What Does Obama Do Now?
A thought experiment. In good faith.
Pretend, for a moment, it's your job to advise President Obama. What would you tell him to do? Assuming, for a moment, that you're a savvy Democrat and a loyal leftie, but you can also read and understand the polls, what would you tell him to do?
He's already talking about drilling for gas -- as the Ricochet Headlines page tells me --and he told listeners in India that he needs to make some "midcourse corrections."
So what should they be?
My advice would be to immediately stop spending any remaining stimulus money, push back hard against extending the Bush tax cuts, and instead insist on giving working Americans a twelve-month payroll-tax holiday. I'd signal a willingness to revisit the Bush-era Social Security reform plan, concentrating on raising the (future) retirement age. And I'd lure the Republicans into a renewed discussion on immigration reform, but pre-empt them by agreeing to vastly increase the number (and ease of application) of H-1B visas -- hoping they'd go a little too far, and triangulating between them and the far-left Dems. Get the American voter to see him as reasonable and moderate -- and a tax cutter, too.
What's your advice?
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Jul '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
If I were Obama, my first move would be to spend $200 million per day to go to India and get myself photographed dancing like a sissy:
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/the-obamas-charm-with-their-fisherfolk-dance-64800
Sep '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
Give the TV interviews and speeches a rest for a week or two.
Jun '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
Tough road for the president. He needs at least 260k jobs per month to find 8% unemployment in 23 months. I would cut corporate taxes. Only nixon got china and Obama can make the change that will hold jobs in America. Politically he would get the support from the business community which he so needs. Of course in offering this advice I would be preparing my resume as the lefties all through that WH would run me out
Edited on Nov 7, 2010 at 11:22amJul '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
Policy changes are important, but I would also have him change the "optics." Shake up the administration. Bring in people who have actually done things in life rather than just academics and think tankers who make their livings thinking, talking and writing instead of doing. A fair percentage ought to be Republicans. Their presence would help deflect incoming fire. Get rid of Gibbs -- people are sick of him. Step out of the media glare. Grant the occasional print interview just to show he's not tied up in the attic. Get therapy to explain his remote aloofness. It has to be his parents, of course; and perhaps the Marxist poet and pedophile his lefty grandparents unwittingly (one hopes) exposed him to in the interest of giving him a strong black male model. Understanding himself better might unfreeze him emotionally. Stop all the golfing and expensive vacations. Don't be seen with Harry or Nancy. Listen to Limbaugh a couple times a week even if he has to grit his teeth. Have O'Reilly in for dinner to pick up pointers on how to be a regular guy.
Jul '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
My advice to Obama is the same Advice I'll give to the Republicans;
.
First things FIRST, Everything Else NOT FIRST!
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I'm feeling quite certain it will fall on Deaf Ears!
Sep '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
I would tell him to copy Clinton's political playbook (minus the fabric stains) and study how he talked over the heads of Gingrich et al and triangulated the issues in such a way as to let the air out of the Republican balloon.
And then I'd tell him to hire a coach so next time he throws a pitch he doesn't make girl faces.
Jun '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
I think it’s time we asked what impact federal job creation efforts have in an economy where states and municipalities also play a vital role. George Savage wrote some time ago about the cost of building a factory in California versus building one in Singapore. What we are experiencing is the outflow of jobs for a combination of reasons and not just ridiculous over taxation at the federal level. Tax holidays are well and good but they do not come close to addressing the myriad of ridiculous impediments to creating jobs that run the gamut from stupid zoning regulations to even more stupid environmental policies. The goose that’s laying the golden eggs is dying the death of a thousand cuts.
Jul '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
It almost doesn't matter what Obama does now, because it never really much mattered what he did.
All the policies associated with his administration were really, all along, the work of the Pelosi-Reid Congress. Obamacare, stimulus and financial reform were all the evil spawn of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Obama was nothing but a glamorous show pony for the long-serving Leftist workhorses like David Obey, Henry Waxman and Barney Frank.
Now that Obama's glamor has been stripped so far away that Jon Stewart can openly laugh in his face and call him "dude", he's no longer a glamorous and useful show pony, he's a pathetic gelding.
Edited on Nov 7, 2010 at 1:11pmJul '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
Hmmm. "...good faith..., leftist?"
