Last night’s election was an interesting mid-term election in terms of how the electorate voted. While Republicans took back many seats they lost in 2008 it wasn’t the overall tsunami some had predicted, indicting that American has bought into an overall distaste of Obama and the Democrats. In Texas Rick Perry carried his lead to a victory over Bill White, possibly the best candidate Democrats could mount against Gov. Perry this election. However, even with White’s potential he could not overcome a negative sentiment against Obama, possibly counting as much as 6 points against White. But what about other aspects of the election?
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Yesterday Chicago lost in its bid to become an Olympic city in the first round of voting even after a personal appeal from Pres. and Mrs. Obama. GamesBids.com, a site that heavily watches such bidding competition, keeps a bid index that rates various aspects of a city’s bidding prospect. Going into the voting they raised Chicago’s chances to 61.24, up 1.23 points, but not enough to overtake Rio’s index of 61.42, a drop of 0.19 points. On Sept. 10th GamesBids.com had moved Chicago from last place to second place and Rio from second to first, overtaking Tokyo. What I find interesting and completely insane is how conservatives and conservative blogs have jumped on Obama after the loss as if he created the situation. Did these people all of a sudden become Olympic movement experts? Read more…
Last Wednesday night many of us watched Pres. Obama deliver an address on health care reform in a rare special session of Congress. The address comes at a time when Congress has just returned from the summer recess and a series of town halls held across the nation on health care reform, many which have been shouting matches at best. Aside from the normal cheering and booing from either side of the aisle the event was marked by a rare shout from the Republican section by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC). Wilson has since apologized to the president and faces possible discipline Monday if he doesn’t apologize on the floor of the House. Personally I feel Wilson has apologized enough and we should put this incident behind us. The real question is whether this signals a change in the tone of debate in America. Read more…
Tuesday President Barack Obama will address school children across the nation in a speech about responsibility, education and the values of staying the course. I’ve read the remarks posted by the White House and find them to be pretty good and reasonable. There’s no political rhetoric like the garbage I’ve seen coming from both sides on health care reform. For example, after remarks about not having great advantages Pres. Obama tells kids that’s no excuse for not doing the right thing. “But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying,” according to the remarks. For some reason the conservative right has taken a good speech from a president and made it about evil indoctrination. Give me a BREAK! Read more…
A colleague of mine at work sent me a link to a Time article that provided an in depth look at the stimulus plan being proposed. I had mentioned to him several times it’s time for some Keynesian economics to kick into gear. It is very apparent the American public and business are not going to jump start the economy any time in the next 3-5 years. Keynes promoted that at times like this it’s critical to have government take the lead and provide “stimulus” to help fuel investment and spending. Read more…
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