What Sotomayor has that Palin doesn’t … so far
I want to pick up a thread in one of the posts below, in which a commenter noted that among many on the left, “Palin isn’t a serious candidate because many feel she’s intellectually challenged, but those same critics support a Supreme Court Nominee who had to read children’s books in college.”
The reference was to Sonia Sotomayor, the appeals court judge of Puerto Rican heritage nominated by President Obama to the Supreme Court. While at Princeton, she was apparently advised that her English-language skills were inadequate and that one way to improve those skills was to read books that she had missed being raised in a largely Spanish-speaking household.
Pat Buchanan and others on the right have used that to belittle Sotomayor, noting that “How do you graduate first in your class at Princeton if your summer reading consists of “Chicken Little” and “The Troll Under the Bridge”? As other commenters noted, that’s not exactly accurate. Sotomayor recalled in a 1996 speech that “I spent my summers at Princeton doing things most of my other classmates took for granted. I spent one summer vacation reading children’s classics that I had missed in my prior education — books like Alice in Wonderland, Huckleberry Finn, and Pride and Prejudice. My parents spoke Spanish, they didn’t know about these books.”
I think that tells us something important about Sotomayor, something that even the Pat Buchanan’s of the world should celebrate rather than condemn. She arrived at Princeton, recognized that her background had left a weakness in her preparation and in her ability to compete in the mainstream, and she resolutely set out to fix it.
If she were the Latina separatist that her opponents hope to paint her as, she would have rejected the classics as stories written by white people for white people. and she set out to fix it. She did the exact opposite. It is a classic example of the second-generation immigrant experience, striving to earn a place in mainstream America. (What may anger the Buchanans of the world is that she did not feel the need to reject her Puerto Rican upbringing in the process; she merely added the mainstream cultural experience to it.)
I think there’s a lesson there for Palin as well. Sotomayor recognized her shortcomings and worked hard to correct them. She had high goals and she knew she had better prepare herself to achieve them, and she was willing to pay the price.
That was not true of the Sarah Palin we saw in the 2008 presidential campaign. She is clearly an intelligent person, but she tried to hide her pitiful lack of preparation by charming, winking and wooing her way into national office. It didn’t work. A great backstory, an appealing image and values that resonate with a lot of the country are not sufficient credentials for the presidency.
If Palin is doing what Sotomayor did — if she has now recognized that her background as a small-town mayor and governor of an isolated state with fewer citizens than DeKalb County prepared her poorly for the major national and international issues of the day — she can be a real player. But if she doesn’t do the remedial work, if the Palin of 2012 isn’t notably more engaged and educated on the issues of the day than the Palin of 2008, she’ll fail miserably.
You see it all the time in sports — the player of immense natural talent who believes that talent alone will get them there. Life rarely works that way.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
304 comments Add your comment
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
9:55 am
The GOP did not get air time! Well, maybe you just missed the coverage. After all, how long does it take to just say no.
@@
June 25th, 2009
9:55 am
I quit listening to Pat Buchanan some time ago. Now his sister, Bay….she’s always got my ear.
Judge Sotomayor is to be commended for her diligence but not “due” to her being a LATINA WOMAN.
The only problem I have with her is that she’s a product of the liberals’ indoctrination into identity politics which seeks to diminish or override a person’s intellectual abilities.
A great article on the subject of identity politics
In the end, then, identity groups have no choice but to rest their case on universalist notions of evidence and logic, as well as values of justice, fairness, and accountability not defined according to the limits of identity politics. Without such overarching principles, what we can expect is precisely what one finds in the world of identity politics: an endless division of groups into smaller and smaller identity units, depending on a few shared characteristics that are always in danger of dissolving. No one, in short, has an unassailable identity.
Life experiences are common among all people…none can be considered more valuable than “the others”.
Paul
June 25th, 2009
9:56 am
[[She was also being held to standards no VP candidate in history had ever been held to,]]
AmVet and RW-(the original) agree on something.
The ‘normal’ response would have been “was not!”
There’s a lesson in there somewhere –
Mrs. Godzilla
You’re a svensk kvinna?!?? Do you eat kaldomar and lingonberries during winter festivities?
RW-(the original)
June 25th, 2009
9:57 am
RealityKing,
I think Jay B is also trying to put LOTS of distance between whatever shows up as the current post and all those glowing articles about how Obama was doing just the right thing by keeping quiet about Iran.
getalife
June 25th, 2009
9:57 am
Hey Paul,
LSU is National baseball champs for the 6th time. Told ya they thrive on drama like palin.
Yes, I met lil kenneth the page. Not impressed. He will get away with not accepting the stimulus for unemployment as more jobs like GM in Shreveport go away.
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
9:58 am
Buchanan is just another Cheney.
