Shinseki as VA secretary. I don't think we know the full accurate story but I do remember him as standing up to Rumsfelds optimistic projects for the occupation of Iraq. Glad Shinseki has landed somewhere.

Though many Americans wouldlike to believe the whole revolves around us the plain truth is some things just happen regardless of us or how we think/feel about them. So I tend to disagree that these attacks had anything at all to do with us.

The best part is that you are going to be cluelessly and harmlessly yammering away in cyberspace for the next eight years while President Obama actually gets shit done.

Your Internet addiction = good for America!

Well, basically he's the guy who put together a plan for Iraq that postulated force levels of up to 500,000 troops. After saying as much when testifying before Congress, he was chewed out publically by both Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.

This was, however, only one in a series of disagreements he had with Rumsfeld.

I wonder how much detail, though, one can put in a press release. ;)

Forgive me for pointing out that almost ALL of the shit you spouted on about during the election and in the days since the election have turned out to be total bunk.

I really hope he "gets shit done" (as long as it's good shit). But I'm facinated by the optimism. Charisma is an amazing force.

Agreed. These two articles profoundly demonstrate that the more things change, the more they stay the same.........

8 years ago:

Cheney Denies 'Talking Down' Economy for Political Gain : Talk of Recession Strains Transition - International Herald Tribune

Yesterday:

My Way News - Obama: Economy to get worse before it improves

The only real difference is the spin on what is basically the same situation. It's all the same in the end. There were people making posts just like Subby and Flasch 8 years ago on the other side. It's silly, but not unexpected. They're just caught up in the moment. It happens to the best of people.

i point to my post a few posts above. You have totally been discredited when it comes to anything political especially any sort of speculation or prognostication.

Where do you pull these from? It's not a big deal as we all borrow from other sites, but you have a habit of posting without citation. I have a hard time believing that you saw an AP article and said to yourself, "Hey that reminds me of an International Herald Tribune article from eight years ago."

These two articles were posted over at the Wizbang blog. I don't agree with all of their opinion in the blog, but the articles are a good reference.

reference for what?

I refer back to the title of this thread.

I hope I get my "President check" before Christmas.

I predict I won't.

The Obama Presidency - hopes and predictions

Personally, I'm hoping for a little bit less of this:


:jawdrop:

My hope is that Obama is the exception and not the norm of Illinois Democrats.

Geez, my hope is beginning to be that Obama's cabinet doesn't have any more skeletons in the closet. Looks like Rahm may not be the only one who Obama failed to adequately check his background. Another one of Obama's cabinet is a main player in a new 'pay to play' investigation.......

"Pay To Play" Probe Hits New Mexico, Washington Post: Gov. Bill Richardson's Office Investigated Over Political Contributor's $1.4M State Contracts - CBS News

Since you no nothing about this please stop talking. We have plenty rigs and drilling supplies for offshore. The problem is when oil drops to lower rates, it no longer worth the expense of drilling. The oil field is predicting a 50% drop in the amount of rigs this year from last in the north american drilling fields.

We just had our budget cut by about 1/3 for the next year.

Insincerity, thy name is MBBF.

Actually, I was being sincere. I'd much rather we be able to discuss policies. Given the Obama attacks over the vetting of Palin, you would think that he would have done a better job on his end. It's obviously concerning.

He's even sincere enough to place it in multiple threads:
Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Illinois governor arrested on corruption charges.......

SI

Obviously, that was in response to a question, not a post meant to double post.

Obviously, there's a great deal of sincerity going around this morning

SI

MBBF: You've been looking for any way to discredit Obama for months. That's fine, but at least drop the "wishing him the best" act.

Rooting against the president?

I don't understand how people can do that. Our country is in shambles right now and whether you wanted McCain to win or Obama should not matter at this point. I hope Obama does well, because we as a country need him to do well.

So everyone who is hating on him, just need to STFU and get with the program. If he sucks he will be gone in four years and our country will be in worse shape. But, we need him to do well if we want our country to recover.

Agree with all of this. It's simply unheard of to think that people on this board or anyone in the general public would every root against a president. I can't remember the last time that's ever happened.

