Pretty stirring stuff. Who was watching it just then?

Couldn't help but notice how workmanlike the speech was- much less ebullient rhetoric than one might have expected. This seems to cap off a months long campaign to bring things back to earth & tamp down expectations. The strong emphasis on rebuilding the status of science & working towards energy independence for the US was encouraging. Overall good stuff despite the stumble during the oath. I have high hopes for Biden too.

Anyone else feeling optimistic?

An amazing moment in American history. my whole office basically shut down and wathced teh ceremony for an hour. And the phones didn't ring once - it was like the whole country stopped to watch what was going on. Unforgettable.

His speech was just so-so. I don't think he really had any memorbale or inspirational lines until teh very edn, after he quoted Washington and talked about us swimming the icy river in the winter of our despair. Other than that it was pretty much re-cycled stuff form the election alst year.

And nice job by Roberts of fumbling the oath of office and making Obama stumble in the very beginning. Ouch - that was uncomfortable, but I guess understandable with the whole world watching.

I don't think the goal of the speech was to be qutable, but to show that he was ready to start working and needed us to be ready as well. I think he pulled that off very well. I like that it wasn't a rah-rah speech (in fact the crowd, even though trying, couldn't really cheer at a lot of it) and it was a time to get dirty speech. To pull one qoute out (that i'm not sure FFG likes ) "its time to put childish things away"

I found it wholly depressing that George W. Bush left office. Saddest day of my adult life. Goodbye capitalism, goodbye unborn children, goodbye religious rights. I want to cry.

Heh. Obama had to swear the oath again, apparently the oath-reading guy had a Bush moment.

Nice name by the way Joe. Probably the only US politican of the last century who's even less lamented than Bush himself. Let's hope he's keeping hell free of commies....

LiquidIce said:

Thanks! My picture on the old forums was Joseph McCarthy himself, but this picture was as close as I could get to the good Senator. Do you think it does him justice?

If he's keeping hell free of commies, maybe its not such a bad place after all...

Here, I fixed your typos..

jmccarthy said:

Much better now.

dormouse said:

LOL. Thanks for the help.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iFPw_TZ-CtiM3UQ8jX8Rfqpcq_EQ

What's this - actual leadership?! Is America... back?

Here's a nifty site that shows how BHO is tracking in terms of keeping his 500 or so promises:

www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

Hmm... that's a very interesting site. I'll be watching to see how things continue to go.

jmccarthy said:

I just had to come out of a sort of retirement to lol at this.

I've actually been spending more time following the growing list of Obama nominees/appointees who're guilty of tax evasion .

Tom Daschle--$140,000

Timothy Geithner--almost $50,000

Nancy Killefer (whom Obama ironically said would "help restore the American people's confidence in their government".)

Oh yes, vaunted public officials, you told us it was our "patriotic duty" to pay taxes, then you showed us just how patriotic you really are...Glad to see our president did his homework before nominating qualified people to protect the public trust. Not that there isn't plenty of corruption to spread among the parties, but really, these fiascos just back up my pre-election point that power attracts the corrupt, and the last thing a sensible person should want is to concentrate unprecedented power in an institution (the federal government) that attracts such corruption.

Maybe if we could actually get government officials to pay their taxes, we wouldn't be running a deficit.

Wow, I actually totally agree with Artaban politically (on this). Must be heaven-sent.

Artaban said:

I'm just curious why there is an indictment of Obama in this. Is it his job to pay their taxes (or even make sure the've paid there taxes?) they have been subject to scrutiny before and it has not revealed their evasion, if anything the only reason they got caught was because obama shined the flashlight at them.

Lars said:

I personally don't believe there is any indictment of Obama in this - other than perhaps his judgement of character regarding these people. His vetting is going to get some attention though simply because the Democrats made a big deal of the vetting (or lack thereof) that McCain did with the Palin pick during the presidential race. For me - no big deal - but for those who made a big deal about Palin it should be.

Other thoughts:

Daschle 'withdrew'. I put that in quotes because personally I don't believe he really did, I think he got the message passed to him from Obama to step aside willingly or he'd be withdrawn unwillingly.

Extemely refreshing to hear Obama admit he made a mistake on Daschle. Frankly, I don't EVER remember hearing a politician own up to a mistake (other than when about to be impeached or ousted from office/needing to ask forgiveness - this is different IMO). Gives him some solid credit in my book (helps offset the demerits he got with me for that joke called a 'stimulus' package).

Frankly, I'm appalled that Geithner was confirmed - mostly because of his particular cabinet post, and because it's pretty clear this guy was not being honest/knowingly was not paying taxes. I'll concede that the President deserves in most cases to have whoever he wants advising him/on his cabinet - but, I just couldn't vote for Geithner in this case.

Thankfully that pork-laden monstrosity that's crazily being called a 'stimulus' package looks like it won't get through the Senate. Hopefully the Senate gets rid of the rampant protectionism/'Buy American' provisions in the next version. Otherwise, this thing is awfully close to my worst fears (learning absolutely nothing from history). Unfortunately, I think this recession is going to last a couple of years. I'm just not seeing/hearing the politicians moving in the right direction on this. The only saving grace is that the psychology of the masses does play an important role in helping the economy rebound, and President Obama is charasmatic enough to make a difference in helping there (in a way few others, if anyone could).

Totally agree with artaban and LOB here. Obama's vetting process has proved to be a huge disappopintment - not just Daschle, geithner et al but let's not forget the Richardson fiasco.

And I'm still very, very nervous abut Billary at State.

But its good to hear him apologize and kudos to him for getting things moving on the stimulus pacakge. we need middle class tax relief NOW and we need to start thos einfrastrucutre projects ASAP. its like the more drilling argument - yes, it will tkae a while for them to start to pay off, but the longer we wait, the longer it will be before we see any benefits.

Id also like to see some of teh prok and soem of the protectionism trimmed (really - all the steel MUST be made/porduced in teh US?) - but on the whole, the package is exactly what I have been calling for and I think it will do exactly what it is intended to: jolt teh economy shoprt term back into life, and then we cna start building from there.

Bush supporters are worried about Obama trampling the constitution.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/opinion/05bolton.html?_r=1&ref=opinionthe

(John Yoo was the Bush lawyer/crony best known for claiming that the president can do whatever he wants and questioning him is a national security risk).

We definitely need to get that stimulus package in place immediately, because 500 million Americans are losing their jobs every month we do not have that package in place. Don't believe me? Ask Nancy Pelosi:

www.nypost.com/seven/02042009/news/politics/pelosis_500_million_person_slip_153530.htm

jmccarthy said:

LOL - ask Nancy Pelosi.

I'm not sure there's a person out there who's more clueless on economic related matters.

George Bush?

I just want to hear less about tax cuts from the right. Tried that. Didn't work. The only way to QUICKLY stimulate is projects, for better or worse - especially when consumer confidence is so low.

Too bad about the Dashle/et. al. but not surprising. Everyone has baggage. But the vetting should have been done better. As Mr. Stewart said 'if you are selling hope and responsibility...pay your f'in taxes!!!".

rings said:

They haven't really tried cutting the corporate rates - and the tax rebates are not tax cuts - agreed the silly rebate checks don't work. A corporate rate cut would help immediately, IMO - those extra $$$ would likely immediately effect the job cuts we've been hearing about.

Japan didn't come out of their decade long funk until they cut taxes - massive spending didn't work for them, and most economists (hesitate to use word most, but...likes of Nobel winners Hayek and Friedman, as well as American Universities teach) now say that Roosevelt likely extended the problem during the Great Depression - he didn't fix/help it.

I'm all for spending on infrastructure projects - but right now there's way too much in the bill that's not infrastructure. Serious long-term economic damage can be done to this country if infinite entitlement programs are added and/or the size of government grows too big (not a good thing when Government represents too big a % of overall economy)

Agreed - entitlement spending is clearly not the answer. We're on the smae page as that.

My populist side compels me to argue against cutting corproate atxes at the moment - though it owuld help my economic situation direclty if the bgi financiers start spending again. Right now though, I want the cuts implemented to the payroll tax and maybe the fedral sales tax. Lets get more money in the hands of the middle class - as soon as possible. Once we start spending again, the economy will perk up.

I'm not tlaking about rebates or printing more money - inflation scares the hell out of me at this point. But Obama is talking about payroll and fed sales tax reductions along wiht infrastrucure projects rigth away, and that's why we need this package. Cut the pork and protectionism by all means, but they need to get this done.

I'll take up the FDR argument later today. i'm getting a little irritated about the revisionsit history that has been spreading since Obama's election and I read quite a few good articles about what FDR pulled off in the thirties. In fact, I am reading Alter's book about his first 100 days at the moment, and I highly recommedn it.

Stag Lord said:

I can empathize. I hate all the revisionist history that would suggest that the Cold War hero himself, Joseph McCarthy, did something wrong. He's an American hero people, don't ask questions!

Well, like or love what FDR pulled off in the thirties, the thing most people seem to be glossing over is that we're still paying for them.