[Fegasderty]

Russia's President just announced plans to place short range missiles on Poland's border, he also laid the blame for the current financial situation at the USA's feet, and there was something about a jamming device too. Go Obama, woo the bear.

[brraverishhh]

Democrats have always been deemed "weak" by the sharks abroad. They are always tested, and more often than not, like Carter and LBJ they fail.

• Further Russian action in Georgia
• Possible Russian driven cessation/civil war in Ukraine and Moldova
• Agitation of Armenia/Azerbaijan by combined Russian/Iranian mechanizations.
• Further expansion of aggressive anti US socialism in Latin America, funded by Russia supported by Iran and China.
• Emboldening of Chinese foreign policy in the sea of Japan and elsewhere
• Full on infiltration of Iraq by Iran, and then with the US pullout, all out civil war that will claim millions of lives.
• Another war with Israel, possibly involving Syria and Iran.
• Testing and possibly using Nuclear ordinance by Iran
• collapse of NATO

This is just foreign policy, internally the economics will be pretty bad too, just on trends and socialism is no fix for any of it. Obama will racialise the internal debate to a great extent as well.

[tgs]

Will see what happens.

You've got 4 years to build a better mousetrap. But be warned, if it's not a solution but merely more mud, well- make that eight years.

? What does that mean exactly? As of right now he hasn't done much.... so lets see.

[softy54534]

What's ahead of us? Your views please.

Personally, I'm sure the next four years will be tough. We will all be tested.

[...]

Instead of kicking yourselves and staying up trying to find a piece of mud big enough to dislodge Obama, learn the lesson of this campaign. Hate politics isn't a good tool when you pull it out everyday. People got numb after three campaigns waged exactly that way.

[...]

You've got 4 years to build a better mousetrap. But be warned, if it's not a solution but merely more mud, well- make that eight years.

A few of my thoughts:

1) Yes, Obama was elected to the position of Leftist Messiah, but just with a "majority" of 52%. That means that there is pretty much an equal number of Americans (most notably the Americans who actually pay 97% of the taxes in this country), who rejected Obama. Therefore, one immediate challenge for the new Leftist Messiah and his babysitter, the Vice-Messiah, is to assure the other half of the country that he is not serious about moving America further into Socialism and welfare.

2) Unfortunately, this is a golden age for al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbullah, Iran, the Taliban, and our other enemies. They have been assured that America is at its weakest point with an inexperienced, know-nothing president at the helm. They will not be impressed by Obama's only skill, which is to dramatically deliver pre-written speeches at rallies. Even Joe Biden, the Vice-Messiah, admits that our enemies will attack America if Obama was to be elected, so we had better brace ourselves.

3) The people who contribute least to society and take the most are now in control. We're seeing democracy reach its limits, as citizens can simply vote to legalize theft from others. And given the opportunity... They do.

When you look at Obama's 52% "majority," it's important to keep in mind that the lower-income 50% (Obama's core voters) only pay 3% of federal taxes! The system is clearly broken, when those who contribute 3% get to control the rest of the country which pays the other 97%.

4) The Obama presidency does not bode well for America. But, even though it's very disappointing to see Obama elected, we have no choice but to wish him success at steering the country to greater prosperity. He now must use his Messiah mind-control with his core voters to let them know that they need to be more productive and contribute their fair share to this country.

[softy54534]

He might turn out to be a good president or another Jimmy Carter.... will see.

[Drugmachine]

What's ahead of us? Your views please.

Personally, I'm sure the next four years will be tough. We will all be tested. I pray that all of the posters here are not visited by any of their most hysterical predictions. So far neither Ayers nor Wright nor Farrikan have been appointed to cabinet. So far Obama hasn't sworn in on a Quran. So far the brown shirts haven't knocked at your doors and taken away your guns and all your assets.

Instead of kicking yourselves and staying up trying to find a piece of mud big enough to dislodge Obama, learn the lesson of this campaign. Hate politics isn't a good tool when you pull it out everyday. People got numb after three campaigns waged exactly that way. They were tired of hearing about Obama's aunt and her $250 dollar contribution when the world was crashing around them.

You've got 4 years to build a better mousetrap. But be warned, if it's not a solution but merely more mud, well- make that eight years.

The Obama Presidency will be a disaster in slow motion. There won't be a single event that will show that he 'failed' but the long term damage to the USA and the rest of the world will be enormous:

ON ECONOMICS
=============

If Obama does what he says he will do, this recession we are in in will extend both in time and duration. The major issues are these, in no particular order:

1) Employee Free Choice Act--This Orwellian named piece of legislation will remove the rights of workers to participate in private and anonymous elections to decide if their workplace should become unionized. Instead of cards being signed and submitted to create a vote, these cards are sufficient to be the vote. In a nod to his labor backers, the EFCA will be passed, more shops unionized, more union dues collected and given to Dems, wages rise, lower employment, higher prices, higher numbers of people on the dole, lower tax revenues, etc. This combined with raising the min wage and FEDERALLY mandated sick days will force small businesses to cut back on hiring or on even employing people. Small business is the engine of the US economy and Obama may screw it up big time.

2) Personal Taxes--one can go on and on and on about this, but the facts are that EVERYBODY'S taxes are going up. The combination of marginal tax rate increases, FICA increases, dividend and investment taxes, means everybody's taxes goes up. Nearly 70% of ALL HOUSEHOLDS own stocks in some form or another. The dividends and capital gains taxes ALONE mean that nearly everybody's taxes are going up to some degree. The net effect of all of this will be lower expenditures by consumers and lower amounts of risk / investment capital available to expand the economy. Since consumer spending is 60% of the US economy, this is huge.