MBBF, did you ever admit to being completely wrong on the elections thread?

lemme see...

nope.

credit = zero

I'm sure that Flasch's Truth Watch(TM) is just finalizing data on the criminal investigations in Chicago and New Mexico. He's never ducked an issue before. I'm certain he'll get to the bottom of these current issues. He's always been a person that seeks the truth regardless of party affiliation, and I respect him for that.

lets see

the prosecutor has arrested the accused
the pres-elect team has investigated
the prosecutor asked that the report be delayed and confirmed that the president elect and his team aren't being implicated

not sure what else you want from that other than the same thing I said about Troopergate:

I hope EVERYONE cooperates fully and the TRUTH comes out.

I feel fairly confident though that the President isn't going to start a parallel investigation and refuse to cooperate with Fitzgerald, if he does Ill be sure to lump him in the same category as the other people who do so.

you do want the same right? In all things, right?

Is that what you wanted? Pretty clear huh? exactly the same as Troopergate? You, however, were VERY VERY wrong, completely biased, and never ever admitted it even when empirical un-partisan information blew up in your face. that's just crazy IMO

You guys realize that this continuing partisan bickering make both sides look like fools? Flasch/JPhillip/etc., don't get too cocky. You never have and still don't sound any different than MBBF/etc..

Buc: This is going to sound a lot bitchier than I intend it to be, but here goes. For all of your concern about other folks' behavior there's almost no one here more set in their ways than you are. I gather you see yourself as beyond partisanship, but even if that's true, you're a rather inflexible ideologue at this point.

I don't have a problem with your inflexibility and I'm willing to stipulate that I'm just as inflexible(age and parenting does that to a guy). I honestly don't have a problem with an adversarial relationship when it comes to politics as I think the genuine disagreements should be aired out. If we're ever going to change our minds it will be because of passionate argument, not deferential silence.

I try to only call people out when I believe they aren't being honest, and that's what I did with MBBF. I don't have a problem with him being opposed to Obama, but concern trolling is just a way to obfuscate reality. I obviously don't agree with MBBF on substance, but that's something we can argue over if there is an attempt by both sides to show our cards.

As for looking like a fool, perhaps, but as long as I'm deemed honest about my intentions I can live with that. I'm happier letting the world see me for who I am, warts and all, than I would be pretending to bathe in the warm waters of ambivalent and apathetic centrism. At the end of the day I think you believe the same thing.

It's interesting, both sides think that the other sides' approach to an argument is "wrong" - they feel that way, of course, because they're so sure they're "right".

Disagreeing is "trolling", agreeing is something else, because hey, you can't be trolling if you're right.

molson: I think you misunderstand the term "concern trolling". That's when you feign concern for someone or something that you in fact have no concern for. It seems pretty obvious based on his history that MBBF isn't really concerned for Obama.

JPhillips, I do agree with that. I think I should not have lumped you with Flasch but instead, should put in Flere. :)

I actually don't think what I believe would be called bi-partisanship or centrism or beyond partisanship. It's probably an attitude that the current red/blue partisans are equally wrong. :) Since the summer, I have seen a constant stream attacking the opposition and being defensive about one side. You can call that passionate arguing but in the end, it is really about changing parties while we continue to accept federal government solutions and increasing powers. I cannot accept that and those that argue for it. Or something like that.

Bill Richardson is filthy.

Politician = filthy

Vote Ron Paul!

I actually was be honest about Obama. I REALLY would prefer that we don't have any scandals in the White House at this point. Obviously, I might have a small dab of sarcasm involved in my comments, but I was being very truthful in my feeling that I hoped Obama didn't end up in any political scandals.

Thus far, from a policy standpoint, I've been very happy that most of the Obama policies are moderating before our very eyes.

Actually, I really don't think it matter what exactly the president does. A lot of the current mortgage crisis were due to policies put into place before GW took office. Nor were the .coms turning to crap something Bush could have prevented. The world economy is suffering and that isn't strictly a GW problem either. I think you could put a retarted monkey in office, and these issues will clear themselves up. I'm not all that concerned with the "program." I'm more concerned about what his policies are going to do for the long haul, not the short term.

