Here we are then, the acerbic and consistently right-of-centre "newspaper" endorses a man with a a consistently left-of-center voting record in the Senate.
The only counter-argument to their own endorsement they offer and one worth considering is the following:
Our main doubts about Mr Obama have to do with the damage a muddle-headed Democratic Congress might try to do to the economy. Despite the protectionist rhetoric that still sometimes seeps into his speeches, Mr Obama would not sponsor a China-bashing bill. But what happens if one appears out of Congress? Worryingly, he has a poor record of defying his party’s baronies, especially the unions. His advisers insist that Mr Obama is too clever to usher in a new age of over-regulation, that he will stop such nonsense getting out of Congress, that he is a political chameleon who would move to the centre in Washington. But the risk remains that on economic matters the centre that Mr Obama moves to would be that of his party, not that of the country as a whole.
However, it seems to me that trade and protectionism are not the biggest issues of the day. Financial re-regulation, balancing the budget after a fiscal stimulus and giving China a say in IMF and other international institutions will be much more prominent issues. As for trade, Obama has been rather clear lately that he wants to create new, competitive jobs for the middle class rather than protect old, inefficient ones.
For anyone looking for a clear analysis of Obama's economic policies here is a good one from the NYT.
2 comments:
I'm not quite convinced yet, but something tells me you are a fan of Obama :P
Seriously, how positive are you that Obama will win, taking into account the idiosyncrasy of the American people, assassination scenarios, voting catalogues and machines sabotage etc?
Dear kstylian (I wonder who that would be), I am an Obama fan obviously, but I have come to admire the man rather gradually after reading his program, his two books and stuff about the way he has run his campaign. I truly believe he can and will win and that the whole thing will be over once the results from the East Coast come out (around 3.30am greek time).
As for the "idiosyncracy" of the American people, you are probably implying racism? I think the new generation of voters will outweigh any traces of racism among older people esp. in the South and some of the Appalachian states. For a discussion of the Bradley effect you might be referring to check out:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1851287,00.html
You also should not underestimate party identification (95% of Hillary supporters have ended up voting for Obama), the Sarah Palin effect and, of course, the economy all of which favor Obama considerably. We should be looking at about 330 electors, I think.
As for the rest, it is simply conspiracy theories by Democrats. Well it makes for good comedy (watch the Simpsons video from my second post;)
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