What Message Do You Want To Hear At The Democratic National Convention?

[Conan71]

Okay, well I don't expect President Obama to ask:

"Are you better off than you were four years ago?"   

Whomever gets elected in November has a difficult task ahead.  I do realize not all our problems are of Obama's making and there are some limits as to how much control the POTUS has over economic issues. 

I'd like to know what specific policy initiatives you'd like to hear for his second term.  Please keep this from devolving into personal attacks and ad hominems.

I'll make this simple and break it down into several categories-

Debt and deficit reduction/budget:

Environmental issues:

Overall economy:

Unemployment:

Entitlements/government aid:

High oil costs/energy:

Foreign policy:

Social issues:

Any additional issues not covered by the sub sets above:

[guido911]

I love this message. The left has officially lost its grasp on its sanity...

[nathanm]

"Are you better off than you were four years ago?"   

Most people are. Not better off than they were six years ago, though.

Maybe I should start a "this day in history" recounting the events of four years ago. Which banks were having runs, which companies were going bankrupt for lack of any willing buyers of corporate paper, and so forth. It might lend some sorely needed perspective.

I'm fairly certain we'll hear more about how Obama plans to further reduce the deficit, which will contrast nicely with Romney and Ryan's teenager-like "i dunno" answer. He'll probably talk about how under his watch there's x more solar and y amount of coal burning has been replaced with natural gas, thus helping the climate change issue. They may or may not talk about how government assistance is keeping a large number of folks out of severe poverty despite the tough employment environment. He'll probably lambast the Republicans on their refusal to negotiate in good faith on the supercommittee. We might even hear a "love yeah, bin Laden is dead," but I doubt it. The Republicans seem to have successfully cowed him with their accusations of some sort of impropriety in even bothering to announce his death.

There may be a call for more stimulus, but I doubt it. Despite economists from nearly every part of the political spectrum in agreement that more stimulus is necessary because monetary policy is not closing the demand gap it's politically untouchable at the moment. The Republicans have successfully muddied the waters on that issue as well. Despite strong evidence that the stimulus did in fact prevent a worse outcome, early mistakes in gauging the depth of the crisis led to promises that simply couldn't be kept. People are rightly upset about that, but the Republicans are taking it too far and arguing that it didn't do anything at all, at least when they're on stage.

And I see guido has left his sense of humor on his last cruise.

[Conan71]

Most people are. Not better off than they were six years ago, though.

Maybe I should start a "this day in history" recounting the events of four years ago. Which banks were having runs, which companies were going bankrupt for lack of any willing buyers of corporate paper, and so forth. It might lend some sorely needed perspective.

Issues which would dog him over four years ago would be fuel prices are back where they were right before the melt down.  Unemployment is higher, the average household income of the middle class has dropped, real estate prices are lower, more people are on food stamps and other entitlements.  Clearly it's not better for many.  Are those all his fault?  No, but they are metrics which have been equally applied to his predecessors.

I'm curious if he will address any of those issues with a mea culpa or tries to divert attention to his opponents instead.

I think he would do well to be humble, keep blame for others at a bare minimum, and have some concrete ideas on how to turn the economy around and tackle debt and deficit without framing it as the rich are bleeding the poor.  Unfortunately, I don't think he's capable of doing it.  Clinton managed to raise taxes without painting the wealthy as evil-doers, why hasn't Obama used the same tact?

[Teatownclown]

I pay little attention to the conventions as they are TV ads albeit the dims will have some entertainment (wee, the GOPeabaggers had Clint!).

I hope that the democrats continue to grind at all the lies of Paul Ryan and the hypocrisy of Mitt the Sh!t.

I hope next week, most Americans still feel confident in the current administration and realize how dangerous Romney might be as President.

Romney's campaign centerpiece.



Waiting for the debates.