Nah, we've already tried that and it badly didn't work

SI

Some people treat politics as a sport. They have their team and they root against the other. The country is secondary to their competitive nature.

It's an ironic twist since they are the ones who would like you to believe that they care more about their country because of their involvement in politics while in fact they aren't.

I agree.

Agreed. My biggest fear in all this is we get so caught up in ensuring no one ever gets laid off or loses their retirement in the market that we remove many of the incentives that make the US what it is.

There's a tight line we are about to walk between showing some compassion to people in tough times and trying to remove all risk from American life. It seems like most of the fear has been associated with straying too far from the first direction, but little has been devoted to worrying about the second. In 8 years, we will all have made it through this either way, I just hope we don't do long term damage to our fiscal/economic system to stave off a few years of pain (that we probably won't avoid anyway).

EDIT - And for those in the republican/democrat horse race, I would be just as worried about the above if McCain had been elected.

I guess I should have added a fifth ...

5. Stabilized and peacefull Middle East.

You might as well ask for world peace, an end to hunger and poverty and, heck, ponies for everyone. :p

Well he is an Obama supporter, I'm sure he already has ;)

I'll have you know I put in my order for a pony before the election. If I don't get one by January 21st, I'm going to be pissed.

No winged unicorns in stock?

I remembered that. Problem is they gave away the ponies to the financial execs, auto execs, labor leaders and those that got bad mortgages. No pony for you.

ECONOMY

Hopes:

• U.S. out of recession by early 2010.
• DOW back over 10,000 by 2011.
• The Obama team figures out how to get Wall Street to finally resolve all the bad debts out there (the weakness of the American economy isn't addressed in full until this is, in my opinion).
• In 2009, an Obama "reconstruction" plan passes Congress that is designed to rebuild the U.S. for the 21st century. It includes:
  • Substantial investment in R&D efforts for "21st century" industries, such as technology, biotechnology, pharma, green technologies, etc....
  • Infrastructure upgrades (roads, rail, ATC, internet backbone)
• Better regulatory powers, and a will to use them intelligently, at the SEC.

Predictions:

• U.S. out of recession by late 2010.
• DOW goes back over 10,000 during primary season for 2012 elections.
• Wall Street never really figures out how much bad debt is out there, but by late 2010 there's enough faith that the "Big 3" (Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America) have cleared the bulk of the liabilities that the country starts to lift out of its 2-3 year malaise in the financial markets.
• Chrysler fails and its parts are bought up by competitors (foreign & domestic). Ford ends up needing that line of credit, but turns out OK. GM is kept on life support by the government through 2010 and restructuring starts to pay off in 2011.
• A short-term stimulus package of tax breaks and generalized pork is passed in early 2009.
• A long-term "reconstruction" package is finally passed in mid/late-2009 and demonstrates the first serious test of Obama's influence over Congress. Relations are soured between the White House and the Democratic leadership in Congress over the latter's lack of willingness to pass legislation over the objections of vocal minorities amongst the GOP in Congress. This drives the liberal blogosphere absolutely ballistic. The "reconstruction" package contains some forward-looking initiatives, but is also at least half pork.

SUPREME COURT

Hopes: Stevens (age: 88, reason: age), Ginsburg (75, health), Scalia (72, age), Kennedy (72, age), Breyer (70, age), and Souter (69, age/desire to retire) all retire and are replaced by young (around 50), brilliant, accomplished and just-left-of-center progressive justices. Furthermore, Thomas experiences an epiphany and changes from a reliable but incomprehensible right-wing vote to a reliable but still incomprehensible left-wing vote. Roberts decides he doesn't want to be remembered as a Chief Justice who was always in the minority and so migrates to the center. Alito doesn't change, and becomes a bitter, disillusioned man.

