Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Lipstick on an economic pig, by gimleteye

"You can put lipstick on a pig," Obama said during a campaign stop. "It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years."

The McCain campaign immediately lashed out, trying out slander-- as though Sarah Palin owns the patent on lipstick jokes. The Republicans really don't have anything to run on, hoping that most American voters will not notice.

But there is information that others-- investors in the US economy-- are noticing big-time.

The price of credit default swaps on five-year US government debt rose to a record 17.5 basis points in early trading, according to CMA Datavision. This means that it now costs $17,500 a year to buy insurance on $10m of US government debt.

Although the market for such insurance is relatively illiquid, the price suggests the market believes the US government is more likely to default on its obligations than some other industrialised countries. “The USA is now ‘riskier’ than Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Austria, France, Denmark, Quebec and Japan,” said Tim Backshall, chief strategist at Credit Derivatives Research.

This isn't some message from "the angry left": no, dear Republican friends, this is the "free market" losing confidence in the capacity of our politics to pull the US economy from a long, dark tunnel and the worst crisis since the Great Depression.

And how are Republicans responding? Here's the latest from Michigan: "The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP's effort to challenge some voters on Election Day. "We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses," party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week."

They will do anything and say anything to win.


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Regarding Obama's comment on lipstick on pigs. I think that it is pretty petty, but I am delighting in all the controversy because I believe turn around is fair play.

One only has to go back to 2006 and watch how Senator George Allen was savaged for calling some heckler who was from Southeast Asia "macaca" He ended up losing his seat over the comment and handing the Senate to the Democrats.

I believe that sexism and racism is an overly used charge, but it seems like for my entire lifetime it has been Democrats and liberals that hand out this label when they do not agree with someone.

Look what happened to Senator Lott for trying to say something nice to an old man on his birthday. Bb the end, he was groveling for forgiveness on BET Television.

So yes it is wrong, but it is finally right to see liberals getting consumed by their own imorality and I do not mean that in a Jerry Falwell type of definition.

Anonymous said...

A new BBC World Service poll shows that in all 22 countries surveyed, the citizens would prefer Sen. Barack Obama elected president of the United States instead of Sen. John McCain. In fact, Obama is preferred by a four to one margin on average across the 22,000 people polled.

In 17 of the 22 countries surveyed the most common view is that, if Barack Obama is elected president, America's relations with the rest of the world are likely to get better. If John McCain is elected, the most common view in 19 countries is that relations will stay about the same as they are now.

The countries polled: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

In addition, a separate poll of Americans found that 46% think an Obama presidency would improve U.S. relations with the world compared to just 30% for a McCain presidency.

Anonymous said...

I would not be too proud of that BBC poll and all of those countries polled. Alot are way left...even Socialist. Does not say much for Bama. And the last sentence is so enlightening "a separate poll"...which poll is this? All of the polls I am seeing have McCain/Palin up.
Gimlet---you can spin it any which way, but the lipstick (in poor taste) joke Bama used, seemed to me was intended to demean McCain/Palin. I wonder what the media and the left would do and say if McCain were to say, you can put a coat and tie on a gorilla, its still a gorilla. It would be a free for all feeding frenzy.

out of sight said...

I am wondering if the list of foreclosed houses is composed of empty houses or houses under the initial stage of foreclosure and the owners are still residing in them? And how will the Michigan department of elections know which is which?

Besides that, you know when we move we go vote in our old precincts when we don't have the opportunity change the address before the election. How can the government take away those people's right to vote because they are homeless or not living in the house, but still a registered voter? I suppose that if I lose my house due to the republican economy, then I most probably will not vote for them again. Hmmmm.

Anonymous said...

Ron Paul, the only Republican candidate who vaguely resembles one, has turned down a request to endorse McCain. Phil "Mental Recession" Gramm called and asked Paul, who said no, no.

Paul will be the only Republican candidate for president to emerge from this campaign with his party pedigree intact.

Anonymous said...

Gimleteye writes:

Does anyone else notice how none of the blog critics ever challenge the points and issues on the Republican culpability for the economy, but always criticize on the basis of cultural values.

The nation's voters-- evangelicals, too-- are tired to being boxed by generic appeals to politics based on cultural conservatism.

The bottom line: we are in a hell of a mess created by eight years with a Republican in the White House whose team relied on distortion, lies, and strong-arming the press, on "talking points" distributed to radio bloviators and Fox News commentators.

Like Peggy Noonan said, "It's over."

Anonymous said...

Either the "lipstick on a pig" remark was deliberately crass, sexist or it was a boneheaded lapse in judgement. Either way you look at it, it is a problem.

Obama knows he made the mistake of a lifetime in not choosing Hillary as his running mate, and now it has resulted in a self-destructive obsession with Sarah Palin.

If Obama wants any chance of getting my vote, he needs to find a way to drop Biden and get Hillary on the ticket where she belongs.

Anonymous said...

When an anon wrote that Ron Paul has "his party pedigree intact," he couldn't possibly be talking about the Republican Party.

Ron Paul, who was universally rejected by Republican voters in every primary, is a kook on the fringe of the Republican Party. As a guy who ran as a Libertarian for president in one election and supported the Reform Party candidate in another, Ron Paul can hardly be considered a loyal member of any party. He didnt help that image yesterday when he endorsed all four third party candidates, including Ralph Nader. And Ron Paul's positions (apologist for terrorists, pro-gay, pro-drugs) are much more at home in a political party other than the GOP.

When it comes to Ron Paul, you can have him. We don't want him.

Anonymous said...

Well I'd rather have closet socialism of the Democrats than the not-so-closeted Fascism of righted Republicans.

Given a choice, I'd rather have neither. Ron Paul can be called a 'kook' for wishing to return our
country to a real money standard and halt the manufacture of debt and end the stranglehold of corrupt corporations like the Fed and the IRS who MASQUERADE in the news as legitimate government agencies.

John McCain has been compromised by Draconian elitists who have no solution for the economy except to continue to consume the bulk of wealth of the lower classes and turn this country into a neo-fascist, neo-feudalist corporate driven privatized police state where common people have no recourse and no rights.

Sarah Palin's record shows that, depsite her lip service directed at the "American Proletariat", that she too is a shill for big business. I guess no compromise is too small when the Big Boys come to your house and offer ytou real power. It must be intoxicating. :-D

The 90% majority of the world's population is Black, Asian, Hispanic or Other AND Female. Whereas the majority of the US govt. and thus the major corporations of the world are WASP Males. This means that the people who control 95% of the world's wealth are socially and ethically disconnected from the needs and considerations of the vast majority of the poeple of the whole world. If you're a rich white republican, I'm sure you think its all hunky dory with Bush, McCain, Karl Rove and their crew of quasi-illuminati, draconian, freemasonic, secret society monstrosities. If you're anybody else, you've got the short end of the stick.

"Will no one help the Widow's Son?"

It should be obvious by now that the sub-prime crisis is directly related to corrupt lending practices and regulations which have destroyed the real estate market while filling the coffers of these rich pukes to the great detriment to the people of Florida and the nation at large.

If you ask me, we need a "French Revolution" on a global scale, and start from scratch.

"Vive Le Guillotine!"
"Vive Le Revolution!"

Revolutio Aldo Neccessitudo.