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Obama ready to "manage expectations."
Oct. 31st, 2008 08:54 amIt's Fox, so you may want a grain of salt, but I find This
article to touch on a concern I have with every election, and the concern I
have with the emotional fervor Obama's drawn from many people. Basically,
the Obama campaign is working on a plan to "manage expectations" because
they fear that people's expectation of change may be "unrealistic." Obama
was allegedly the first to realize that expectations may be overblown.
I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed by how little
change actually happens should Obama win. Honestly, the fact that
he's such a media darling and has the backing of his party behind him tells
me, at least, that it's going to be business as usual. Real promise of
change would have been met the way Ron Paul was -- to hear Paul
supporters talk, he had as much charisma and grass-roots support as Obama,
but I recall him being not-invited to debates and ignored by the media. No
one in power wants change.
Even more concerning for me, though, is the thought of unified
Executive and Legislative branches. For most of my cognizant life I've
known a split government, where one party controls the Congress and the
other has the White House. Generally, I think that's a good thing,
for the simple cynical reasoning that as long as they're fighting with each
other, at least they'll be leaving the rest of us alone. If Obama wins, i'm
afraid we'll see a Democrat congress with a Democrat president (nevermind
the fact that I don't bellieve Obama has what it takes to be more than just
a Party figurehead and moth-piece) and I think that's a bad thing.
It will minimize the checks that I generally rely on to ensure the
Government mostly leave me alone.
To be frank, though, I really think Obama would be a bad choice at this
particular time in history. I'm no great economist, but I do know that he
wants to tax businesses, and I also know that the best way for a business to
protect profits from taxes is to raise prices. Higher prices is not
something we need right now. It's arguable that McCain's plans could see
people's net income shrink, and it's further arguable that such a situation
would be like raising prices. The difference is that if people don't
have the money to spend, prices will tend to fall toward actual cost; Obama
would raise the effective 'cost' of business, making that lower-limit on
prices higher. At least with McCain businesses might have a lower settling
point.
Anyways. Just some of my thoughts.
article to touch on a concern I have with every election, and the concern I
have with the emotional fervor Obama's drawn from many people. Basically,
the Obama campaign is working on a plan to "manage expectations" because
they fear that people's expectation of change may be "unrealistic." Obama
was allegedly the first to realize that expectations may be overblown.
I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed by how little
change actually happens should Obama win. Honestly, the fact that
he's such a media darling and has the backing of his party behind him tells
me, at least, that it's going to be business as usual. Real promise of
change would have been met the way Ron Paul was -- to hear Paul
supporters talk, he had as much charisma and grass-roots support as Obama,
but I recall him being not-invited to debates and ignored by the media. No
one in power wants change.
Even more concerning for me, though, is the thought of unified
Executive and Legislative branches. For most of my cognizant life I've
known a split government, where one party controls the Congress and the
other has the White House. Generally, I think that's a good thing,
for the simple cynical reasoning that as long as they're fighting with each
other, at least they'll be leaving the rest of us alone. If Obama wins, i'm
afraid we'll see a Democrat congress with a Democrat president (nevermind
the fact that I don't bellieve Obama has what it takes to be more than just
a Party figurehead and moth-piece) and I think that's a bad thing.
It will minimize the checks that I generally rely on to ensure the
Government mostly leave me alone.
To be frank, though, I really think Obama would be a bad choice at this
particular time in history. I'm no great economist, but I do know that he
wants to tax businesses, and I also know that the best way for a business to
protect profits from taxes is to raise prices. Higher prices is not
something we need right now. It's arguable that McCain's plans could see
people's net income shrink, and it's further arguable that such a situation
would be like raising prices. The difference is that if people don't
have the money to spend, prices will tend to fall toward actual cost; Obama
would raise the effective 'cost' of business, making that lower-limit on
prices higher. At least with McCain businesses might have a lower settling
point.
Anyways. Just some of my thoughts.
