Barack Obama lays plans to deaden expectation after election victory

[IllTestYourGirls]

"Change" we can believe in.... At least they are admitting they cant change shit. If we are still in a recession in three years it WILL BE Obama's and the dems fault.

Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harbouring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.


The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of “hope” and “change” are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.


One senior adviser told The Times that the first few weeks of the transition, immediately after the election, were critical, “so there’s not a vast mood swing from exhilaration and euphoria to despair”.


The aide said that Mr Obama himself was the first to realise that expectations risked being inflated.


In an interview with a Colorado radio station, Mr Obama appeared to be engaged already in expectation lowering. Asked about his goals for the first hundred days, he said he would need more time to tackle such big and costly issues as health care reform, global warming and Iraq. “The first hundred days is going to be important, but it’s probably going to be the first thousand days that makes the difference,” he said. He has also been reminding crowds in recent days how “hard” it will be to achieve his goals, and that it will take time.


“I won’t stand here and pretend that any of this will be easy – especially now,” Mr Obama told a rally in Sarasota, Florida, yesterday, citing “the cost of this economic crisis, and the cost of the war in Iraq”. Mr Obama’s transition team is headed by John Podesta, a Washington veteran and a former chief-of-staff to Bill Clinton. He has spent months overseeing a virtual Democratic government-in-exile to plan a smooth transition should Mr Obama emerge victorious next week. The plans are so far advanced that an Obama Cabinet has been largely decided upon, with the expectation that most of his senior appointments could be announced shortly after election day.


Yet Mr Obama and his aides are under no illusions about the size of the challenges the Democrat will inherit if he enters the Oval Office. Tom Daschle, the party’s former leader in the US Senate and a strong contender for the post of White House chief-of-staff in an Obama administration, said last month that the winner next week would have only a 50 per cent chance of winning a second term in 2012.


Not only will the next president take office with the country sliding into a potentially long recession — and mired in debt — but the challenges abroad are immense. There is an unfinished war in Iraq, a worsening situation in Afghanistan and an unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan to contend with. Iran appears intent on acquiring the bomb and there remains the ever-present threat from al-Qaeda and Islamic extremists.


If he wins, Mr Obama will inherit a Democratic-controlled Congress, and might even have the benefit of a 60-seat filibuster-proof “supermajority” in the Senate. Such a scenario would allow him to push through legislation largely unfettered by Republican opposition. Yet it also means that should the country still be mired in recession in three years’ time, voters — who have short memories — will probably blame him and the Democrats on Capitol Hill. Those stakes have led Mr Obama to conclude that while expectations need to be tempered, big things need to be achieved very early in his first term, when he will still have the political capital to achieve some of his most ambitious legislative goals.


Having promised “real” change, the pressure will be on him to deliver. In the Colorado interview, Mr Obama added: “The next president has got to come quickly out of the box.
”

The early priorities being lined up if he takes power are a mixture of symbolism and substance. He plans to make a major address in a big Muslim country early in his first term. Having pledged on the campaign trail to close Guantanamo Bay, he is also determined to make early moves to rid America of the controversial prison. Yet what to do with the remaining inmates looms as an intractable problem, as many of their home governments refuse to allow them to return.


Mr Obama’s first legislative goals will be to follow through on his pledge to cut taxes for the middle class and raise them for the wealthiest Americans, and to push through a hugely expensive Bill to provide near-universal health insurance.

[The Duck]

Obama is a puppet of the new world order.

[TheDoc]

The right/republicans produce some serious trash. Change isn't about changing everything in 100 days. It's about doing it differently than we do now, which does not work.

So even if he only does 1 thing in the first 100 days, he has lived up to part of what he said he would do. Now he has 4 years to go to work in the other changes.

[Deputy Chief Command]

dont think he is going to win .. its going to be Mc Cain . .

