Despite democratic gains and high unemployment in 1982.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110101704.html

$787 billion to "create" 650,000 jobs. That works out to a mere cost of, what, $1.2 million per job? Sounds like perfect DNC math to me. It's not like this country can ever run out of fake monopoly money; not with Turbo Timmy and Big Ben at the helm.

And of course that's all assuming the "job creation" numbers distributed by the White House have any basis whatsoever in reality.

reagan won in 1984

Despite democratic gains and high unemployment in 1982.

That's because employment improved dramatically after 1982. There was a 180 degree turnaround.

That won't be happening again. Especially after this government nails the employer and the worker with mandates to buy high priced insurance for "essential benefits," i.e., every benny they can think of.

Again, you can have jobs, or the healthcare bill. One or the other.

I agree with most of this analysis, but I question whether Obama has actually put a vast amount of his huge political capital into health reform, as Reich assumes. Yes, he is trying to get a bill passed, which he wants Congress to write, perhaps in order to reduce his own political exposure should it prove unpopular. He is working hard so that a bill, ANY bill, will be passed, but it's clear that passing something that can be labeled "health reform," whether it actually reforms much at all, is his goal -- not systemic change. This means he is hardly going out on a limb politically and expending huge amounts of political capital. How much arm twisting, actually, has he really done? Not much, that I'm aware of, at least at this point in the process.

So I'm not sure what would keep him from simultaneously pushing for a job creation bill. Sure, he would need to twist some arms -- primarily Blue Dogs, in order for it to pass. The progressive block would already be on his side. But pressuring Blue Dogs is something he has never done, because he -- wrongly -- thinks it's bad politics. Rahm has convinced him that supporting widely popular reforms and spending taxpayer money to pay for them is a political loser in Blue Dogs' districts.

As someone outside the Washington bubble, I disagree with this POV, and think that if it causes Obama to shrink from efforts to energize job creation and pass meaningful healthcare, he will find himself out of a job in 2012. The mood in this country is increasingly desperate, as people see jobs continuing to disappear, homes foreclosed on, retirement savings vanish, and a college education for their children out of their reach. I worry that Obama may be fiddling while the USA burns, all to avoid pressuring the Blue Dogs on anything, and in order to keep his corporate donors happy. He certainly doesn't appear to be listening to people like Reich, who are attempting to talk some sense into him.

Real health care reform -- something that would actually get affordable health care to people who currently don't have it, and hold down premiums for those who do -- would be about the biggest economic stimulus the federal government could possibly create. The current health care mess is an insane drag on employment. A good health care bill that passes this year might not show broad economic effects in time to help the Democrats in time for next year's midterms, but it would certainly have an effect by 2012. Obama at that point would have so much "political capital" he wouldn't know what to do with it all.

Of course, if all we get is a few "reforms" full of Big-Insurance-friendly loopholes, and a public option "trigger" that will never be pulled, then your gloomy analysis will be right: nothing will improve economically, and Obama will have spent whatever capital he has left over from 2008 for nothing.

Couldn't agree more.

Obama seems to be waffling on making bold, necessary actions to improve our situation, because he fears being unpopular with some members of Congress.

The problem with that is voters see his overly-cautious politics as inaction or- even worse- incompetence.

I think it's going to be very, very tough to get progressive, democratic, and independent voters to pull the lever for Democrats in 2010 unless things start to turn around quick.

And you'd still be cheering. Not that there's anything wrong with baby eating, mind you.

...only so long as there's the faintest prospect of at least an internship. An internship someday. A possible internship someday.

www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2009nl/oct/acs.htm

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aVU.hIyabHu8

While I have repeatedly commended you for speaking out so courageously and in rightly criticizing the Obama administration, this attitude of his is more than typical.

Obama is corrupt, and so are many members of Congress (see the leaked ethics investigation from Congress that is making the news?)

The healthcare bill Obama is backing is obscene, as you pointed out when you wrote that secret deals with pharma companies at the White House were Unconstitutional if not rampant corruption. Which on top of being undemocratic is the STUPIDEST thing I could possibly imagine if Obama either understood economics or cared about his constituents.

