New president's economic clout not assured

Please for God's sake America, do the right thing and vote OBAMA/BIDEN. Don't make the same mistake that was made the past two elections that put a republican administration in the White House, an administration that has almost destroyed this country. Vote for Obama, a man that is intelligent, compassionate, with a real plan and vision that will get America back on track and restore our credibility around the world. We can make change happen together. Please do the right thing and vote OBAMA/BIDEN. OBAMA/BIDEN 08 And Beyond!

Aren't 'redistribution of wealth' and 'social justice' just code names for reparations.  And if the office of the president and Congress mandate such a 'payback program', isn't that abuse of power?

What people don't see is a person. They only tune to what they see or hear from the media. There is no way this great country of America is going to be calling their President "Obama". I know the activist in here beleive everything the media tells them, but facts are facts and there is no stronger fact that Americans are not and never will, give America away. McCain/Palin all the way.

Confidence and credibility has to be establish first. Thats one thing the present administration does not have. The only thing they know is give money to the bastards  (wall street) that put us in this hole in the first place. As soon as the next admin. is sworn and install policies and regulators in place to protect the american people from the crooks in wall street.

"Democracy is the worst form of Government.  Except for all the rest"  Winston Churchill

Can the next president fix the economy? How about no! Niether one of them have a great plan, however NOBAMA'S plan to spend and tax, tax, tax, is far worse for the country.

By the way, if you don't think everyone of us will pay higher taxes stop kidding yourself. They both will have to raise taxes to get the country out of bankruptcy!

I won't have any faith in either one or the government until I see some heads roll in the housing mess. Dudd, Franks, Waters, Cox, Should all be in jail today!

When are you people going to wake up and smell the coffee? The economy sucks because its in the plan of the world banks and corporations to suck. This whole mess is orchestrated. A new president and their policies are irrelevant, politicians are irrelevant, a democracy isn't a true democracy in a monetary system because someone will always have more money to promote their campaign better. So calling our form a government a democracy is irrelevant. The crooks on wall street are run by the crooks who run the world banks and large corporations. Our economy is destined to collapse, the rest of the world economies will follow, which will give those with the power and the money the excuse to create a one world currency, thus making the wage slave a worldwide epidemic. All the worlds problems are solvable but will those at the top of the power and money structure ever allow that to happen? No for they will lose their power and that for them is a fate worse then death.

Wow, really interesting "comments" from people who think they know how the government is run and who would be a better president. And all the negatives about the current president and what he has done to make America bad and how HE wrecked the entire economy. ARE PEOPLE REALLY THAT STUPID?

Just so people understand, it would not make any difference who is elected because that person does not "run or control congress or the country". And just so people understand, there will be no great changes by any person or party. 

I and my wife are both over 50 and we have a good life because we made our money and invested wisely. It didn't matter who was president or which party was "in control of congress". I'm very sorry for those who think the government will control their lives and give them dollars.

And all the negative comments about which party will protect the United States is really negative and stupid. It's called POLITICS.

Vote how you will, but be informed.

Know where we are:

http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

Know how we got here:

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1842123,00.html

Know what the candidates propose:

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=411693

and don't fall for lies and smears

http://www.politifact.org

http://www.factcheck.org

http://www.snopes.com

Please be educated and don't fall for smears..... Pass it on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I disagree. President Bush wanted a war, he got one. He also wanted high gas prices, he got those too. So, I don't get it, what do they mean?

Sen Obama is just another Johnny Cochran (god rest his soul) with another catchy slogan and an inspiring speech.  Unfortunately, we all know how that turned out.  Some people get duped so easily. 

Posting links to organizations that support your posit on means NOTHING without knowing the source BEHIND the posts.  Anyone and everyone can go on the Internet and "google" the G8 emergency summit dealing with the economic crisis that took place almost 2 weeks ago and find out that "American Capitalism" is DEAD. ALL of the European countries, the G8 and the G20 have all stated that they will bailout the US one LAST time.  The rules set by the US since WW2 are now OVER.  The developed and DEVELOPING nations will now meet to set NEW rules in place to make sure that this will NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.  The US will have little to no say in this because American greed and spending ourselves out of our own homes is now OVER and the rest of the world is tired of our overspending.  Obama is a LIAR if he claims that he will fix this, HE WILL NOT.  BOTH PARTIES have caused this to happen and all the millionaire leaders of BOTH parties have voted their stock portfolios and THEIR SELF INTERESTS.  Another condition for the bailout is that every country develop their REFINERIES and natural resources (OIL & NATURAL GAS) and stop playing the OPEC game.  THE ONLY PERSON TO GET THIS WAS SARAH PALIN.  She is the only one who is responsible with her family budget and gets what a dollar means to families.  She is the only one who understood "drill baby drill" and the petro dollars and how it plays out in every Americans budget and what it means for the security of this country.  I will vote for Mc Cain because he was SMART enough to understand who Sarah Palin is.  All the rest of this is nothing but Bu**s**T .  The media has hyped Obama because it is
THE SELLING OF A PRESIDENT and they have invested a lot in printing books, articles, magazines and I'm sure even movies for Obama and it mean big BUCKS FOR THEM.  He is nothing but MEDIA HYPE he has accomplished NOTHING.  The media has not brought these economic facts to the attention of the American people because they want Obama in office.  However, you all have the Internet and can find out the TRUTH.  Stop the bull and find out the REAL FACTS. Google the G8 economic meeting, the G20 and the bailout and educate yourselves and then others.  Obama nor Mc Cain will be the "savior" as the rest of the world has already taken this away from the management of the US and since that is the ONLY issue Obama has on this side it is total BS and NOT a reason to elect him as President of the USA.

