bi-partisanship is a waste of time. You can't make nice with the political enemy and expect them to play fair or support you in any meaningful way. The PUMAs were interesting to listen to, but they weren't a political factor. The fact that McCain and Hillary are friends means nothing, and just serves to cheapen our positions. By the same token, mavericks should be marginalized, not given our nomination.

3) Image, charisma, and articulation matters. If our candidate doesn't make the people who watch Access Hollywood say, "Hey! He/She is really hip and cool!", then we are toast. This goes for ALL of our leaders, not just our presidential candidate. We need people who can articulate our positions in terms that the voters can understand and resonate with. It took an Ohio plumber to put in simple words what was wrong with Obama's tax plan, and it came too late. At the end of the day, none of our candidates really stood a chance with this dynamic.

More:

http://www.redstate.com/diaries/dave_in_fla/2008/nov/05/can-we-now-dispense-with-some-myths/

The night we waved goodbye to America...

"I really don’t see how the Obama devotees can ever in future mock the Moonies, the Scientologists or people who claim to have been abducted in flying saucers. This is a cult like the one which grew up around Princess Diana, bereft of reason and hostile to facts."

Ouch!

Full article

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1084111/PETER-HITCHENS-The-night-waved-goodbye-America--best-hope-Earth.html

VDH: Upside Down World

"This is the 21st century, not the 19th. Those who makes $40,0000 or $80,000 or $1,000,000 per year all pretty much have hot water for their showers. Their tap water doesn’t sicken them, and they watch about the same TV shows and mostly have cell phones. Mass consumerism, easy credit, and technology have blurred the distinctions between wealth and poverty. That I buy a Wal-Mart sweat suit to ride a bike in the winter for $20 does not mean that I am any colder than the Manhattan exec who buys one with a designer label version for $150 at a boutique on Park Avenue. His $20 million-dollar penthouse apartment is no warmer or cooler than my Selma farmhouse. As far as the private jet, the yacht, the 5 homes, I’d prefer to fly commercial, rent a kayak, and have trouble enough keeping two toilets running and the hot water heater from silting up without worrying about either 50 of them or a staff of 5 to oversee them all.

So the advantages of wealth are more of a status thing and free choices of recreation or more leisure time than a vast difference in material conditions. For all the talk of the uninsured, one can buy catastrophic health insurance for $200-300 a month. And at the local rural health clinics in my area, many people, a year or two after arriving from the third word in Oaxaca, find good dental care, prenatal attention and major medical treatment pretty much free, something, for example, unheard of in rural Mexico."

More
http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/361/

Six ways Obama can show he'll be a different kind of president.

4. Increase disclosure and transparency. Obama founded his campaign on removing the influence of special interests. "They have not funded my candidacy, and they will not run my White House," he has said repeatedly. To match this message immediately, Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, has a tidy little to-do list for the candidate who has promised unsurpassed ethical standards:

• Disclose donors who gave less than $200.
• Disclose the amounts and professions of bundlers who helped him raise gargantuan sums.
• Disclose donors to his "Obama Transition Project."
• Disclose immediately online those who give to the inaugural committees.
• Promise not to raise funds anonymously for the presidential library until the end of his term.

More:

http://www.slate.com/id/2203761/

When you think someone's Moses, you expect him to part the seas.

Some wonder if Barack Obama is a hard leftist or more a pragmatic politician who simply rose in leftist precincts (that would be you, Hyde Park, Chicago). A less charged way to put the question would be: Is he a strict modern liberal, or possibly a man of some considerable moderate instincts? The obvious answer is: We're about to find out.

More:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122600597583706149.html