[marketsmart]

Originally Posted by kandah

Obama is a puppet of the new world order.

i heard he was a puppet of the new kids on the block...

ah ah ew wo ew wo.... the right stuff....

[TheDoc]

Originally Posted by Deputy Chief Command

dont think he is going to win .. its going to be Mc Cain . .

Aye, he only needs to flip half the states back and pull a few out of his ass. Sure, if that happens, he 'might' win.

[AlienQ - BANNED FOR LIFE]

Yeah at least with a McCaine Presidency nothing will be different and therefore the transition for McCaine will be a cake walk...

[uno]

It'll probably take way more than a year to start reversing all the fucked up shit Bush has done to this country to really start getting to new things he'd like to do.

[IllTestYourGirls]

They are not talking about 100 days, they are not talking about a year. They are talking about the very high likely hood of Obama and the dem controlled senate not being able to change a god damn thing IN THREE YEARS.

Why? Because Obama will not do what is needed to be done. A drastic change in our foreign and monetary policies.

[IllTestYourGirls]

Originally Posted by AlienQ

Yeah at least with a McCaine Presidency nothing will be different and therefore the transition for McCaine will be a cake walk...

McCain did not run his campaign on the savior message. McCain would suck just as bad.

[notoldschool]

Anyone who thinks he can change the world in 100 days is a tool. It takes time for policy changes to work. Atleast he is honest about it. Most politicians wouldnt be at this point.

[IllTestYourGirls]

sorry thought I left the link in OP

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle5051118.ece

[thehand]

[gideongallery]

Originally Posted by thehand

1orglaugh

[Redmanthatcould]

I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind?s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

[Redmanthatcould]

Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.

Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.

Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.

In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.

If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.

Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.

It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

[thehand]

all aboard...

[tiger]

How long do you think it should take to fix 8 years of fuckups?

[escorpio]

Give him a break. His slogan is HOPE, not RESULTS.

[DWB]

Whoever wins is just a janitor for the 8 years of mess the Bush admin caused. No matter what plans they had, they can kiss them good-bye. It's clean up time.

Neither McCain or Obama is going to do shit. On top of that, THERE IS NO MONEY for them to do anything.

We lose. Again.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Originally Posted by DirtyWhiteBoy

Whoever wins is just a janitor for the 8 years of mess the Bush admin caused. No matter what plans they had, they can kiss them good-bye. It's clean up time.

Neither McCain or Obama is going to do shit. On top of that, THERE IS NO MONEY for them to do anything.

We lose. Again.

I agree. The job is going to be rough and highly criticized for either candidate no matter the outcome. I say DWB for prez, he promises a poo stained couch in every living room.

DWB 08'

[thehand]

Originally Posted by DirtyWhiteBoy

Whoever wins is just a janitor for the 8 years of mess the Bush admin caused. No matter what plans they had, they can kiss them good-bye. It's clean up time.

Neither McCain or Obama is going to do shit. On top of that, THERE IS NO MONEY for them to do anything.

We lose. Again.

100% agreed

[bhutocracy]

The current economic situation is a speeding mack truck.. there are different ways of applying the brakes but no matter what technique is used there is a certain amount of unavoidable inertia... The effects from both macro and micro economic reform take years to be fully realised.
It's quite annoying most people are too stupid to realise this. Political cycles and economic cycles rarely match up unless they are long enough because of the lag involved in economic policy reaching main street.
Whoever gets in is going to have a shit couple of years. If it's a one term president, whoever gets in afterwards will get the credit from the public as things pull out of recession during their term. It's a shame, but it's true. Things are going to get worse for a while and after a certain point people are going to stop remembering how we got there and start complaining about their situation and the people in charge at the time.

At least people should remember the stockmarket crash happened before the election, if Obama gets in he'll probably have about a year or so's grace.

[KillerK]

three cheers for Acorn.. and how they helped fuckup the housing mess, but that was Bush...