Btw, Marco, your "Messiah" was right in there with the rest of them voting for the bailout. Neither McCain or Obama can fix the economy.  And, when Obama can't fix it, the excuse from you zombie libs will be BUSH, BUSH, BUSH.  The Dems will always have excuses to hide their incompetence.  They'll have to blame someone when the really hard times hit. Congress was warned by McCain and Bush about how this lending mess was getting out of control..........but, oh no, would the Dems pay attention. I understand the Dems blocked a vote on it.   They were too many of the Dems getting the BIG money from these lenders.  Dodd, Obama, the "not straight" Frank, and on and on.  The Dems had a big hand in creating this mess.......let's see how they can fix it, especially when Obama wants to spend a trillion dollars on his "projects."  Spend, spend, spend.........all the Dems can think of in the next administration.

It's been stated Obama said he would tax people making $250,000+, now we hear the figure has gone down to $150,000. Is this a "misstatement" or a lie?  Sounds like a lie to me.  Wonder how much lower it will go.......perhaps down to $42,000 for a person.  Obama did propose that at one time you know.  Obama voted at least 90% of the time to RAISE taxes.  If you want to give people some of your money from the goodness of your heart, that is your choice.  If you want more of your money forcibly taken from you to go to others who are able to work, but won't in order to get a handout, that's your choice also. (And, I'm not speaking of sick and handicapped people who can't work).  You might have to have a handout before it's all over with.  But, that might not be so bad after all.

Think about it.......hey, one of the advantages is you can get food stamps. Now, that really works.  Over the years, I've seen so many people ahead of me in the grocery store pull out their food stamps and I see cartons of soda pops, expensive meats, and other unnecessary expensive items being checked out.  Pretty good eating free of charge.  All you gotta do is just sit back and collect that handout check from the "forced generosity" of many others who work hard and can't afford to eat that good because they want have the extra money to do it with. 

We'll have more citizens on welfare with that type of ideology that Obama wants to impose on hard working people.  Why work went you can get your money for doing NOTHING! 

The next President, whomever it may be.....will have the same power as all Presidents have always had before. The question is: how will they use that power? and will they be respected around the globe? In other words, can they get the job done here and abroad?

As far as I'm concerned, whoever is elected by voters or by the electoral college's 538 representatives (who ignored 500,000 more votes for Gore in 2000 so that Bush could have another term in office) will never be able to "promote confidence" and make "people more hopeful about the country" without repealing or rewriting the North American Free Trade Agreement.

NAFTA promised to create more high-paying jobs for American workers and to improve the economic status of employees in Mexico and Canada. Since NAFTA took effect in 1994, it has been economically destructive to the U.S.

Over the last 14 years, NAFTA has contributed to the reduction of employment in high-wage, traded-goods industries, a growing inequality in wages, and the steadily declining demand for workers without a college education. Although NAFTA resulted in increased trade and a higher number of U.S. exports to Mexico and Canada, the number of imports increased even more. Every dollar spent on goods made in Mexico and elsewhere is a dollar not paid to a U.S. worker to make the same goods.

Under NAFTA, the U.S. has consistently imported billions of dollars more in goods from Mexico than it has exported (www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c2010.html#2008). In fact, it has been 14 years since the U.S. experienced a trade surplus with Mexico. The U.S. has also experienced an increased trade deficit with China (www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2008).

While the U.S. economy had its ups and downs prior to the passage of NAFTA, the current downward spiral can only continue without a change to NAFTA. Dick Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat who served 14 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before retiring in January 2005, predicted that NAFTA would bring about an increase in illegal immigration to the U.S., lower wages and continued job losses (www.nathannewman.org/EDIN/.trade/.NAFTA/.gephardt.html).

"To the person who loses the job, the consequences are devastating," he said, adding that the loss of U.S. jobs would continue with or without NAFTA. The greatest threat NAFTA posed to American workers would be a lowering of wages and a reduction in our standard of living, said Gephardt, Democratic leader in the House from 1989 to 2003 who served as majority leader from 1989 to 1995 (101st through 103rd Congresses) and minority leader from 1995 to 2003 (104th through 107th Congresses).

“The evidence is that … where free trade has largely existed in the maquiladora program, wages have fallen,” Gephardt said.

A 2006 report issued by the Economic Policy Institute (www.epi.org/content.cfm/bp173) substantiated Gephardt’s statement when its authors concluded that, “Growing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada after NAFTA took effect reduced employment in high-wage, traded-goods industries, resulting in a substantial loss of wage income for such workers. This contributed to growing inequality in wages and falling demand for workers without a post-secondary education, males in trade-related production, and minorities. NAFTA has also hurt workers in Mexico and Canada in many different ways, as documented elsewhere in this report. Without major changes in NAFTA to address unequal levels of development and enforcement of labor rights and environmental standards, continued integration of North American markets will threaten the prosperity of a growing share of workers in the United States and throughout the hemisphere.”

