12 Responses to “McCain Is Right”

1. Art says:

   January 16, 2009 at 11:37 am

   Wait, two posta ago you were arguing that government-caused uncertainty was the economy’s big problem, now you are saying that it is the size, timing and nature of the stimulus projects that are the economy’s big problem. Won’t blocking the bill add to the uncertainty that, a few hours ago, you were certain was causing the problem?

   Maybe you should pick an argument and commit to it?

   And for Boehner, or you, to pretend, after months of talking about a stimulus package in the $1 trillion range, that the level of proposed spending here is “shocking” is just stupid. I guess you’ll be shocked, too, when Obama closes Guantanamo and calls for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq?
2. RCAR says:

   January 16, 2009 at 11:45 am

   #1

   Exactly 100% correct. This is a mirror of what happened from 2000-2006. The Dems were out of the loop,and they deserved to be. Now the Reds are out for a while. Their opinions are almost a total irrelevance unless they buck their “leaders” and go with the flow.
3. Dost says:

   January 16, 2009 at 12:01 pm

   The country isn’t going to be run by Obama, it’s going to be run by the Speaker of the House (Lady MacBeth with plastic surgery). Harry Reid just had a humiliating and very public castration over Roland Burris, so he’s essentially a eunuch. Obama’s one of those metrosexual “sensitive” man types who always caves to his wife, so he’ll be no match for Lady MacPlastic. The only viable checks and balances will be a catfight among the women–Nancy,Michelle and Hillary. Hillary’s the smartest, Michelle’s the toughest and Nancy’s the most plastic, literally. Her former body parts will be rattling around landfills long after Hillary and Michelle have turned to dust. Our last best hope is that these women don’t get along and don’t want to share power.
4. CFB says:

   January 16, 2009 at 12:05 pm

   Maybe the stimulus presented to the congress is just a first offer for negotiating purposes. I can’t imagine the Dems are stupid enough politically to cram this down the Republicans’ throats and be left to singlehandedly deal with the consequences.
5. A Kill-Lease Heal says:

   January 16, 2009 at 12:06 pm

   C’mon JR, this is politics. Obama and the Dems are putting something on the table, now the republicans can protest their concerns in the senate and house forums and there will ultimately be a meeting in the middle on many of these issues. Every republican senator and representative has military bases, highways, public buildings, schools, etc… in their respective districts that could use stimulus funds. “Conservative ideas” are definately on the out for the moment. As such, these ideas get no play in the current game. These ideas are just not popular in most of the states that just provided Obama with his electoral victory and will provide him with victory again in 2012. This doesn’t mean that republicans are going to be shut out of the process and all of their economic/fiscal concerns will be outright dismissed. Far from it. Obama is being very conciliatory and you’ll observe this process in greater detail in the coming weeks – though it’s doubtful that you’ll acknowledge that. I guess for the commentariat, this type of snippy mean-girl gossip that alludes to some alleged disrespect on the part of Obama is the preferred type of journalism for this blog. Like OMG! Like – he’s like totally ignoring us and not respecting our concerns! give me break.
6. Ahithophel says:

   January 16, 2009 at 12:32 pm

   One wonders whether Obama winked when he dropped off his “plan” in Nancy Pelosi’s office. He made sure everyone professed amazement at how far he had gone to court conservatives — when in fact we were not looking at conservative-type tax-rate cuts, but tax-credit redistribution schemes — yet he knew all along that anything remotely resembling a conservative dimension to the plan would be eviscerated.

   We will find out soon. If Obama sends the bill back and demands less pork and more stimulus, then we’ll know he was serious. If he holds his nose and endorses it, or, worse, praises it as a wonderful bipartisan compromise, then we’ll know he was all talk. At least we’ll have a litmus test right at the beginning and we’ll know what we’re dealing with.
7. J.E. Dyer says:

   January 16, 2009 at 12:41 pm

   “It is unfortunate that the President-elect’s soothing rhetoric isn’t yet being implemented in his first concrete domestic policy move. We may be catching a glimpse of the chasm between talk and walk.”

   Well, golly, yes, it sure is unfortunate. As for catching a glimpse, however, I just can’t agree to be surprised about this coming from Obama, or marvel over its first lap in my ken. Of COURSE this is what Obama does. Everything in his history points to it.

   Fiscal conservatives, tax cutters, and free marketeers don’t emerge from Obama’s background, and public record. They never, ever do. It takes a specific education, and a disposition for meaning and accountability, to make a conservative, either economically or conservatively. When you don’t see any evidence of those elements in a person’s history, you can accurately judge that he won’t act like a conservative.

   Obama has never said one conservative thing; and his entire history of education, work as an adult, and political associations features the radical-”progressive” left. He doesn’t have even one single association, in any of these realms, that is NOT radical leftist.

   It was always a triumph of hope over experience to imagine that Obama would do anything other than what he is doing. He shares no political principles with conservatives. His default mode is putting a contemplative facade on radical activism. There was never any basis for thinking he might seek to govern by accommodating the political opposition.
8. Ed Lilly says:

   January 16, 2009 at 1:07 pm

   This can’t be true. Jennifer Rubin told us earlier this week that Pres. Obama’s centrism was going to put the GOP out of business.

   Nothing to see here. Move along.
9. JEM says:

   January 16, 2009 at 1:16 pm

   The joy of pundits having to write.

   JED just abouts squares this as does RCAR. That anyone ever expected anything else is amazing. Obviously this will have some changes made to it, there always is – but Obama doesn’t believe in the market.
10. Chris Bolts Sr. says:

    January 16, 2009 at 4:26 pm

    #8, some of us didn’t buy the fact that Obama was going to be a centrist. Until he start’s governing, I will continue to believe he will govern as a liberal. The burden of proof is on him; there is no need for us to suspend disbelief.

    On top of this, Obama has ALWAYS been a go-along liberal. I expect him to be rolled over, as Kimberly Strassel so aptly put it.
11. GirdYourLoins says:

    January 16, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    All pork, all the time.
12. Ed Lilly says:

    January 17, 2009 at 7:37 am

    #10 Chris Bolt – sorry, maybe I should have included a sarcasm tag.