Obama Could Be Great if He Can Overcome Bush Stagflation

Well, I do apologize for mentioning it in the first place, but I don't think that I'm all that quick to point out mistakes that other people make. It's was just something I casually mentioned on a whim, since the constant misuse of apostrophes bothered me for some reason. But I do apologize; I know that it is wrong of me to complain when I know that I make mistakes too. English is my second language of four, and I've never lived in an English-speaking country, so I think that my mistakes are to be expected, but I still shouldn't have said anything.

Anyway, I wish you would have written something about exactly where my knowledge about your economic and political situation fails, and how that relates to what I said. I don't really see how I've expressed any lack of knowledge that would negate any point I've been trying to make.

And I'm still curious about exactly how our "big government" is running my life :)

Oh well. Since you've said that you won't discuss with me anymore I'll just say that this has been... entertaining, more or less :)

Marcus 10:39PM February 20, 2009

I understand your point, what I mean is that it might be easy to assume that you don't have anything intelligent or worthwhile to say if you can't bother to stick to the fundamentals of grammar. Many stop reading after a while if the same mistake repeats itself, so it was just a tip if you want people to listen to what you say.

Anyway, it's true that you didn't say anything about Obama, I just added my sentiments about his specific politics after I had talked about the far left in general, since we are commenting on a text about Obama after all.

And I do doubt that even the far left in your country wants to "do away with the middle class." Again, look at real leftist politics like in my country. A very high percentage of our population is middle class; we make a decent amount of money each month (even after our gigantic taxes), affording us a typical middle class lifestyle with car, family and house in the suburbs if we so choose. We have few very rich people but we have few very poor people too.

It is true that those who really are poor get "government hand-outs", but since our unemployment rate (again according to your CIA) is slightly lower than yours, there aren't that many who have to rely on that, even now when things are a bit bad.

Oh, and I don't need to go back to my Scandinavian country; I'm already here :) I just stumbled upon this page and found it amusing that more than half of the comments connected Obama to communism when he, and the American Democrats in general, have nothing at all to do with communism.

Furthermore, I would find it very interesting to get an explanation as to exactly how our "government runs our lives for us." I've never noticed that our government runs my life. I've worked and gone to school on my terms, and started a little company (and payed my taxes) and went about my business my way my whole life. So it's kind of amusing to hear that I'm limp-wristed and want my government to somehow control me. But obviously you know more than me about how things work here...

It's true that the government has a great influence on some things here, like health care. But on the other hand we don't have people out on the streets who had to sell their homes to pay for hospital bills... I think that's a fair trade.

Oh well, all I'm trying to say is that it is always good to examine the possibility that things might be done another way. Don't just talk about "big government" as some scary monster if you haven't actually examined a country with the politics you fear. Maybe you're right, maybe the classical American way is better. But I see many in discussions like this who don't believe that other countries actually function, so they wouldn't even consider an alternative.

But again, I'm mostly here because I was amused by the discussion :) So pay no mind to me if I'm too limpwristedly Scandinavian for you ;)

Marcus 10:13AM February 20, 2009

First of all, I wasn't taking a grammar course or essay, and if you need an apostrophe to see the point I was making, you wouldn't see the point anyway. I never said anything about Obama, I wish him all the success to do the right thing. It is people like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who actually call the shots behind the scenes, who I was referring too. And just because you limp wrist ed Scandinavian's like your government to run your lives for you, doesn't mean we do. (sorry, that was mean, but seriously, go back to your Scandinavian country.) Furthermore, yes the far left do want to do away with the middle class. I suppose you will be one of the many, who don't pay taxes, standing in line for the big government to give you a handout from those of us who pay and have payed our taxes most of our lives.

DL of FL 9:55PM February 19, 2009

Are there any right-wing Americans who have any idea what communism is?

All through the Obama campaign I heard Americans cry "He's a communist! He's going to be the next Lenin! The USA is going to become the USSA! Gaaah, red scare, stranger danger, communists, socialists, communists, panic!!"

Let me tell you something as a citizen of a Scandinavian country: We consider Obama a right wing politician. We think that his faults lie in his right-leaning policies, not the ones that are slightly to the left. And we would certainly never call him a communist.

My country is so far left of the entire American political spectrum that we can't even see your political parties from over here. And WE aren't communists. We are generally considered social democrats, which IS a kind of mild socialism, but it is still far from communism. And I think that a little of it would be truly good for America.

If you want to, you can check out the US and Sweden in the CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html) and see if things seem awful here.

For instance, look at the horrible effects of a socialized health care system. Our life expectancy at birth is 2.6 years higher than in the US and our infant mortality rate is less than half.

I'm not saying that it's paradise or anything, but I think it is a very decent place to live, and I don't think that people should be so quick to dismiss any idea that is "leftist."

And regarding Donna's ridiculously worn-out Kool-Aid comment: Why is it that people always have to say "Barack Obama, is not now, and never will be the second coming" and "Now Obama is supposed to solve everything just because the media wants him continue to be special" when they comment on things like this? I've seen so very many Americans who claim that "the liberals" treat Obama as a messiah and that they believe that he will magically fix everything. And they feel to need to repeat that even on a blog post that says that Obama COULD be great, and that he MIGHT be a great president IF he can sort out the current economic mess.

That doesn't sound like someone who "has drunk the Kool-Aid" and is worshipping Obama, now does it? It sounds like someone who is cautiously optimistic. I've never seen an actual Obama-supporter who seems to worship him, but people still want to drag out the whole "they think he is Jesus"-bit.

DL: Eliminating the middle class is a leftist thing? Seriously? Is this opposite day?

Regarding Obama's specific policies though: lowering taxes for the lower income brackets instead of lowering taxes for those who earn the most is bad for the middle class? How?

At least the large middle class in our leftist country learn how to pluralize a noun in English. (Sorry, that was mean, but seriously, look into the use of the apostrophe. You'll probably get your point across better if you do.)

And Todd, just an FYI, protecting the _only planet where we can possibly survive_ isn't a bad thing.

Marcus 9:00PM February 19, 2009