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
9:58 am
The U.S. economy shrank at an annual pace of 5.5% in the first quarter, the second largest quarterly drop in 27 years. It was also the 3rd straight negative drop. Not that the progressively media dare utter the words DEPRESSION.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
9:59 am
RW –
“Are you actually supposed to be at work? You must not have much to do, but you’re certainly prolific here.”
aw. diddums. do you not like being challenged??? it’s amazing the things I can do while reports are running …
“McCain’s poll numbers don’t mean much to me”
obviously they don’t since they completely disprove your point. McCain peaked at 46% approval about 2 weeks after naming Palin … then things went downhill steadily after that.
“and there isn’t any way for either of us to prove what the vote totals would have been sans Palin for a number of reasons, but the most glaring is that if not Palin it would have been someone else.”
she energized some … but, darlin, she alienated most. I work in the finance industry, an industry FILLED with Republicans – they were all disgusted by McCain’s choice and thought that was the death knell for his candidacy.
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
10:00 am
In fact, the word of the day last week was, “Is the recession over?”
What a joke American jouralism has become..
Mrs. Godzilla
June 25th, 2009
10:00 am
Reality King
Liberals started using the word depression last year…….
Paul
June 25th, 2009
10:01 am
getalife
from my 9 in the 07:
[[g’morning, getalife
Congratulations! That was painful to watch (at least for some of us). You on good terms with Gov Jindal? He’s about to get a 4X4 F350 load of barbecue for winning the bet - maybe he’ll share in the interest of bipartisanship.
Two good teams but only one can claim the title. Congrats, LSU.]]
Drama it was. College sports rule.
Not impressed with Jindal? Take the barbecue anyway. It’ll be good. Priorities, man, priorities.
One Voice
June 25th, 2009
10:01 am
Jay,
I’m surprised you would even make this comparison. It’s an insult to Judge Sotomayor and to all intellectual American women.
Sotomayor: Went to Princeton University on a full scholarship, graduating summa cum laude. She then went to Yale Law School where she became editor of the Yale Law Journal before earning her JD and going on to serve as a federal judge for 18 years.
Palin: After going to 5 different colleges (2 of them community colleges), she finally graduated five years later with a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Idaho. She essentially struggled mightily to earn a basic degree in a less-than-rigorous major at less-than-rigorous institutions. The she became mayor of a town smaller than most high schools and governor of an isolated state with the population size and makeup of most backwoods towns.
Sotmayor: Read Pride and Prejudice and Huckleberry Finn (books sometimes assigned in high school but more often in college because adolescents cannot fully process the complexity of their themes) in order to fill in gaps in her cultural experience.
Palin: Couldn’t even name any magazines that she had read (anyone ever heard of Newsweek, U.S. News, Time, Discover, Home and Garden, etc.?).
It is insulting to Sotomayor to compare the two. Palin has never shown any signs of intellectual curiosity or achievement. She’s a personality, nothing more, nothing less. She does not have academic credentials, nor has she displayed intelligence. She regularly makes references that make it apparent that she does not understand U.S. or world history, science, or the U.S. Constitution. I would literally expect a college student to show more intellectual aptitude than Palin. Jay, your column is patronizing and insulting to American women.
Joey
June 25th, 2009
10:01 am
Obsess; to haunt or trouble in mind, especially to and abnormal degree.
Jay;
You are right to be troubled about the popularity of Governor Palin.
So the question: Is it obsession when an abnormal concern is justified?
Huckabee The Next POTUS
June 25th, 2009
10:01 am
Hey Normal
Sorry to get you all wound up, I thought it was earlier than it was and that bedwetters like yourself hadn’t changed from Pull-ups to daytime panties for the day. Funny how the mere mention of Mike Huckabee makes you pee all over yourself. Guess the Libs haven’t come up with anything they can Palin him with so they just attack religion. Too bad he didn’t use Black Panthers to intimidate or Acorn to cheat or sit in meetings with terrorists and gangsters or associate with a bigot preacher that cusses the Country that allows him operate his hatrid publicly. Nope, that would have been too easy. It’s a shame when the left wing loons went searching for trash, Mike Huckabee’s garbage cans were clean. Now go change your panties and think happy thoughts like ” Nancy Pelosi is only too heartbeats away from the Oval Office, and Barney Frank is a man’s man”.
WhoCares
June 25th, 2009
10:03 am
Does anybody doubt for one minute that IF they wanted to, The media (including Jay) could find more positive things to say about Palin and more negative thigs to say about Soto?
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
10:03 am
Reality –
a depression is a severe economic downturn which lasts YEARS, not quarters.
so far, we’re only on a technical recession for 2 quarters and an NBER recession for 5 quarters.
pat
June 25th, 2009
10:03 am
What is it with you and Sarah Palin? Do you secretly have the hot’s for her? You mention her at least once a week and you have 2 threads on her on subsequent days.
