Thursday, January 29, 2009

Stylin' On You, Politically



Morning, all. During my daily news reading, which consists mainly of the New York Times and Bloomberg plus my Blogger Reader, I came across this real cool article in the Times that compared Obama's style in the Oval Office with that of that other punk who used to be in the White House.

Obama's less formal, more relaxed style is a change for those accustomed to Bush's suit-and-tie tight-ass ways:

Thus did a rule of the George W. Bush Administration — coat and tie in the Oval Office at all times — fall by the wayside, only the first of many signs that a more informal culture is growing up in the White House under new management.

Don't get it twisted though, Obama is serious when it comes to getting the job done as President:

When the president invited Congressional leaders to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue last week to talk about his economic stimulus package, the session ran so long that Mr. Obama wound up apologizing to the lawmakers — even as he kept them talking, engaging them in the details of the legislation far more than was customary for Mr. Bush.

By the way, the economic stimulus package passed in the House of Representatives yesterday without a single Republican supporter. It's now making its way to the Senate for a vote.

Peep the rest of the article here at the NY Times to read about more of Obama's White House habits and his plans to change the Oval Office's decor. Enjoy!

5 comments:

  1. Everything about Obama is different than everything before him. He's definitely going to change the way the world see's this nation. And I think that stimulus package will be getting to $900 billion by the time the Senate is done with it. But I see it being pushed through in time for President's day. It's going to help a hell of a lot of people. And they're increasing Pell Grants for college students! Too late for me but that's always a good thing lol

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  2. There are a couple of more things I'd like in the stimulus plan to help jolt consumer spending, such as tax incentives for people that buy cars or do improvements on their home, but this is just the start of difficult times for America. Nothing that the gov't does will actually fix anything, the market needs to correct itself especially the housing market.

    We might see rampant inflation and zero growth or "stagflation" i.e. the 1970s with all this money creation we see now, which means higher taxes for all Americans until the government deficit is manageable.

    As a taxpayer myself, it's disheartening but I'd rather pay for social programs and job creation than a unwarranted war overseas. But that's a whole other topic in itself :)

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  3. I don't think stagflation is too much of a worry at this moment since the economic woes have crippled the global markets and global demand is no where near global supply. In fact, we are in a period of deflation right now because of that lack of demand for nearly everything. So, this influx of money should help bring up demand in markets that really need it and hopefully provide jobs at the same time.

    I agree that money spent on job creation rather than a war we don't shouldn't be in is something I'd much rather have.

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  4. Monk, great convo here!

    Inflation is not a worry, yet. I'm talking more of a long-term outlook, maybe 3 years from now. It also depends on the velocity of circulation, which right now has slowed because of the demand contraction like you said.

    Also, I don't know if I'd classify the current situation as deflation unless the price level drops consistently. The huge drop in oil is leading this, but I expect a recovery going forward until the end of the year.

    Thanks for stopping thru, man!

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  5. I like his style/personality. It's like he's saying "I'm relaxed and I got this!" lol

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