When it comes to eroding the U.S. economy, NAFTA isn’t the only culprit. The Bush administration has encouraged the outsourcing of American jobs, insisting that tapping the lower costs and unique skills of labor abroad is the only way the U.S. can remain competitive in the global economy. The loss of American jobs is simply the price that must be paid to be a part of globalization, Bush has said.

The economic effect of outsourcing is similar to allowing mass immigration of workers willing to compete for service jobs at extremely low wages, wrote Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson in a 2004 paper.

If the next U.S. president decides to follow in Bush’s footsteps, differentiating between the poorer nations NAFTA was intended to help and our own nation will be impossible. All Americans will be working for lower and lower wages, perhaps earning in a month what was once earned in a year, and for fewer, if any benefits. The American standard of living with be so low and most Americans so poor that very few will be able to afford the lower priced goods imported from other countries.

I hope that the next U.S. president will decide to put Americans first by giving incentives to companies that remain in the U.S., negotiating trade agreements more favorable to the U.S., renegotiating current trade agreements, providing retraining for those whose jobs have been permanently outsourced, guaranteeing jobs with wages approximate to the jobs and wages earned before outsourcing, limiting the number of annual visas to people from other countries hired by U.S. corporations to “do the jobs that Americans are not trained to do” (which I am certain is fiction rather than fact), limiting the number of immigrants (legal and illegal) who come into the U.S. yearly, and collecting a fine as a percentage of profits from U.S. companies that continue to operate abroad.

NAFTA was first presented in the Reagan Administration.  He refused to consider it.  That was only one reason why he was such a strong President for the People.

NAFTA was signed into law by President Clinton in December of 1993 and it took effect in January of 1994.  Had President Clinton not signed it, it would not be a law today most likely.

NAFTA was good at the top.  It promised to raise wages and living conditions in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, yet the Middle Class in these countries is getting poorer and the rich or getting richer.  The fruits of NAFTA in the U.S.......massive job losses and the relocation of entire industries to Mexico such as North Carolina's textile plants...are well known, especially among the million of Americans who have been its victims. Less familiar, to the American public at least, are the effects of the managed-trade agreement on the citizenries of our two luckless partners in the extraordinary international scam.   This was in an article by Charles Scaliger of The New American in October of 2007.  

indyvoter:

You are so right.  You have expressed some of the very same things I have. 

It took Michelle Obama at age 44 to say she was proud of her country for the first time in her life, and she didn't say this until her husband was running for the presidential candidacy.  Something isn't right with that thought.  I have read her Princeton thesis and it has racism in it. 

After watching Obama's million dollar or more "infomerical," I discovered he spent that much money on saying the same old things over and over as he has said all through his entire candidacy.  Was that worth that much money when it could have been applied to charities to help people, especially the poor he says he cares about.  That 30-minute same old stuff was unnecessary.  Is he that desperate?  Nothing new in what he said at all. 

Obama is a fantastic (one of the very best if not the best) politician because he is so familiar with what corruption is all about and knows the lies to tell the people to get that vote. He's already  been caught in some of his lies. He cares nothing about his supporters, only their votes.  No wonder he practically begged them to participate in early voting before any of them could change their minds.  He even has told the rest to take off work and vote for him.  Can anyone really afford to take off work these days and lose that pay?  Obama is a great deceiver; he reminds me of the greatest deceiver the world has ever known.  I'll leave it to the people to figure out who that might be. 

Yes, Palin is strong.......not afraid to tell it like it is, not afraid to take on corruption of her own party.  Neither is McCain.  These two will fight for America and her people, not for anti-Americans. We can count on them 100% to continue to support Israel (which is vital).  And, they have no fear when it comes to corrupt house cleaning of both parties or dealing with terrorists.  They don't support Middle East terrorism.  They are 100% Americans and we desperately need one of our own to be President of this country.......not someone who has a mysterious and dangerous past history  that might sell us out to the Middle East. 

Why would any person aspiring to be President want to cut our military funds.........we could find ourselves in a position to be conquered.  Think about that. 

The article states,

 "In many ways, several experts said, the president’s most powerful weapon in fighting economic malaise will be the early choices he makes for key Cabinet positions, as well as the other advisers he surrounds himself with."

I am very interested what each candidate's cabinet would look like and who they will have as key advisors.  I haven't seen any proposed specifics from either candidate and I think this is very important information to consider.

Has anyone seen an article or report mentioning proposed cabinet position picks from either candidate?

The new president, whomever it is, will first and foremost be forced to deal with a totally corrupt and self-serving United State Congress.

yes we need a Drastic change.

Baldwin/Castle 2008

A vote to the American Public on term limits is a start.  After 8 to 12 years, no matter how much we love or hate them, their time is over.  How many have served for 20 years or more.  They need to find other employment and let in new blood.