Sotomyer, thinks her race makes her smarter than other judges of different race. That makes her an idiot, period. Nothing more needs to be noted. If you think the color of your skin makes you better qualified for anything you are stupid.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 25th, 2009
10:05 am
Maybe you people calling Buchanan an idiot for supposedly calling Pride and Prejudice a children’s book
No (and to back up USinUK) we’re calling him an a-hole for lying about what she did read, to wit, claiming it was but “Chicken Little” and “The Troll Under the Bridge”.
(I’d love to think you posted what you did out of a misunderstanding, and not because you feel compelled to defend an anti-Semitic, racist POS. So that’s what I’ll think, for now.)
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
10:05 am
How dare anyone try to claim that Democrats can be even remotely compared to Republicans regarding their philosophies toward big business. For one thing, Republicans are the ones with the philosophy that businesses should be left alone, unmonitored, unregulated, free to kill at will. Anything goes, for a buck.
RW-(the original)
June 25th, 2009
10:06 am
USinUK,
Polling data proves nothing unless you can prove that the daily polling was a certain accuracy. If you can do that why bother to have elections?
WOW! No wonder the finance industry is such a disaster. j/k
The forest beckons with a level 1 emergency, so I’ll see the rest of you upstairs later and our ex-pat friend in the AM.
getalife
June 25th, 2009
10:07 am
Paul,
He will share it with his donors. cons tell the people to drop dead.
You should know that by now.
Best sign last night. LSU loves oysters and championships by the half dozen.
@@
June 25th, 2009
10:08 am
Forgot to mention, jay
That was not true of the Sarah Palin we saw in the 2008 presidential campaign. She is clearly an intelligent person, but she tried to hide her pitiful lack of preparation by charming, winking and wooing her way into national office.
…a rather presumptuous statement if you ask me.
Palin’s “charming” persona was a term used to describe Judge Sotomayor in her interviews on the hill. Can I assume that since Palin is not LATINA, her “charming” is “pitiful”…..”lacking”.
Why must liberals be such snobs?
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
10:08 am
Sotomyer, thinks her race makes her smarter than other judges of different race.
Huh? Is that some more of that Limbaugh/Hannity speak.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 25th, 2009
10:09 am
Sotomyer, thinks her race makes her smarter than other judges of different race.
Well no, she doesn’t, and you know she doesn’t, and you’re well aware of the context of that repeated-to-death quote, but you figure if you keep on repeating this often enough it’ll somehow generate enough poutrage to carry the team to another first and ten.
Pathetic.
AmVet
June 25th, 2009
10:10 am
“AmVet and RW-(the original) agree on something.”
True enough, Paul.
But for radically different reasons.
Her being unfairly treated was, is and always will be just another lame excuse by those that are getting VERY used to losing.
Like many, I suppose, I saw her as a shrewd choice originally. A Washington outsider with no known baggage. And MUCH safer than any of the RINO’s in-party competition.
But as noted extensively, it was her “performance” during the campaign that caused millions of otherwise interested Americans to go “WHOA! BIG RED FLAG!”
Curious George Alert! Curious George Alert!
A charming woman and fine American I have absolutely no doubt.
I’m just happy she is nowhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue…
Normal
June 25th, 2009
10:11 am
RW-(the original)
June 25th, 2009
9:49 am
USinUK,
I’ll write this slowly for you:
Save the condescension. Pride and Prejudice being a children’s book came straight out of Sotomayor’s speech in 1996.
————————————-
To a woman of Sotomayer’s intellect, “Pride And Predjuice” may have just seemed like it was a children’s book. Just sayin’…
Brad Steel
June 25th, 2009
10:12 am
RealtyKing, you’re a real bright one. Thanks for pointing out that Obama is responsible for the last three quarterly drops. Of course, he was inaugurated in late January. Brilliant example.
Your tired complaining about the liberal media (especially like those lefties at Fox or anywhere on the AM radio dial) should make you a great Palin devotee. You come with the appropriate qualities of being a whining, gullible dunce. Kind of like Ms. Alaska 2nd runner-up.
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
10:15 am
The traditional American definition of a recession is 2 straight quarters of negative growth.
The traditional American definition of a depression is 4 straight quarters of negative growth.
Europe has progressively modified its definitions to keep from continueally highlighting the economic failures of socialism..
George American
June 25th, 2009
10:16 am
What Palin has the Sotomayer doesn’t is that she is a Real American with American values, not an elitist immigrant with an affirmative action degree.
Palin is what this country needs to get back on the Right tract.
Mrs. Godzilla
June 25th, 2009
10:16 am
Paul….
1/2 and 1/2 – Swedish & Irish
Have the ligonberries with my pancakes not cabbage rolls.
Scared of lutefisk.
