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Musicmystery -> RE: Yikes! Obama's approval ratings still up. (6/5/2009 10:01:27 AM)
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OK.
Bush's first year and Obama's first year are night and day in terms of where the country is and what we're facing. Trading bashes is pointless. Irrelevant. Apples and Oranges.
The current problems bridge administrations here. The overspending and the bailouts and the credit crisis and Gitmo and the wars and the security vs. freedom and torture vs. rights debates--these all started during the Bush administration, and Obama was handed the mess, whomever deserves the blame/credit for getting us here. And polarizing every discussion as rabid Obama fans or nutty right-wing radicals contributes nothing to the conversation, and makes posters here look even more ridiculous than the extremists on both sides of Congress during a hot political showdown.
Obama is doing a reasonable job addressing a mountain of problems. No, that doesn't mean I agree with it all. I do agree that Afghanistan is a bigger problem than Iraq, and that it was ignored too long. I also agree that, while I'm painfully aware of the cost, we cannot simply let the economy flounder. Invisible Hand enthusiasts overlook that Adam Smith wrote during an agrarian age. We can't just all go back to the farm while the economy corrects itself. The Industrial Revolution is here to stay. I'm nervous that the contractionary policy needed when we're over this hump won't be popular either and thus may be neglected, but alas, first things first. And government spending doesn't just go poof--it goes back into the economy, contributing to GDP and boosting consumption. The legal/rights issues concern me, but again, this is a continuation of concerns I had during the previous administration.
So while no, he doesn't get a free pass, he does still have my support. And no, that doesn't mean I agree with whatever stunts the Democrats pull anymore than I'm impressed with Republican nonsense.
I DO hope that, while I doubt it, Americans learn two things from all this: (1) don't just wave flags when leaders decide we'll just go over and kick some foreign ass, and (2) relearn how to save--we're one of the richest nations in the world, yet we have a negative savings rate (I'm talking about citizens here, not the government--and no, it's not the fault of taxes, as we have among the lowest taxes of any industrial nation). Americans tend to worry about problems only during hard times, squandering opportunities during better times to prepare.
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