[bhutocracy]

At some point after about 6 months the conservatives are going to start saying he's got to stop blaming his predecessor which is a line they'll really try to hammer to paint him with the crisis. Even though they'll know full well there is nothing anyone can possibly do in the first year to change anything.

[KillerK]

Originally Posted by bhutocracy

At some point after about 6 months the conservatives are going to start saying he's got to stop blaming his predecessor which is a line they'll really try to hammer to paint him with the crisis. Even though they'll know full well there is nothing anyone can possibly do in the first year to change anything.

why not? If you have control of the house and senate you can pass pretty much anything you need right?

maybe they can force us to be more green or allow us to marry dogs or some shit.

[spunkmaster]

Originally Posted by bhutocracy

At some point after about 6 months the conservatives are going to start saying he's got to stop blaming his predecessor which is a line they'll really try to hammer to paint him with the crisis. Even though they'll know full well there is nothing anyone can possibly do in the first year to change anything.

Kinda like the dems blaming Bush for the Clinton recession his first three months in office
or the budget shortfalls the dems blamed Bush for even though it was Clinton's budget ?

Or, it's like the dems blaming Bush for the Fannie/Freddie mess when Bush tried 38 times to fix the problem and the dems blocked him every time ?

[bhutocracy]

Originally Posted by KillerK

why not? If you have control of the house and senate you can pass pretty much anything you need right?

maybe they can force us to be more green or allow us to marry dogs or some shit.

If you're retarded enough to believe that change happens the instant you implement something then yes, you can drool about it if you want.. please just ignore the whole point of the last post talking about how it takes YEARS for reform to have an effect. Just like it took YEARS for this financial crisis to brew. Am I wasting my breath or are you kinda getting the point or do I put you on ignore for being a tard?

[bhutocracy]

Originally Posted by spunkmaster

Kinda like the dems blaming Bush for the Clinton recession his first three months in office
or the budget shortfalls the dems blamed Bush for even though it was Clinton's budget ?

Or, it's like the dems blaming Bush for the Fannie/Freddie mess when Bush tried 38 times to fix the problem and the dems blocked him every time ?

If you have a recession the first 3 months you're in office it's 100% not your fault. I'd say the same for the first 3 months of a Republican admin... (actually the first year or two unless they did something really crazy). And yes you can blame the previous admin for budget shortfalls depending on the level of debt involved. You can't wave a magic wand and balance a budget in 12 months.. What is stopping Bush from magically giving america a surplus tomorrow in that case?
Yes I agree wholeheartedly that Bush didn't 100% cause this crisis. It works both ways. If Clinton burnt the constitution and stayed in power over the last 8 years we'd still be on the same rough trajectory. The parties aren't THAT different in general policy thrust there might be a year or two delay but Bush didn't drive us to this on his own. It's retarded to think that if the Dems were in power for 30 years there wouldn't be another recession lol.

[escorpio]

[GregE]

Originally Posted by bhutocracy

At some point after about 6 months the conservatives are going to start saying he's got to stop blaming his predecessor which is a line they'll really try to hammer to paint him with the crisis.

Six months? I think six weeks is more like it

Originally Posted by bhutocracy

Even though they'll know full well there is nothing anyone can possibly do in the first year to change anything.

If the economy is still in the tank two years after Obama's inauguration, the republicans will take the senate and the house of representatives back.

That's the way these things always work and Obama knows it.

Look for him to pass a shit load of laws during his first two years. Also, any moderate to left leaning federal judges who are currently contemplating retirement will be strongly encouraged to do so within that time frame as well

[uno]

Originally Posted by KillerK

three cheers for Acorn.. and how they helped fuckup the housing mess, but that was Bush...

I wonder when the far right whackjobs are going to realize ACORN isn't the boogeyman they've been led to believe.

[IllTestYourGirls]

Originally Posted by uno

I wonder when the far right whackjobs are going to realize ACORN isn't the boogeyman they've been led to believe.

About the same time Obama supporters realize Obama wont change shit.