The $55 trillion question

[bemildred]

WASHINGTON - Before this - thankfully - last United States presidential debate, Republican candidate Senator John McCain had promised "I'll whip Obama's you-know-what". Well, he whipped nothing. He told Americans he was not President George W Bush. And then he presented himself as Joe the Plumber - a new working class heir to vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's Joe Six-Pack. And then he got "hurting and angry". And then he lost the plot. Independent voters duly took note - and awarded one more debate to Obama. Three to none. Game virtually over.

Obama - always cool and calculating, carefully hedging his bets - still refuses to stare America in the face and admit that the real economy will tank, and the resulting mass unemployment will be proportionally as devastating as during the 1930s.

Both McCain and Obama remain prisoners of the neo-liberal Washington Consensus. Obama's top economic advisor is Austan Goolsbee, a Friedmanite from the University of Chicago, not exactly someone capable of reasoning outside of the golden Goldman Sachs box.

But the whole scenario gets more dangerous. As McCain inexorably implodes, an extremely angry Republican party in most of its strands rears its ugly head - the extraordinary levels of hate at recent McCain-Palin rallies are just the tip of the iceberg. This correspondent has seen the mob become really brown-shirt scary, brandishing "Obama bin Lyin" placards or yelling "Kill him!" In the official Republican website in Sacramento, California, there was even a direct link between Obama and Osama bin Laden - with an explicit call to "Waterboard Barack Obama" (it was finally pulled out by Republican leaders).

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JJ17Aa01.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Hmm - quoting 'Josh Lyman'?

"According to Democratic operative Josh Lyman, the Obama headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, a mega-church with a basement the size of a supermarket, is staffed by no less than 600 hyperactive tech youths."

Well, there are such things as coincidences, but I'm a bit suspicious when a major character from The West Wing turns up in an article. Has someone been pulling the writer's leg?

[bemildred]

2. Not only that, but he's a "Democratic operative".

Did you ever wonder what it means to be a "Democratic operative"? Are we all "Democratic operatives" here at DU too? I've never thought of myself as a "Democratic operative", but maybe I've been too modest.

To be serious: Pepe is a fun read, and sometimes has useful things to impart, but some viewer discretion is necessary.