Krauthammer 4/24/09

What Obama WantsPart 5

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: Obama's agenda has 3 parts: nationalized health care; federalized education through college, and carbon taxes to pay for the first two. The only way he will be able to make the math add up will be to ration.

Quote:

It follows Kaus's advice to "give pandering a chance" and adheres to the Democratic tradition of being the party that gives things away, while leaving the green-eyeshade stinginess to those heartless Republicans.

My Views: Doesn't this 3 part agenda Krauthammer packages leave out something? What about all the stimulus money, the bailouts, and the government regulation/control that accompanied it? Then there's the foreign policy issues. What about the tilt towards the UN and greater controls by international bodies?

Carbon taxes are just a part of the whole global warming issue. The larger question is how emmissions will be reduced and by how much. In other words, how much more control of the economy will the government have just from this one issue alone?

Krauthammer seems right on the larger question: the end result of more government control is rationing of resources and services. The people of Europe seemed to have accepted this direction. How worse off their society seems to be because of this!

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Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.

Krauthammer 4/17/09

What Obama Wants
Part 4

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: Obama's latest speech labels his agenda "The New Foundation". Remember reading about FDR's New Deal and JFK's New Frontier? CK id's 4 elements: Deficit Reduction, Discretionary Spending % Reduction, Entitlement Reform, and finally restructuring health-care, education, and energy. CK labels these 4: The Whopper, The Puzzler, The Swindle, and the Non-Sequitur respectively.

Quote:

Obama has the magic to make words mean almost anything. Numbers are more resistant to his charms.

My Views: Given the establishment's adulation of the typical Obama speech together with their forgetfullness of the speech's particulars, I wonder how long a shelf life "The New Foundation" will have.

These points about how the President is fudging the numbers are very troubling. I want to believe the President so very much.

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Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.

Krauthammer 4/10/09

Obama's European Speech

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: This concerns Obama's big European speech this week. CK views it as apologizing for America's mistakes: "for arrogance, for dismissiveness and derisiveness, for genocide, for torture, for Hiroshima, for Guantanamo and for insufficient respect for the Muslim world." He got nothing from Europe in return.

Quote:

It is passing strange for a world leader to celebrate his own country's decline. A few more such overseas tours, and Obama will have a lot more decline to celebrate.

My Views: It wasn't so bad. We've reached a point in history where it is probably better to emphasize walking softly rather than the big stick. (from a TR phrase.) The problem with O's performance wasn't the conciliatory speech but with the requests/demands for action that were rebuffed. He confused his objectives. Better to have given the conciliatory speeches, given the leaders the photo-ops, and then left for home.

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Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.

Krauthammer 4/3/09

What Obama Wants: Part 3

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: CK is more amused than alarmed at the constitutional breakage involved in the government takeover of the finance and auto industries. He identifies the central goals of Obama's Presidency to be the triad of health care, education, and energy. The end result is to fundamentally remake the relationship of citizen to government.

Quote:

Obama is a leveler. He has come to narrow the divide between rich and poor. For him the ultimate social value is fairness. Imposing it upon the American social order is his mission.

My Views: I think that CK overstates. I think he attributes to him an overriding vision that he really doesn't have. See CK's own column on stem cell research, for example. This seems to be more left-wing ideology than any planned goals.

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Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.