[nathanm]

Issues which would dog him over four years ago would be fuel prices are back where they were right before the melt down.  Unemployment is higher, the average household income of the middle class has dropped, real estate prices are lower, more people are on food stamps and other entitlements.  Clearly it's not better for many.  Are those all his fault?  No, but they are metrics which have been equally applied to his predecessors.

Your timing is off. Unemployment is lower now than it was when Obama took office. Not by much, mind you, but lower. Personal Income is also higher than it was when Obama took office. Housing prices are indeed lower and haven't really trended back upwards. Not surprising, given the oversupply. As far as entitlements go, it depends on what you count as an entitlement. Some transfer payments (which includes Social Security, Medicare, and UI, in addition to other things) are higher, some are lower.

[DolfanBob]

The message I was waiting for was a half filled stadium. And that looks like it was going to be forcast for the Thursday night acceptance speech. But a different forecast has saved the speech. Rain has moved in and the venue will "most likely" be moved to the Time Warner Cable Arena that seats a fillable 20,000.
Probably won't see Oprah crying this time.

[Teatownclown]

Okay, well I don't expect President Obama to ask:

"Are you better off than you were four years ago?"   

Whomever gets elected in November has a difficult task ahead.  I do realize not all our problems are of Obama's making and there are some limits as to how much control the POTUS has over economic issues. 

I'd like to know what specific policy initiatives you'd like to hear for his second term.  Please keep this from devolving into personal attacks and ad hominems.

I'll make this simple and break it down into several categories-

Debt and deficit reduction/budget:

Environmental issues:

Overall economy:

Unemployment:

Entitlements/government aid:

High oil costs/energy:

Foreign policy:

Social issues:

Any additional issues not covered by the sub sets above:

Sheeeesh, Crownan. This looks like a set up to argue over issues.

The economy is fine compared to where it was when Bush gave up 4 years and three weeks ago. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Today, we are hiring 200,000 a month. The stock exchange gave smart people a chance to recapture their loses incurred resulting from an out of control economy fraught with high risk de-regulated credit default swaps. The housing market is coming back after an insane hangover. Banks have stabilized. You have one issue: debt. And not really an issue if we can get growth to %3 by spending more money.

Obama has passed the foreign policy test. Romney not only failed it but was a draft dodger and did not even mention the troops or what he will do in defense of our Nation.

When I hear the GOPeabaggers crying they're going to "take our country back" it makes me want to puke. You won't hear that type of slanderous chant.

FOUR MORE YEARS!

[DolfanBob]

This is the second time that I have heard draft dodging today. What military did Obama serve in?

A side note. I didn't serve in the Military but I signed up for the draft and War somehow side stepped me. I dodged nothing.

[Teatownclown]

This is the second time that I have heard draft dodging today. What military did Obama serve in?

A side note. I didn't serve in the Military but I signed up for the draft and War somehow side stepped me. I dodged nothing.

Obama's eligibility during peacetime payed little at the time and so he chose education and community service.

Romney left the country to avoid the draft. I do question his authenticity when he claimed to be a missionary. He may have been born here, but I'm not certain he'd be considered normal. Have we ever had a missionary in the oval office? I can't trust a person who never drinks. Hendrix would ask Mittens: "are you experienced?"

[guido911]

I guess folks all forgot about the biggest draft dodger of all this election, Joe Biden. Biggest damned coward of the bunch. And. yep, Obama will go down as a fantastic foreign leader...

[guido911]

What going full retard looks and sounds like:

[erfalf]

Romney left the country to avoid the draft. I do question his authenticity when he claimed to be a missionary. He may have been born here, but I'm not certain he'd be considered normal. Have we ever had a missionary in the oval office? I can't trust a person who never drinks. Hendrix would ask Mittens: "are you experienced?"

It's kind of standard protocol for Mormon's to do mission work for a few years. Am I wrong on this one. I always remember the sports teams at BYU have kids of all ages because they would take time off for mission work for a few years. Not that unusual. Maybe the timing was convenient, I really don't know.