3) 401K Withdrawals--Obama has propsed allowing 401k money to be withdrawn without tax penalties. This will be a huge negative impact to the stock market. If it passses, expect the market to chop off 1500-2000 points, and then the lows at 7400-7900 in 2002 and 2009 will be come resistance not support. The real downside here may be panic selling as the first folks pull out of the market. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me will be the battle cry.

4) Corporate Taxes--Obama's desire to tax corporations at higher rates and to institute a punative 'windfall' tax just belies the fact that liberal economists tend not to understand how businesses run. Higher taxes on net profits, just means that companies will do what then need to do to get to higher profits on EBITA, their pre tax profit. They will lay off employees, reduce expenditures, and raise prices in order to do so. It is simple economics, and again disasterous to an economy in trouble already.

5) Trade Policy--Obama has suggested in 'renegotiating' various trade agreements like NAFTA to appease both the unions and the environmentalists and to help 'spur' US jobs. The additional terms he is proposing will act like protectionist tariffs, increasing costs through labor, environmental regulations and the like. These extra tariffs will be resisted by our trading partners or will be matched. So while we won't probably have a tariff war in the traditional sense, we may get one thorugh the back door.

Foreign Policy
=============
1) Israel will be hung out to dry--It won't come as a surprise when Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas, the PA, Syria, Egypt all start ratcheting up the pressure. Already Hamas has attacked Israel on the eve of the election. However, as Israel goes to defend herself, USA support will be lacking. There will be quicker condemnations at the UN that aren't blocked by the USA, the forced cease fires will come quicker and be even better for the Arabs. Futher, supplies from the US needed for the IDF will become harder to come by and in smaller supplies. The end result will be Israel will be forced to make a treaty that is clearly NOT in their favor, and when that treaty is broken by the Arabs, Israel will be blamed and even more support siphoned off.

2) Iran will get the Bomb--Obama will do NOTHING to stop Iran from getting the Bomb, which may set off a huge nuclear arms race which includes KSA and Egypt. All of this is very destabalizing for the ME and should hit oil prices which in turn will hit the economy.

3) Russia and China will be resurgent--Russia has already stated they will put missles on the border with Poland, and China will get tough on Tibet and Tawian, with a combonation of carrot and stick. Russia will continue to pressure Georgia, the Ukraine and the Baltics over their Russian minorities and it wouldn't surprise me if a shooting conflict started with Russia.

That'll do for now, but I haven't even started on the Fairness Doctrine, DADT / DOMA, and Domestic Police Force crap that will culturally be problematic for the USA and show how he isn't close to being a uniter, but really a divider.

[TorryJens]

This is from the Yahoo! Finance front page (the day after elections):

From news article:
Dow Down 300 as Investors Shift Focus to Economy- AP

A case of post-election nerves sent stocks lower Wednesday as investors began questioning what impact a Barack Obama presidency will have on business and the overall economy. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 300 points and the major indexes all fell more than 3 percent.

[TorryJens]

I predict the initial cabinet will not last a single term.

Our schools will begin to indoctrinate our children and views which we once considered radical-extremist will become mainstream with little question of it. (ie. Ayers was a war protestor, and Wright represents the typical Black church)

The media will turn on Obama and the Fairness Doctrine will be the next hotbed issue.

There will be no free health care, we will have an energy crisis, and measures to penalize free trade capitalism will be put in place that much like the mortgage crisis will take a decade before we fully feel.

There will be endless new ACORN type groups set up for other departments, which will do little more then appropriate government funds with little positive results.

Very few people will qualify for any of Obama's new programs.
He'll say he'll cut military, but it will never happen.
He will cut funding to Israel in half if not entirely.
It's going to be a bad time to be a religious pro-Israel Jew in America.

All true. And I will add this point -

Obama and his supporters will claim that it's all Bush's fault, and ask how you could possibly expect Obama to keep his promises under the circumstances.

[brraverishhh]

If Israel wants to assert their independence from the United States, wouldn't it make sense to stop cashing U.S. military aid checks? I fully support continuing financial aid for Israel, but when you accept annual $3,000,000,000 gifts, you have to assume that some strings are attached.

Israel is free to say "thanks, but no thanks," and then the U.S. wouldn't have any leverage in Israel's domestic affairs.

Most of the American money is not a gift. Rather, it's money that Israel is required to use for buying weapons and other goods from American companies. So, the money gets returned to the American economy immediately.

I've said very often that Israel should stop accepting donations and become independent.

[Big A]

One wonders why similar arguments are not made towards the genetic monarchy, the new pharonic dynasty we call the police state "Egypt" which today receives 2 billion in direct aid with essentially no strings attached and barely an audit. I fail to see how supporting a dictatorship police state that routinely disappears 30,000 people a year and openly tolerates the Muslim Brotherhood is something necessary, good or noble.

One wonders why the $8 billion in aid we plunk down in South Korea each year (about 50% of their total defense budget) or the $18 billion a year we spend to support our presence in Germany doesn't come with 'strings attached'. Or the fact that it's been an open secret that Italy has for years, had a cozy relationship with terrorist groups even though more than a 100 of our nuclear weapons are stockpiled there. Why is it no 'strings' are attached?

No the fact is, there is no other nation that is compelled to follow the US's quid pro quo like Israel is.