Predictions: Early retirements for Stevens, Ginsburg and Souter. Easy confirmations for replacements who are young (50s), left-of-center but not radical, and possess very good credentials. Later retirements for Kennedy and Breyer. More difficult confirmation for replacements due to aforementioned ineptitude of Democratic leadership in Congress and increasing hostility between them and Obama White House. Eventual replacements are confirmed with good majorities (think Roberts) and are still young (50s), left-of-center but not radical, and possess very good credentials. In these later confirmations especially, the influence of "moderate" Republicans such as John McCain and Olympia Snowe are significant.

FOREIGN POLICY

Hopes:

• Majority of U.S. troops out of Iraq by 2010 in advance of current plan due to unexpected improvement in security and political stability.
• Resurgent Afghanistani government and invigorated Pakistani administration, with U.S. and NATO backing, rout Taliban in border regions. Afghanistan secure enough by early 2012 to start withdrawing U.S. troops.
• During the above operations OBL is mortally wounded by shrapnel but lives for a few days before dying. His body is discovered by Pakistani troops who overrun his position. Later, a video of OBL during his last days taken by a lapsed militant surfaces and shows a mentally enfeebled, ranting, humiliated, and afraid OBL. Negative impact to AQ recruitment & fundraising is significant.
• The Obama administration manages to engage again-Russian President Putin on a number of military and economic concords, with the result being a less-aggressive Russia and a more open state-influenced quasi-free market state.
• The Obama administration convinces China to institute real regulatory oversight for its factories so they stop sending deadly toys, drugs and food to the U.S.
• Obama & Clinton manage, in 2011, to broker a "Good Friday"-type in Israel/Palestine.
• Responding to backchannel overtures by the U.S., the Iranian Supreme Council do not support Ahmadinejad in the 2009 Presidential Election, and instead allow a "reformer" (by Iranian standards) to win the Presidency. By 2012, in response to further backchannel overtures by the U.S., the Iranians wind up their nuclear program and begin to open up their society.

Predictions:

• U.S. troops leave Iraq on schedule in 2011 but Iraqi state remains tenuous and violence/security comes and goes.
• A renewed emphasis on Afghanistan pushes the Taliban back and the situation by 2012 is a three-way on-and-off conflict between U.S.-supported Afghanistanis, the Taliban, and Pakistan in the border regions.
• OBL is found dead by U.S. special forces. The U.S. claims he died of renal failure. Most of the Islamic world feels it's likely the soldiers killed him. No one ever finds out the truth.
• Obama's charisma on the world stage isolates again-Russian President Vladimir Putin, who continues to intimidate neighbors and run Russia as a quasi-authoritarian state. Despite this, the Obama administration, through backchannel diplomacy, is able to engage Russia more often at the U.N. Security Council on various issues and is able, more than once, to play Russia off against China.
• Nothing significant happens in relations with China.
• Obama gets Iran to re-commit to a serious weapons inspection program, but there continue to be problems.
• Following what's essentially a pitched war between Israel and Hamas in 2009 and 2010, Obama & Clinton broker a "cessation" agreement between the two (who have, by this time, very war-weary populaces) in 2011. It doesn't solve anything permanently, but gets the violence to stop and sets the stage for long-term shuttle talks that are still underway in 2013.

POLITICS

Hopes: Obama and Biden (Biden especially) work deftly with Democratic leaders in Congress to develop cohesive democratic voting majorities that deliver lots of progressive legislation. A thoroughly demoralized GOP loses even more seats in Congress in 2010, as the Democrats gain a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Predictions: Democratic leadership in Congress continues to be weak and division in Democratic ranks is exploited by activist Republicans in Congress (more noticeable in the House) who attack legislation relentlessly and mercilessly. An Obama White House becomes increasingly frustrated with Democratic leadership and tension increases greatly in 2009 and 2010. In 2010 the GOP gains seats in the House, and many seats are won by activist "social conservatives". Despite this the Democrats pick up just enough seats in the Senate to go over 60, but the outlook for preserving those gains in 2012 looks especially bleak.


I could probably go on, but those are probably my major thoughts. Oh, and we all get ponies (hope), er, a 0.001% tax rebate (prediction). :D

Winged unicorns are a lot more work than you think. The upkeep on that horn, for instance, gets expensive. So no, just a pony for me.


Well, crap.