[Conan71]

Your timing is off. Unemployment is lower now than it was when Obama took office. Not by much, mind you, but lower. Personal Income is also higher than it was when Obama took office. Housing prices are indeed lower and haven't really trended back upwards. Not surprising, given the oversupply. As far as entitlements go, it depends on what you count as an entitlement. Some transfer payments (which includes Social Security, Medicare, and UI, in addition to other things) are higher, some are lower.

Uh, except for these darned facts:

American household median annual incomes have fallen 4.8% since the recession ended, from $53,508 in June 2009 -- when the recession technically ended -- to $50,964 in June of this year, a study found.

But for some subgroups, such as African Americans and those without a college degree, the declines were even starker, according to a study conducted by Sentier Research, an Annapolis, Md.-based research group.

The nearly 5% decline during the recovery is even larger than the 2.6% drop in median income during the recession.

That adds to a total drop of 7.2% since December 2007 when the recession began, according to the study.

"This latest report continues our efforts to help chronicle one important dimension of the economic hardships now being experienced by a large number of American households," wrote co-author Gordon Green. "Based on our data, almost every group is worse off now than it was three years ago, with the exception of households with householders 65 years old and over."

For some, the effects of the recession were much more pronounced:

-- For households headed by those between the ages of 25 and 34, real median annual income fell 8.9% from $54,520 in June 2009 to $49,659.

-- The opposite occurred for households headed by those 65 to 74 years old. For this age bracket, income rose by 6.5% from $39,548 to $42,113 during the same three-year period.

-- Regionally, the drops were disparate. Households in the West region saw a drop of 8.5% -- from $59,065 to $54,071 -- compared with the Midwest's 1.1% decline.

-- Perhaps the starkest drop was among African American households, which saw median income drop 11.1% from $36,567 to $32,498.

The report also found that in blue states, where Democrats have strongholds, income levels were down 5.2%, compared with red states, which were down 5%. In swing states, median household income dropped by 5.7% to $51,430.

The Sentier Research analysis follows this week's news that the middle class has been steadily shrinking.

A report by the Pew Research Center found that the middle class fell to to 51% of the population in 2011 from 61% in 1971.

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-household-income-fell-during-economic-recovery-study-finds-20120823,0,6601675.story

As well, unemployment was 6.1% four years ago in August 2008 and gas prices are at or above Aug. 2008 levels.  The question was: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"  It gets even worse though if you were to compare fuel prices in Jan. of '09 when Obama took office, national average was $1.84 at the time. U-6 unemployment was 14.2% in Jan. '09 and after trending down as low as 14.5% in March and April of this year, as of July it's 15%.

[Conan71]

Sheeeesh, Crownan. This looks like a set up to argue over issues.

The economy is fine compared to where it was when Bush gave up 4 years and three weeks ago. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Today, we are hiring 200,000 a month. The stock exchange gave smart people a chance to recapture their loses incurred resulting from an out of control economy fraught with high risk de-regulated credit default swaps. The housing market is coming back after an insane hangover. Banks have stabilized. You have one issue: debt. And not really an issue if we can get growth to %3 by spending more money.

Obama has passed the foreign policy test. Romney not only failed it but was a draft dodger and did not even mention the troops or what he will do in defense of our Nation.

When I hear the GOPeabaggers crying they're going to "take our country back" it makes me want to puke. You won't hear that type of slanderous chant.

FOUR MORE YEARS!

So you don't have a wish list of things you'd like to see POTUS Obama address as objectives for his second term or are you simply afraid of a debate over them?  I'd really like to see what others would like to hear come from this convention.  I honestly am not spring loaded to argue over them, I'm more interested to hear what his supporters are wanting to see in new policy initiatives. 

Obviously the recovery is going much slower than anyone would like and on social issues, he appears to still be lagging in things more progressive voters like yourself would like.  Well he did finally come clean about his stance on gay marriage.