Barack Obama's audacity of hype crumbles

Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | April 26, 2009 | Paul Mason

[Schnucki]

As he approaches 100 days in office, the President faces a grim reality check.

Buddleia has taken over large parts of downtown Gary, Indiana. The city, once home to 300,000 people, is down to just a third of that. There are mile after mile of deserted, derelict and abandoned homes; sub-zero winds blow in off Lake Michigan.

"Gary, Indiana is like an eagle poised to fly," mayor Rudy Clay tells me, "All we need is the air of the fiscal stimulus beneath our wings and we'll soar once again and make America proud."

The mayor has applied for $400 million out of Barack Obama's $787 billion fiscal stimulus plan. Top of his wish list are automatic weapons and Kevlar vests for the police, and some more police to tote them: last year, in this, the crime capital of the Midwest, he had to lay off police officers due to shortage of funds.

The city symbolises the scale of the economic challenge facing Obama as he approaches 100 days in office. If the president is to deliver something more than the "audacity of hype", homes will have to be built in Gary, health care delivered, and a way found for its inhabitants to live on something more than benefits and debt. But much of America is in revolt against what needs to happen for this to be achieved. And Obama's own momentum on the economic front looks weak.

There are three levers the federal government can pull in the face of this crisis: monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and bank recapitalisation. Obama has used all three but so far ineffectively. In each case, he has run into obstacles rooted deep in the US institutional set-up, indeed deep in the country's psyche.

On monetary policy, Obama has remained a bystander to the efforts

[freekitty]

Obama’s audacity of hype is exactly what it is.

[anniegetyourgun]

And most of our fellow countrymen have bought the hype....and the lie.

[randomwalk]

Eric Hoffer has some interesting things to say about audacity in his Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. That came into print in 1951. The word audacity is unusual enough to have been borrowed by you-know-who, and that would be in keeping with the trend of plagiarism we have seen in the works of some of our lefty “thinkers”...Much too long to quote here, but this Hoffer book is remarkable and concise.

[Rumplemeyer]

Gary was build by US Steel Co., when the mills closed so did Gary, sad but the way it is, the United Steel Workers and their good friend the Democrats made the mill unprofitable with wages and environmental regulations.

Just think they can make steel in India and ship it to the USA cheaper than we can make it here, and Jug Ears wants CAP Trade, and India is going to say...no.

[DogBarkTree]

It’s encouraging to know that the British press is not impressed and they know a naked emperor when they see one.

[Vince Ferrer]

The author is counting on a gullible audience of foreigners to peddle blame for Gary’s destruction on the refusal of level headed people to fund their dysfuncional city any longer. Gary, and other rust belt cities, have been self destructing for decades, and any money spent now is completely wasted. If I were in Gary, I would open up a bus tour of the ruins for Europeans.

[milwguy]

The rest of the world is way ahead of the Obamatrons in the US who think he is a god of sorts.

[Veto!]

Gary now makes it’s annual budget by waiting to report election returns until the very end. Then, ballots magically appear, bought and paid for b y the Dem winners, just enough to give them the election.

[VeniVidiVici]

Gary, Indiana is like an eagle poised to fly," mayor Rudy Clay tells me, "All we need is the air of the fiscal stimulus beneath our wings and we'll soar once again and make America proud."

Goebbels has been reincarnated.

[GeronL]

The mayor is an idiot. He thinks a little government debt spending thrown his way will let his town fly again.

what an idiot

[truthguy]

Gary, IN and many cities and communities across the country are suffering the effects of deindustrialization. This has been caused by many factors.

The big problem is that the people who have caused the problem keep getting reelected by the same people who are themselves suffering. This is because those suffering cannot establish the link between cause and effect.

Cites like Gary, Detroit, Cleveland, and many others have become very unfriendly to Businesses who might want to expand. The elected officials and the electorate have enacted policies that chase business away rather then being friendly. The cities have done next to nothing about the crime and decay in their mists and find problems with Capitalism itself. They tax business out of the area and then plead with the Federal Government to help them out.

In the meantime the lunatics in Congress enact every policy they can to discourage business from operating in the US. Look at the idiotic regulations about to be enacted with regards to carbon emissions. This will drive what industry we have left from our shores. This Waxman is a madman, plain and simple. He must be stopped.

[kcvl]

Rudy Clay

Rudy Clay Jr., who received a new $39,960 contract two weeks ago to provide video services to the Gary Sanitary District

Gov. Mitch Daniels slammed his contract last week, criticizing Mayor Rudy Clay for giving the contract to his son while asking the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeals Board for relief from new property tax caps

[kcvl]

Mayor Rudy Clay’s TOYS FOR KIDS THAT SANTA CLAUS FORGOT INC.

[kcvl]

Mayor Rudy Clay, who has been tweaked for hiring an around-the-clock, two-man security detail and using a Hummer as a security car on the taxpayers’ dime, is getting thwacked again.

*To wit: A group called GEAR http://www.cafepress.com/savegary , which stands for “Garyites Embarrassed About Rudy,” is selling everything from teddy bears to underwear emblazoned with the group’s name.

Detail on the detail: Clay’s so-called “world-class” security team is made up of James Matlock, reportedly known as “The General,” and Jesse L. McCoy, who sports a cowboy hat and vest pinned with a badge.

http://tinyurl.com/dk3xu9

[kcvl]

CLAY TRIPPED UP BY TRAVEL COSTS WATCHDOG CLAIMS HE SHOULD PAY TAB FOR WASHINGTON VISIT

Clay, D-Gary, made a much-publicized visit to the nation’s capital June 26 when South African leader Nelson Mandela addressed U.S. senators, representatives, diplomats and a host of VIPs, including Clay.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1N1-1085302E6500115A.html

[GeronL]

well, my Mayor begged DC to buy his bonds. embarrassing

[Hardastarboard]

"Gary, Indiana is like a eagle cesspool poised to fly,"

Quote corrected to reflect reality.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

There are three levers the federal government can pull in the face of this crisis: monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and bank recapitalisation

Seems he's yanking awfully hard on the "outright nationalization" lever, too. AND pushing terribly hard on the "appease our enemies" button.

[RocketMan1]

And most of our fellow countrymen have bought the hype....and the lie.

And like a kid a few days after Halloween, they are still eating the sweet candy. In a "few days," they will be at the dentist with a mouthful of cavities!