The Obama Illusion

well, jeez loweeze. thanks for posting that VG.

El_Kabong wrote:

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Feb2007/street0207.html#author
paragraph 2, 1st part

Never mind that Obama (consistent with Brooks’s description of him) has lent his support to the aptly named Hamilton Project, formed by corporate-neoliberal Citigroup chair Robert Rubin and “other Wall Street Democrats” to counter populist rebellion against corporatist tendencies within the Democratic Party (David Sirota, “Mr. Obama Goes to Washington,” the Nation, June 26).

i'm not too aware of the hamilton project, they might be evil but this doesn't sound so bad to me:
The Brookings Institution today launched a new economic policy program: the Hamilton Project. This initiative will advance an economic strategy to restore America's promise of opportunity, prosperity and growth—and inject new policy options from leading thinkers across the country into the national economic debate.

"Our nation's large fiscal imbalance and inadequate investment in key growth areas is placing America's promise of economic growth and opportunity at risk," said Peter Orszag, project director and Brookings Institution Senior Fellow. "The Hamilton Project is offering a strategy that is strikingly different from theories driving current economic policy."

"As we celebrate the 90th anniversary of Brookings, we are pleased to be launching this new and exciting initiative featuring the ideas and proposals of some first-rank economic thinkers," Brookings Institution President Strobe Talbott said. "We anticipate that the policy options will spark a much needed national debate about our economic future."

At the Brookings launch event, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and the Rev. Jim Wallis, a founder of Sojourners and author of God's Politics, participated in a discussion of the project's white paper, "An Economic Strategy to Advance Opportunity, Prosperity and Growth." The paper calls on the nation to address the two most significant risks to economic growth and opportunity: the country's large fiscal imbalances and inadequate investment in key growth enhancing areas. The project's approach to these challenges reflects a judgment that:

* Broad-based economic growth is stronger and more sustainable than growth accruing to a small segment of the population;
* Economic security and economic growth can be mutually enforcing; and
* Effective government can enhance economic growth.

Going forward, the Hamilton Project will release a series of policy proposals from leading economic thinkers and academics—grounded in evidence and real world experience—focusing on four critical investment areas: education and work; innovation and infrastructure; savings and insurance; and effective government.

To begin the debate about economic policy options, the project also released this morning three new papers focused on education and savings:

* Identifying Teacher Effectiveness Using Performance on the Job—Effective teachers are critical to our children's future. This paper tackles the controversial issue of how teachers are hired and evaluated. It shows that students' performance is little affected by whether their teachers hold traditional teacher certifications, and that regardless of whether they are certified, some teachers are consistently better than others at helping their students learn. The authors therefore recommend that school districts allow a broader range of initial qualifications and hire a greater number of teachers, but then award tenure only to those most effective on the job. This approach would not only improve student performance but also help address the looming teacher shortage in the country. The paper also recommends that the federal government provide funding for the development of teacher effectiveness measures and for incentives to encourage the most effective teachers to work in schools in high poverty areas.
* Improving Opportunities and Incentives for Saving by Middle- and Low-Income Households—Many Americans retire without having accumulated sufficient savings to enjoy a comfortable retirement. Much of the problem arises because families lack time to focus on saving decisions, and because the tax incentives to save for many middle- and low-income households are weak. This proposal would provide new tools to address both issues. To make it easier to save, the proposal would require every firm (with potential exceptions for the smallest businesses) to automatically enroll new workers in a traditional defined benefit plan, a 401(k), or an IRA. Workers could always choose to opt out of these savings vehicles. The proposal also would replace the existing "upside down" set of tax incentives for retirement saving with a simple 30 percent match for everyone.
* Summer Opportunity Scholarships: A Proposal to Narrow the Skills Gap—During the regular school year, low-income and high-income students progress at roughly the same rate. During the summer months, however, reading and math skills decline disproportionately among low-income children. To mitigate this loss, the proposal creates Summer Opportunity Scholarships to finance summer school or other summer enrichment programs for low-income students.

The project also will release two additional papers in the near future. One will focus on more effective ways to measure and then improve productivity within the government. The other would reduce the compliance costs associated with federal income tax returns through a system of return-free tax filing.

The project is named after Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first treasury secretary, who laid the foundation for the modern American economy. An immigrant who was born into poverty and self-schooled in his early years, Hamilton symbolizes the traditional American values of opportunity and upward mobility that motivate the project's work. He fostered the nation's capital markets, encouraged commerce, and stood for sound fiscal policy.

http://www.brook.edu/comm/news/20060405_hamilton.htm

also read this: http://www.hamiltonproject.org/es/hamilton/THP_Summary.pdf

VictoryGin wrote:

well sure-- and if my back allows, there will be more. unless you're being facetious of course .

No, of course I'm not.
On a personal level I am impressed with this guy, but as a candidate for the democratic nomination for president, i don't know that, in a lot of ways, I'm just hearing the same old song and dance.

El_Kabong wrote:

not my president. if he says something that you like then fine, more power to you and him, but i don't agree w/ his stances. also, his actual stances kinda contradict the image he puts out as a 'progressive'

if you live in the U.S. then whoever is in the office IS your president...whether you voted for him or not.

anyone who looks at a voting record based on ONE piece of information from the bill voted on is being deceived and is tryin to deceive others by passing that information on as something that should be used to refute someone's stance on issues. there is so much that goes into those votes and so much that is being voted on than just that ONE thing.

this seems to be going against someone because they are not as progressive or as left as you want them to be. it doesn't take progressive or left to be a good president...it takes SENSE. everyone knows that bush didn't have it in 2000...and still, even moreso, in 2004...

obama, at least, has some sense.

anyway, i wouldn't vote for him...is gore going to run?

VG, that was quite well done. The point that I stated and you have proven with lots of effort is that when people seek out to trash a candidate, it isn't that hard to do. There are plenty of bad sources of less than truthful information out there to mislead voters.

After reading your post, it makes me wonder who added Obama's name to that list? Was it all part of plan to deliver him up as 'an illusion' and not a real progressive?

Begala, Carville and Associates are going full force these days.

I ,too, READ THE FUCKING BOOKS. Crazy as it seems, it's an effective view into Obama's stance on the various issues. No need to rely on hit pieces and generic spin to dumb down the discussion.

SweetHarmonics wrote:

Begala, Carville and Associates are going full force these days.

I ,too, READ THE FUCKING BOOKS. Crazy as it seems, it's an effective view into Obama's stance on the various issues. No need to rely on hit pieces and generic spin to dumb down the discussion.

In this democracy, dumbing down the discussion is a vital part of the election process.

Bu2 wrote:

I would like to add my comments from the "Who said this?" post that I created last week and have added to today....only it's too long to copy and paste.

Thanks again to the New York Obama campaign plant. Keep ut the good work!

Yeah! Obama sucks.

Fuck him.

Vote Pat Buchanan.