[Oval Office, harried POTUS is seated behind a desk in Hawaiian shirt with a mirror and tweezers, plucking gray hairs from his face and head. >POOF!< A stench of sulfur fills the room, smoke rising from THE CARPET. A shadowy figure appears.]
SHADOW: Hello.
[POTUS continues, unresponsively.]
SHADOW: Barry, what are you doing?
POTUS [absently]: World tour, lots of ships and planes. Very presidential. Who let you in?
[POTUS looks at blank teleprompters blankly, shrugs.]
SHADOW: I heard you could use some pointers. Having a bad week.
POTUS: Tsk, tsk. You shouldn't be reading the racist press like that. We held California! A minor mid-term adjustment. Cyclical. A statistical inevitability.
SHADOW: It's the biggest House swing since 1948.
POTUS: Asia! Presidential tour! Exotic food! Dancing girls!
SHADOW: Biggest Republican majority since the 1920s!
POTUS: Golf!!!
SHADOW: What about the agenda? This is when the remaining faithful need your strength the most.
POTUS: Eisenhoweresque. Golf. Tour. Be Presidential. Second term. They can ride my coattails back into power in two years.
SHADOW: What about saving health care? Carbon taxes? Nationalizing the breweries?
POTUS [stands and goes to door]: Next term! [exits dancing]
Edited on Nov 7, 2010 at 5:08pmAug '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
Get up, dust myself off and go home.
May '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
This is utterly baffling. Meaning it's a good question, and your advice is as good as anyone's. I mean, if he listened even slightly, he wouldn't be in this horrific position. It's like confusing a political advisor with a hospice nurse.
He should (hate to use the phrase "needs to") cut loose the unions and the nutroots. Doesn't make you look in good company, man. Agree to spending cuts but flourish the veto pen on extending the top bracket tax cuts. And like most wounded Prezes, focus on foreign policy, which is a win-win because it's sadly neglected the past couple of years. A short sharp shock of a Persian bomb run wouldn't go amiss.
Jul '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
Why is it a good idea for him to veto the extension of top tax rates?
May '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
A clever political move would be to compromise on the Bush tax cuts by proposing the following:
Make the middle class tax cuts permanent while extending the "rich people" cuts for only two years. Republicans would have political difficulty not going along, and in two years it would be next to impossible to extend tax cuts merely for the rich, thus killing that portion of Bush's cuts.
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
Don't submit to any of the fine policy decisions above and be voted out of office in 2012.
May '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
Kenneth
Why is it a good idea for him to veto the extension of top tax rates? · Nov 7 at 2:08pm
Not a move I'd support, but wasn't going to vote for him anyway. He's a Democrat, and that's a low-risk populist flourish.
Oct '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
The first question that sprung to my mind was to try and figure out what the equivalent to "Welfare Reform" is today.
My first answer is the complexity of the current income tax code. Slashing corporate welfare could give him street cred on the left, but lowering the corporate tax rate to 20% (and get more revenue to boot) would get him support on the right. Streamline the individual tax forms/deductions to make them small business friendly would also help. And flatten the tax code.
The second answer would be to streamline the bloated bureaucracy. The largest complaint from independents is that govt wastes a ton of money, and asks why we should contribute more (see: stimulus). Cut non-essential govt activities (farm subsidies, head start, dept of education, dept of energy) and then bring in Booz Allen or McKinsey to streamline defense dept and all the rest.
Oh, wait. This is what the Republicans should do. Clinton did not propose Welfare Reform, remember. Obama can "negotiate," veto a couple of times, then Congress can make minor modifications. But in the end, Obama will sign legislation that is good for the country. That's what Clinton did.
Jul '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
If I wanted to keep My job?
"Mr. President, You need to veto any and all legislation that has an overwhelming Republican majority voting for it."
If I didn't care to keep My job?
"Dude, You need to sign any and all legislation that has an overwhelming Republican majority voting for it."
Jul '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
He won't listen.
Jun '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
The first thing I would do is order the sidewalks at the White House replaced below all third story balconies. Then I would invite Ahmadinejad for an official visit. We could have tea and a cigarette as we chat amiably on the aforementioned third story balcony. And then the president of Iran would accidentally take a tumble over the balustrade onto the exposed re-bar below. After that I would call Vladimir Putin . . .
Oct '10
Re: What Does Obama Do Now?
Here's what I think Obama should do: