View from outside the USA -Was it the economy, Stupid?

[malaise]

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20101107/cleisure/cleisure4.html
<snip>
Beyond the economic pain, and because of the psychological reaction to it and how that has been exploited politically, Americans are in a muddle. Some recent poll findings reveal the extent to which their fears and uncertainty about the future have distorted their sense of reality. For example, the majority of Americans believe that the US economy is still shrinking, but the fact is it has recovered most of the decline and is now at the 2008 level. They also believe that their taxes went up, and not down. Indeed, 90 per cent did not know that they received a tax cut under the Obama stimulus package - the largest middle-class tax cut ever.

Effective rhetoric

So effective has been the rhetoric of the social forces stacked against Obama that a majority believes he was the one who instituted the Wall Street bailouts and not the Bush administration. Long forgotten is that Obama, while still a senator, voted against the bailout of AIG, one of the early casualties of the financial crisis. Tea Party supporters say Obama is a socialist, but this does not square with his rejection of strident calls when he took office, including from Republicans, that nationalisation of the largest banks was the only way to avoid what was then seen as an impending catastrophe.

Right-wing demagoguery has fuelled such anger and irrationality that not many Americans have heard the news that taxpayer dollars used to bail out the banks have almost been fully recovered. They have also not noticed that with public-sector payrolls being cut, government employment is actually shrinking. Instead, they are stuck with the conventional wisdom that government is taking over the economy.

On the contrary, Obama's navigation of the great recession has rehabilitated capitalism from what could have been a 1930s depression. In 'How Obama Saved Capitalism and Lost the Midterms' Timothy Egan argues that while Republicans lambasted government bailout of the banks, they then turned around and fought financial reform legislation. For this, Republican candidates were rewarded with generous campaign contributions from the said banks to wage war against the Democrats.
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[dkf]

1. Obama voted against the bailout of AIG? What vote was this?

[malaise]

3. I seem to remember that he did not take a position

on AIG.

[dkf]

5. Apparently he voted "present".

[SpiralHawk]

2. That's what happens when RepuliCorp owns the media

as it does.

Lies and spin and filth is what we get...Shoot your TV. Cut the Cable -- you are just paying money to feed the beast.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. When did Obama vote no on AIG bailout?

While a Senator you know, he also voted against the Uniting American Families Act which would have brought common decency to the immigration process for GLBT Americans, and he voted with the GOP when Bush flew home to save Schaivo, but I sure don't recall him voting against the AIG bailout.

[jaxx]

6. That isn't true about the UAFA.

The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA, H.R. 1024, S. 424) is a U.S. bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate discrimination in the immigration laws by permitting permanent partners of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the same manner as spouses of citizens and lawful permanent residents and to penalize immigration fraud in connection with permanent partnerships.<1><2> Section 18 of the bill would be amended to include permanent partnerships as an illegal way to evade any provision of the immigration law and allow for the individual to be imprisoned for no more than five years, fined for up to $250,000 or both.<3> Also, if the partnership ends within two years the sponsored partner’s legal immigrant status would come under review.<4>

UAFA was introduced during the 111th Congress, to the United States House of Representatives on February 12, 2009, by New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).<5> There are currently 134 cosponsors of this bill in the United States House of Representatives.<6> Shirley Tan is a leading activist for the bill.<7> After the bill was introduced it was referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law on March 16, 2009, where it still resides.<8>

The full text of UAFA, further expanded to provide rights to the children or stepchildren of the foreign-born partner, is included as Title II of the Reuniting Families Act (H.R. 2709), an immigration reform bill, introduced in the United States House of Representatives on June 4, 2009, by California Congressman Michael Honda (D-CA).<9><10>

UAFA was introduced in the United States Senate on February 12, 2009, by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT).<11> There are currently 24 cosponsors of this bill in the United States Senate.<12> After the bill was introduced, it was read twice and sent to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where it still currently resides. <13>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniting_American_Families_Act

The President was not a voting senator when the bills were introduced. He has no voting privileges on either of them.