A day to celebrate!
At long last, the seemingly endless national nightmare of the Bush administration is over, and a Democratic liberal has taken the reins. I still can hardly believe it’s true. I wept with relief and joy as I watched his acceptance speech last night. I can’t remember ever being so moved by anything political in my entire life.
Long live President Obama! I wish him luck–he’s got a very tough row to hoe. He’s going to need all the support he can get from Congress to tackle the challenges of the next four years, and he’s going to need the entire country’s help to take out the wedges that Karl Rove and his operatives drove between us, and heal the divides within. My new article, to be published tomorrow, will take a close look at his energy policy proposals, so stay tuned for that. For now I’ll just say: WAHOO!!
Below the fold, a banner and YouTube video submitted by friends, in recogntion of this historic moment.
What an amazing, blessed relief. After eight years of utter shame, I am once again proud to be an American.
Good Wriddance!
Be careful what you wish for – you just might get it.
Obama lost me when, even after it was explained that government revenues tend to go down when capital gains taxes go up, said he would do it anyway out of fairness.
I hope he has some good advisors (and not just a bunch of Marxist buddies) since he doesn’t seem to have any clue about economics – or human behavior for that matter. The One will learn the hard way that he cannot change the laws of nature.
I’m not sorry to see Bush leave – he was a disaster. But I fear that Obama’s presidency will be one hell of a trainwreck.
Comment by markytom — November 5, 2008 @ 10:03 am
And Bush has tried hard to backrupt the country. I think Bush will (and should) go down as the worst president in the history of the US. I’m glad the financial market crash happened while he was still in office – it should be part of his legacy.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/02/debt-10-trillion/
The national debt is going to be a vertical line upwards for the foreseeable future.
Just one clarification on my comment above – it’s not that revenues go up or down with the cutting of captial gains taxes – it’s that Obama didn’t care. He seems to have a scarcity mentality that there is only so much to go around and it is the government’s sole responsibility to “redistribute” the wealth. I prefer a president with an abundance mentality that sees that if we grow the pie then everybody’s life can improve. Obama seems to use simple, linear logic like, “hey, if we double tax rates from 30% to 60% then we will double tax revenues for the government.” It doesn’t work that way. As far as I can tell Obama doesn’t care about improving GDP growth. Instead, Obama seems to want to kill the geese that lay the golden eggs.
Oh, I forgot. With Obama winning I no longer have to worry about paying my mortgage or gas bills now. Hah. People may be in for a big disappointment.
Comment by markytom — November 5, 2008 @ 1:09 pm
markytom: I have to wonder how you came to my blog if that’s your perspective. I have hundreds of posts here, stretching back for 7 years, explaining that a scarcity mentality is crucial if we’re going to muddle through the next several decades, and that we’re facing a train wreck no matter who got elected this time.
Further, I also believe that capital gains taxes should be raised, and the whining about it from the right wing seems shameful and disingenuous at this point in time. It was utterly disgraceful of them to push for it in the middle of the financial market meltdown. Somebody’s gotta clean up their mess, and eventually we’re going to have to raise taxes to go it. The only thing worse than a tax-and-spender is a don’t-tax-and-spender. It’s time for America to start behaving in a responsible and fiscally conservative manner, and brace ourselves for the challenges of the future.
Finally, claiming that Obama has “simple, linear logic” or that he is blind to the laws of nature has no basis in anything you have presented here. I invite you to take your pre-emptive attacks on our new president elsewhere, at least until he’s had a few minutes to prove himself.
Comment by Chris — November 5, 2008 @ 1:24 pm
I just recently stumbled upon you blog recently because of your Peak Oil articles – they make more sense to me that you state that you have been pushing a scarcity mentality for 7 years. I think that if your doomsday peak oil predictions actually come true then you may be more likely to end up dead than rich. If the oil dries up in just a few years with demand increasing exponentially Western civilization is likely to collapse – hyperinflation, wars, riots, revolutions, and anarchy – our invesments won’t amount to squat. Hopefully new technologies/energy sources will come along before Peak Oil causes the world to explode. Otherwise we are all screwed.
As for simple, linear logic – Obama said that someone making $500K or $1,000,000 whose tax rate increases from 36% to 39.6% – that to that someone the difference is “chump chage” – that it is “nothing.” His words. If you made $500K this year and I took $18,000 from you would you consider it “nothing?” I don’t know about you but that logic scares me.
I won’t post any more negative posts on your blog – I may ask some questions once in a while – I am in the oil business and I like reading all the different views on the future of the energy industry.
Sorry, I guess I’ve been suffering a little from Obama Derangement Syndrome – I’m better now. I hope Obama turns out to be the best president the US has ever had and cleans up all the messes the Replublicans and Congress has made over the past few decades. The US needs a strong leader and problem solver – I hope Obama is the one.
Comment by markytom — November 6, 2008 @ 8:39 am