Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mises]

Cap and trade is dead too, I assume.

[Street Magic]

[Fox]

[SeoulMan99]

I absolutely hate Keith Olbermann. What I would give to have one solid punch on him.

[Ya-ta Boy]

It's outcomes like this that are what make politics so much fun to watch.

There's at least an even chance that the far left will declare the reason Coakley lost is because Obama wasn't liberal enough and try to pull the party to the left--purge the Blue Dogs!...a mirror image of what the GOP has been doing all year.

Pelosi has said we'll get health reform no matter what--possibly that the House will just pass the Senate version. That seems to be what is called ping ponging a bill.

We've known for more than a month that Obama was going to call for a jobs program and fiscal restraint in his State of the Union (next Wednesday?). I don't see that changing. It'll be interesting to see if the Republicans argue against a jobs program.

I'm really curious to see if Obama still seeks bipartisanship. It hasn't worked for a year, but maybe now that the GOP has a filibuster safe majority of their own, they may be more willing to negotiate. I'm not holding my breath, but...

I might just be being pessimistic, but it looks to me right now that any real reform is done for at least until the Nov mid-term election and probably until after the 2012 presidential election.

PS: Pluto, please don't take my words out of context just so you can damn me. It isn't nice.

[Gopher]

It would seem, to paraphrase one of your favorites, Ya-ta Boy, that reports of the Republicans' demise have been greatly exagerrated.

And in Massachussetts, no less.

[Fox]

I have to say, though, I think Senator Frank's reaction to the election results is more or less perfect.

[Ya-ta Boy]

There is a 4th option: use reconciliation to pass an expansion of Medicare to people 55 and over. Not perfect, but simple, easily understandable and leaves the door open to do it again and again.

Goph:

One election does not a tsunami make. Ask Ron Paul.


IS there a Republican Party left--one that would be recognizable to the Republicans I grew up with? In my opinion, that party is long gone--the party of Eisenhower, Everett Dirkson, John Lindsey, Nelson Rockefellar... Yes, Palin, Rush, etc use the same name, but are they the same party, or is it now the party of Robertson/Falwell, O'Reilly and Hannity, Michelle and Michelle and Glenn and Rick Perry-secession-is-A-OK-with-me, etc? I wouldn't mind hearing a policy proposal from that crowd. Mind you, I said 'proposal', not a whine and not a screed, but an actual proposal on how to address the issues confronting the nation.

I've been curious these last months. I remember a couple of years ago when you declared you were switching parties because of the deplorable treatment that your boy Joe Liebermann got at the hands of the Democrats of the Great and Sovereign State of Connecticutt, how you feel about his behavior since.

Be that as it may...for happier thoughts:

We're only 1/4 of the way through Obama's term. If I remember correctly, and I do, Clinton lost on health care reform at the beginning of his first term and still ended up in his EIGHTH year at 60+% popularity. Is popularity everything? Maybe not, but it's a darn sight better than unpopularity, and that's what Bush and his wretched policies ended up with.

The biggest mistake Obama has made was to expect Republicans to be concerned more about the country than their own political future. I've never said Republicans aren't better cynics. I've never said Republicans aren't willing to use the politics of fear, and be more successful with it. Rove is a genius, I'll give you that. I have said it's hard to respect that position except in a stunned, aghast kind of way. I still think, in the end, Americans will respond more favorably to politicians who appeal to the better angels of our nature by offering solutions to our problems.

[Fox]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Here's an angle that hasn't gotten enough attention:

The Angry White Guy Factor http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/01/the-sexism-factor.html#more

"She's a lawyer and a female DA, so doubly emasculating in their eyes. She didn't help herself after the primary by only relying on the old Hillary base, which is other ball-buster female lawyers. That's a strong enough group to win a four-way primary but no way big enough for the general election.

In that context, all Scott Brown had to do was show up and 1) be white 2) be male and 3) come off as anything other than an elite. Hence the truck and hunting shirts, a brilliant touch on his campaign's part, and one that will probably win him the election."

I do think there's a lot to that view. There is probably nothing sadder, more frustrated, more self-pitying and therefore angrier, than the Angry White Guy. (Think Trent Lott looking back nostalgically at what could have been at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party.) When you add that segment to the electorate that wasn't concerned about health care because 97% of Massachusetts already has better health care coverage than what Congress is offering (and a wretched candidate), you get the results we got today.

But I still think the decisive factor was that people have had the bejezus scared out of them because of the GOP's economic policies that ran the economy into the ditch last year and so far, Obama hasn't captured that fear and disgust. It may not be nice and it may not be civilized, but as I've said all along, a few banker sorts strung up on lamp posts on Wall Street would go a long way toward lancing that boil. There is a Canadian I can think of who would serve as a decent blood sacrifice. [/quote]

[Ya-ta Boy]

A question I find interesting: What will happen to Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson et al once they are no longer the 60th vote?

What happens to Scott Brown once he has to start voting since he isn't as far right as the tea baggers? He's up for re-election in '12. Will he be Scozzafavaed if he doesn't walk in lock-step with the rest of his party?

LOTS of entertainment ahead.

[Fox]

[Kuros]

[bacasper]

[mises]