Obama equals Bush

President Obama has been in office 17 months and now the baby is all his. The President is still moderately popular on a personal level, hovering around 50% approval, but when it comes to his policies, his poll numbers have fallen like a rock. His approval rating stands at an all-time low of minus 9.

Most people, including me, have been pulling for him. We want the country to do well, and we have been willing to give him a fair chance, but his time has just about run out. The Independents and Republicans are not his only critics. Many of his most loyal followers feel betrayed.

We cannot deny that Bush handed Obama a mess. The economy was struggling, and the war was dubious, but one of Bush’s worst failings involved the housing crisis. Oh sure, his team can deflect some of the blame for the Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac debacle by pointing to the likes of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, Democratic Congressman. They certainly played major roles as the instigators of the dumb “make a loan to anybody” policies that eventually caused the downfall in the national real estate market. But, the truth is the Republican President and his pals were willing to ignore all of the signs of risk as long as employment was high and people were refinancing their homes. As far as they were concerned those forces were creating plenty of people to tax and support the war.

In fairness to the former President, the Democratic Congress has done him no favors. The House is the body that originates bills and provides the money to spend. They came up with a stimulus package, but they are obviously playing politics because they have delayed releasing the money until it will buy them votes in the 2010 mid-term elections. But most politicians see through their “I will do anything to get reelected” policies and the polls say they are playing with fire. Besides, we all know that most of those “shovel ready” projects were not needed and even if they are implemented any “work” from them is short term. Real jobs would be much better.

So we can conclude that the Republican Bush handed Obama a big fat mess and the Democratic Congress made things worse for him, but we still look to the current President to set the course and solve the problems. Obama is not doing a very good job of it.

This is where Bush and Obama are so much alike. Bush was in over his head and so is Obama. Then to compound matters, they each charted their own course without much regard for anybody else. Bush went after Iraq and Obama wants to finance a transformation of the Country to something much less driven by Capitalism and more dependent on the Government, as evidenced by the Health Care debacle. That was the biggest power grab in American history and worse yet; the small amount of bi-partisanship that was exhibited was on the “opposes” side….that is a few democrats joined the Republicans, who all voted “No”.

They both alienated their most ardent supporters, right from the beginning. Bush spent money like a drunken sailor and did nothing about the illegal immigration issue. He also created a brand new Federal agency; The Department of Homeland Security. As for Obama, he has not drawn down the war, he has not created any “green” jobs or any others, he has not sufficiently investigated Dick Chaney nor closed Gitmo prison as promised although that may still happen.

Bush used fear and the media to justify some questionable policies such as the way he manipulated the UN; and, Obama uses fear and the media to manipulate his adversaries, such as Fox News.

There are many similarities of these two Presidents and one thing is for sure: The supporters of each man would say that they failed to live up to expectations.

what similarities have you noticed?

Here is my Family Finances Blog

Sister Jeanine

I have six sisters and each one of them has oddball traits. I would like to tell you that I am the only normal person in the family, but I doubt if I would get away with that. Anyway, I thought I would share some juicy details about each one of them with you, starting with the youngest one.

Jeanine is the baby of the group. She has many fascinating traits, but I will just tell you about one.

Jeanine has illustrated by her actions and comments that she would rather take 25,000 digital pictures (and growing) and forgo the time to organize and label them all, than take 1,000 pictures and keep good records about the who, why, when, where, and what of it all. It is not uncommon for her to have two digital cameras with her at the same time, each with hundreds of new photos waiting to be stashed away somewhere.

Now, do not suppose that I am criticizing her. That is not my point. She is not the least bit lazy or irresponsible. She packs each day with productive hours (a quality we both got from our mother), but there is only so much time, so we all have to decide where our priorities lie. She just likes to capture as many moments as possible and there is nothing wrong with that.

So, Jeanine chooses to take zillions of pictures now and live with the fact that someday it might be difficult to recall some of the details. She has suggested that she might organize it all some day, and perhaps she will, but I think she will be too busy taking new pictures to really do that.

But there is one thing she can count on: She will never be far from the people who have mattered to her the most. Every variation of each persons development is captured in her pictures...but it might take a while to find them.

What about you? Do you take lots of pictures?

Would you rather have volumes of pictures and live with incomplete notes, or would you rather look at a more select group of pictures and know who you are looking at and the other details?

Drop by my other blog if you want to know how to save a bunch of money the next time you buy a car.

Irreconcilable Differences

My wife and I have been married for nearly 40 years. We have had a few arguments along the way, and there is one problem that just will not go away. It does not matter how many times it comes up, the outcome is always the same. It has to do with walking.

Whenever we go walking together, whether we are in the neighborhood with our dog or on the beach at sunset or simply in the isles of the local grocery store, we have different objectives. She likes to exercise and move briskly, but I like to stroll along at a casual stride. She wants to see as many roses as possible and I want to smell them along the way.

The pattern is predictable. She will be the first one out the door as if she is leading the way. I pull in behind her like a trailer behind a truck. She instinctively tries to set a brisk pace. At first I try to keep up but when I draw closer, she accelerates to an even faster pace. It does not matter how fast I go, it is never fast enough. She cannot stand to have me at her side. She always has to be a half-step out in front as if to urge me to go just a little bit faster. Sometimes I suggest that she go at her pace and that I will go at mine and we can meet her at our destination, but then she points out that if we aren’t walking together it counters the original objective. So, that does not work.

Eventually, I realize “it” is happening again and I grab her shoulder. We have gotten to that point so many times she instantly knows what my message is. She will usually slow down for a moment or two, but she is as anxious to get going again as a kid is on Christmas morning. It is just a matter of time before her subconscious takes over and off she goes undeterred. A few moments later we are nearly jogging again.

Every once in a while a couple gets to the point where they just cannot resolve their differences. This is one of those cases. We have been going for walks for 40 years but we still cannot walk in harmony. No doubt about it, when it comes to walking together we have irreconcilable differences.

Perhaps we should visit a walk therapist.

Dont forget my other blog, currently discussing buying cars.