U Weekly. Serving The Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio

Comments

1. I did not know Obama’s train of "hopes and dreams" was just going to board and never leave the station. I guess he meant to say hope while dreaming since he would actually do nothing to better the situation. His promises of cutting the deficit were obviously a lie. That 32% advantage of Obama is funny too, as was the Democratic women who lost to Scott Brown had a lead as sizable as 26-27 points within the month of the election. The citizens of Massachusettes spoke very loudly by shifting from "the norm" there and electing someone who believes in working hard for a living, not giving handouts. This mess was created when Barney Frank and Chris Dodd (with the help of Clinton) were in bed with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while basically making it a right through legislation for everyone to own a home; something I failed to read or see in the Constitution.

   ThankYouMass!!! | 2010-01-27 - 11:34:07 AM (CDT)

2. You’re really stupid, ThankYouMass!!!. What an amateur.

   Ted Fucking Stevens | 2010-01-27 - 03:59:20 PM (CDT)

3. Way to fart gold again Amann. Nice article.

   Jack B. | 2010-01-27 - 05:35:23 PM (CDT)

4. Why would the GOP even want to get elected when Obabmarama is doing everything Bush used to do and can now take the fall for it?

   even more | 2010-01-27 - 05:50:03 PM (CDT)

5. I know you write satire, but I think this is actually good advice for the GOP. Basically if they lay in the cut they can not only make a mint, they have an opportunity to rebuild a strong position. The GOP learned long ago (and long ahead of Dems) that talking heads strengthen and embolden the base. Not only that, but in times of discontent moderates are eager to jump on a "change" bandwagon. The GOP desperately needs this. And if they play the rhetorical game right, they might even be able to pull a W on Obama. By that I mean to say they can paint him as someone who was never in touch with the public at large, dangerously unqualified, without an exit strategy to war, and in bed with unsavory characters. Hey, it worked wonders for the Dems.

   If they can keep it from being too bombastic (and that’s a big if), there’s a chance they can reach beyond the teabaggers and get to the moderates that are dissatisfied with Obama’s handling of the economy. A diehard moderate myself (one that for the most part agrees with the Obama ideology), I’ve got to say the pooch is being screwed on that front. While Obama inherited a sh-t situation, he was actively campaigning to do so. There should have been a better plan in place to hit the ground running from the outset. Life’s been hard. Obama should have been more prepared.

   And ThankYouMass!!!, you prove my point. You’re obviously conservative, and you’re worked up. You also have an infantile understanding about both the deficit and the housing crisis. This bodes well for the game plan Amann lays out here.

   Obama never claimed he would wave a magic wand and the deficit would disappear. On the contrary. He reasonably explained that we were way in the hole, and that by acting more prudently we’d slowly climb out. He proposed things like getting out of the middle east responsibly, scaling back the absurd (and absurdly expensive) war on terror, lowering healthcare costs to reduce the strain on Medicare and Medicaid, and growing the tax base and reducing the burden on the EPA by encouraging investment in green technology, amongst many other strategies. Each of these are multi-year projects. Eliminating the deficit was always pitched as a long term goal that our nation must pursue as a matter of security and efficacy.

   Unfortunately, W. left a sh-tstorm so devastating there was essentially no choice but to throw good money after bad to avert a national, and potentially global, depression. Anyone sitting in his seat, Democrat, Republican, or Ron Paul would have done the same. Thus the deficit goes up, and there’s nobody to blame there but W.

   ThankYouMass!!!, what you say about the situation under Clinton is grossly simplified, but mostly accurate. However, it didn’t become a danger to the economy until W showed up. Following the brief slump in the market post-9/11, W used fears about a prolonged recession to justify massive deregulation of securities markets. It was this deregulation that allowed the cowboy mentality to take hold in the financial world, turning Wall St. into a casino. A casino where everybody wins. A casino like that can’t stay open very long.

   And a word of advice ThankYouMass!!! : If you’re going to talk sh-t, man (or woman) up and post under your real name.

   Eric Eickholt | 2010-01-27 - 06:40:50 PM (CDT)

6. (Eric Eickholt: why should dudeman post his name? you wanna look him up on facebook or something? I’m not agreeing with what he said, just curious why you’re interested in his identity.)

   Werd Amann. However, Ron Paul won the hearts of the most space marines in the last election.

   vet85 | 2010-01-27 - 07:33:27 PM (CDT)

7. ThankYouMass!!! : Ah, the IF IT’S NOT IN THE CONSTITUTION IT’S NOT LEGAL argument. Terrific.

   WHEREDOESITSAYTHAT | 2010-01-28 - 02:44:29 PM (CDT)

8. i’m glad the article touched on the small, but infinitely heroic political docket of the space-marine. space-marines are getting less and less public voice these days, and that, my friend, is downright appalling. we need the support of the space-marines now more than ever. so what if they hold a republican bias and are fictitious in reality? we are going to need their support in the coming years. we’ve all seen the movies ’alien’, ’aliens’, ’starship troopers’, and more recently, ’avatar’, which proves to me that demographic will one day become absolutely necessary to preserve the american way of life. i mean, who else is going to be there when the upcoming space battle shit gets real? will smith will NOT save us this time! i feel very American, proud, and downright confident that with the help of this article, the pride of the space-marine will be uplifted and show the universe that these colors do not run.

   space semper fi | 2010-01-28 - 04:36:16 PM (CDT)

9. I agree, the Republicans need to sit tight, let the Obama wave crash a bit as is already happening, and gain some love from those outside of the diehard conservatives who would vote right no matter what.

   Also, I’m not much for Obama, but for you haters out there, who honestly thought Obama would be able to flip a switch and make all the problems go away? If don’t care if God was president, America is f***ed.

   Katie Ramsey | 2010-01-28 - 05:16:33 PM (CDT)

10. Go right or go home!

    Tedward | 2010-01-28 - 05:47:46 PM (CDT)

11. I was going to go on a tirade about how I voted Obama and the main reasoning behind it. Unfortunately my post did not post so I’ll make it as succinct as possible. I did vote for Obama and now I too am getting a little disenfranchised but have I given up the good fight, no. It is really disappointing that in his quest to be Mister Nice-Guy President he’s willing to try and compromise with people who would love nothing more than to see his administration fail, horrifically. Unfortunately this comes with the cost of the voice of the constituency - that’s us. We all pay the price for his compromising and their unwillingness to try to work together. It’s a lose-lose situation for everyone.

    Going to my reasoning for believing in our current President’s promises because his promises seemed more serving the greatest good of all. Working for your freedom leveling the playing field for people who should be sitting in those seats of Congress. My friend and I were discussing belief in the factual truth or a beautiful lie (in the context of a religious debate). As an Atheist I would be inclined to say the truth but I thought about it and said the beautiful lie. Hope for and working towards a better future is something to strive for. Obama promised those things for a weary American public. If hope and hard work and the notions of working for equality are the beautiful lie then I wanted to believe in them so badly.

    To keep it topical and pop-culturally relevant I will paraphrase Mister Conan O’Brien: Don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it is my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere.

    Be skeptical, always but cynicism really leads nowhere. If Mike knows me well enough he knows how really cynical I can get but with the way things are now I think we all live with some kind of hope for a better future in this beautiful country of ours. Well that was dripping with patriotism so now if you’ll excuse me I haven’t slept in about a day now so I think I’m going to bed now.

    Seanzy | 2010-01-29 - 03:37:59 AM (CDT)

Your Thoughts,

Name: (required)

To protect everyone from terrible spam, please enter the following code: (required)

* Offensive comments will be deleted!