What Liberals Want Obamanomics to Be

I had been all for McCain going way back and generally vote Republican. I agree with Concerned Reader though. I know of some and even know a couple "liberals" that fit Mr. Madrick's characterizations, but know a lot more Obama voters who don't!! That is great news as just about everything on the list embraces ideology and excess -- ironically in an interestingly similar way in which Bush embraced the Neocon's theories that didn't exactly work in reality or on the idea that financial markets could self-regulate perfectly when parties to financial transactions and financial experts don't fully understand the financial innovations that have occurred in the derivatives markets! I was concerned about Obama's past associations and the highly ideological parts of the Democrats' campaign this year that promoted an agenda that would take us back to 1979, but many of the moderate republicans & democrats and independents voting for him wanted a realistic data-driven approach to governing.

The so-called Bush Doctrine on pre-emptive use of military force ought to be refined to fit reality [an ongoing process since Rummy's departure] and smarter and better regulations need to be put in place in the financial markets -- that does not necessarily mean "re-regulation" to the excesses of the 1970s. The "Reagan Revolution" has done a lot of good for America economically, but some updating of regulations is a must as is actually enforcing regulations - Greenspan, Chris Cox, and others showed a lot of incompetance and negligence in this task.

The bottom line is that, at least the Obama voters I know, a clear majority wanted a "change" in attitude from the Karl Rove negativity, a celebration of America's diversity, and realistic middle-of-the-road policies not Socialism. I'm mostly happy with Obama's efforts so far, but the real test will come later next month!

Joe C. of VA 9:13PM December 29, 2008