Here is a debate starter written by Snowflake!
First Impressions
You knew I couldn’t keep my mouth shut about politics for too long, huh? Haha. Today’s political debate is about… Obama’s first few months. Even though it’s only been about 10 weeks, it seems like Barack Obama has been the president for ages (or maybe it’s just me). In this short amount of time, he’s had to face down an economic crisis, make tough decisions about Afghanistan and Iraq, prove that he means business and he’ll be responsible, and, oh, yeah, try to please the American people. This is no easy job, and even though I don’t like his policies, I have to cut him some slack –the poor man has to deal with an enormous national deficit and an America with a rapidly sinking morale. However, I’m not going to go easy on him when he’s spending almost $800 billion dollars on a “stimulus” package, and then talking about “fiscal responsibility” and “not leaving a huge deficit to our children”. I didn’t support the plan from the get-go, and my negative feelings towards it have only strengthened as time went on. But there is one thing that I’m really enjoying about his presidency, and that is that he makes you feel good. There’s an aura that surrounds him, the kind of feeling you get when you eat chocolate –it’s just a feel-good feeling. It’s a fresh start, and that’s a nice thing –it makes you appreciate why presidential terms are confined to eight years. I can’t predict what’s going to happen in the long run, but these are my first impressions of President Obama. What are yours?
-Snowflake
2 comments:
First off, I don't feel like Obama's been president for ages. I'm getting more or less used to seeing "President Obama," but every once in a while I'm like "Hey...really?" (See also: happy chocolate feeling)
But right now I feel like I'm way over my head when it comes to discussing his plans for the economy and such. From what I've heard and read, it seems to make sense, but at the same time, it's all Greek to me, and I'm not taking economics until senior year.
My thought about the hypocrisy with the deficit deal is that hey, we're going to be saddled with a huge deficit. The last administration made sure of that. But it doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to get the economy working again - in fact, it's quite the opposite. I think the hope is that this will get the economy working again and ultimately lead to decreasing the amount of the deficit.
I think I mentioned this at some point before, but around either the time of the election or the inauguration, my mom saw a headline in The Onion that said something like "Black Man Gets Worst Job In The Country." While it's obviously facetious, there's a lot of truth to that. Our country's in a pretty tough spot at the moment and no matter what Obama does, it's going to take a while for it to get better.
You make a lot of good points, Mags. All right, I guess it was just me, but I honestly do feel like he's been president for ages. As for economics, I'd say that I understand what's going on, the chronology of the events, the ideological differences and the economic terms, but when it comes to Keynesian theories (the basis for why Obama's stimulus plan is supposed to work), I am WAY in over my head. I try to absorb it all and ask my dad a ton of questions about it, but I still don't understand 100%.
I also hope that this will get the economy working again, but I have my doubts. If it does, then I can happily admit that I was wrong about the plan and things are stabilizing. But at this point, I really don't think that will happen. I think it's good that they're trying to get credit flowing again, but excessive spending only sinks the country into a deeper, darker place that becomes even harder to get out of.
I also saw the Onion headline -very funny. It's true. I can't imagine how difficult it is to be president, and while we're not facing a world war or a governmental collapse, Obama is coming into office in a very tough time, and there are a lot of threats, economic and security-wise. This isn't something we can just stick a Band-Aid on and be done with.
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