And hardball DC politics aside, which I too am no stranger of, is even more obscene when you consider that we can get discounts for tanks, but Obama won't maintain that clout so we can get the same thing for medicine.

Not to mention Obama's completely off target.

One year in Afghanistan, a war with no purpose (see my blog on the latest article on the subject) cost the same amount as the ENTIRE NATIONAL DOMESTIC BAILOUT. Furthermore Obama has a very good jobs creation program plan, submitted by me, that because of both racism and sexism, not to mention contempt for those who have disabilities, is not only the White House ignoring, but several cabinet heads have broken the law in trying to bury it, to the point of sending goons from the Federal Department of Labor to my house unannounced after I complained about illegal behavior on the part of the cabinet head (Ms. Solis) to the IGs office. And HIS refusal to do anything about it. Not to mention the legal counsel's office, where I have twenty year personal contacts (like Ms. Butts) who are going out of their way to ignore this. To the point of not even returning my phone calls.

And that is only the misdeeds of ONE FEDERAL AGENCY.

Oh, and by the way, it's so bad and so thuggish, that I was beaten up BY THE OBAMA PEOPLE, at a town hall meeting I was invited to, and after being selected to speak after politely raising my hand, (as a registered D and someone who voted for Obama) told the audience that the state organizer was spewing a pack of lies (not only do I have more Washington experience than he or Obama has for that matter, but I started changing state policy at the age of 19, and national policy in DC at the age of 23.) And have been following, to the point of Congressional and White House procedure on the matter, this issue among others, like a HAWK. Not to mention have sources you wouldn't believe.

Yet the Obama Justice Department on civil rights, not to mention Nancy Pelosi's office, hung up on me THREE TIMES - and I have written proof (as in the police report documenting CRIMINAL ASSAULT AND BATTERY CHARGES, not to mention a slew of both civil liberties violations and Constitutional ones. As well as witnesses willing to testify.

I say we thow all the bums out of office, NOW. And start voting for elected officials who are not the whores of Wall Street and K Street. And that's both literally and figuratively meant.

What this is going to lead to is at worst case a Republican takeover of the Hill (again a disaster), people becoming even more apathetic about politics as usual, or insurrection.

As for Obama, he couldn't give a crap about domestic pain in this country, of whatever kind. Like that $215K date night on the taxpayer's dime, to New York, and how he thought this was inappropriate? Does LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE EVER CROSS HIS MIND?

And is yet another sign of Nero fiddling while Rome or in this case, THIS COUNTRY, rots from within. Not to mention, literally burns or floods (see withholding of federal Emergency Aid to a state with two back to back and devastating floods.)

Isn't that change we can be proud of voting into office?

The man is a menace, a liar, out of touch with reality, corrupt, and a narcissistic lunatic on an ego trip. With a pit bull called Rambo who doesn't have a conscience to shield him from the reality of what is really going on. And that pick, as I predicted the moment I heard it, is not deliberate, but Obama's well planned ahead of time decision to do exactly what he has done to date. Push for expanded Executive Privilege, and thinks in some deluded way he is both above the law, and can protect himself by his own personally picked political mercenaries.

And if you don't believe me, where are the reforms of Wall Street, any effort at all to really open the administration to new ideas (and harsh arrogance to the point of physical intimidation and actual violence) when his Majesty's brilliance is both criticized constructively, and his staff refuses to investigate the legal violations Obama and his cabinet are already in the thick of.)

Starting with the obscenity of the White House Website, which is not only not 508 compliant, but allows Google to collect personal private information from those who wish to educate themselves about Obama's policies visually. Which is not only illegal, skirts campaign fundraising issues, and unfortunately is yet again another sign that while Lawrence Tribe is in awe of Obama's understanding (supposedly superior than anyone on the planet) of the Constitution. You don't use that knowledge, even if you have it, to screw over your constituents. Not to mention then keep Bush policies in place to cover his ass.

Those are not, despite Rheinhold's classic on the sociopathology of high ranking politicians, or politics in general for that matter, the kinds of things I look for in a President I will support.

Black, white, male, female or Martian. Republican, Democrat, Green or Party XYZ.