Paul
June 25th, 2009
10:17 am
GOP for Thee 10:05
[[How dare anyone try to claim that Democrats can be even remotely compared to Republicans regarding their philosophies toward big business. For one thing, Republicans are the ones with the philosophy that businesses should be left alone, unmonitored, unregulated, free to kill at will. Anything goes, for a buck.]]
An “how dare thee” followed by a list of Republican shortcomings does NOT address the Democratic pro big business shortcomings cited.
Care to try again?
getalife
I missed that sign. Thanks for the laugh!
AmVet
For radically different reasons?
Make that “there’s TWO lessons in there, somewhere”
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
10:18 am
To a woman of Sotomayer’s intellect, “Pride And Predjuice” may have just seemed like it was a children’s book. Just sayin’…
And, I be just sayin’ touche.
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
10:19 am
Yes Brad, and notice that the largest drop in the markets came in Sept/Oct, when it became clear who was going to win the election..
Dave R.
June 25th, 2009
10:19 am
Brad. Minor problem. ‘ol Hope & Change supported the bailout policies of the Bush administration that has done nothing to change those last 3 quarter’s results.
The performance of the economy is his and the Democrat Congress as much as anyone’s.
Paul
June 25th, 2009
10:20 am
Mrs. Godzilla
Irish, too?!!? Have you submitted your husband for sainthood, yet?
IHOP has lingonberries for pancakes. Order’em on the side – you get more.
The cabbage rolls are great – I make’em every year. Just a hint of nutmeg.
Lutefisk oughta scare you. I think it’s a Norwegian conspiracy.
My mom gave my wife a sweatshirt with “Pray for Me I Married a Swede” emblazoned on the front.
She wears it proudly. Plus, she stole my Saab.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
10:20 am
It seems in my brief absence I missed the discussion regarding how Palin helped McCain’s campaign.
RW, if you return. If you need to think that in order to find balance in your universal chaos, then by all means.
And this beaut…..
“Europe has progressively modified its definitions to keep from continueally highlighting the economic failures of socialism..”
I had to type this through the Coke I spit on my monitor, now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get my monitor cleaning/keyboard cleaning kit.
GayGrayGeek
June 25th, 2009
10:21 am
Dave R. – For your edification concerning Faux Noise and their mislabeling of anyone caught in a scandal: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/24/fox-news-identifies-sanfo_n_220377.html
AmVet
June 25th, 2009
10:21 am
“What Palin has the Sotomayer doesn’t is that she is a Real American with American values, not an elitist immigrant with an affirmative action degree.”
Read “She (Sotomayer) ain’t white enough…
Brad Steel
June 25th, 2009
10:22 am
RealtyKing,
Especially Norway – huge economic socialist failure. “Traditional American definition” from the same people who brought you apple pie.
You’ll make a great Palin supporter. You’re a traditional Real American (wink).
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
10:22 am
Not to mention that layoffs began in record numbers after Jan20th, despite the progressive medias instance that the Obama inspiration, and huge increase in deficit spending, would turn the economy around..
Mrs. Godzilla
June 25th, 2009
10:23 am
Sotomayor an immigrant?
George American, Please learn to google!
Let the Boss correct your ignorance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPudiBR15mk&feature=fvst
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
10:23 am
Duh, Paul. Are you trying to claim that the Republican party no longer clings to the philosophy of unregulated, unmonitored, free to kill as the please, environment for big business and that the Democrat party does.
Try again.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
10:25 am
Reality –
May I refer you to the NBER: “The NBER is the nation’s leading nonprofit economic research organization. Sixteen of the 31 American Nobel Prize winners in Economics and six of the past Chairmen of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers have been researchers at the NBER. The more than 1,000 professors of economics and business now teaching at universities around the country who are NBER researchers are the leading scholars in their fields. These Bureau associates concentrate on four types of empirical research: developing new statistical measurements, estimating quantitative models of economic behavior, assessing the effects of public policies on the U.S. economy, and projecting the effects of alternative policy proposals.”
theirs is the new definition of recession that most economists use, not the “2 quarters of negative growth” –
while the NBER doesn’t define depressions, you’ll find that most economists define it in terms of YEARS in recession, not quarters – (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_(economics))
oh, and if you think to smear me with “euro-think”, don’t. I’ll own you.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
10:25 am
RealityKing,
Care to back up any of those statements with anything? Anything? Really, ANYTHING? Sometimes I just shake my head in wonderment.
George American
June 25th, 2009
10:25 am
AmVet says ” “She (Sotomayer) ain’t white enough…”
Typical liberal pulling the race card.
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
10:26 am
Norway!? Now thats funny. And hey! The Ameircan economy is pretty good in Montana too, no where else, but please have at it..
clyde
June 25th, 2009
10:26 am
AmVet’
Read *If Sotomayer were white enough she wouldn’t be the nominee*.
We have a Latino woman nominee to garner as many votes possible in the next election.It doesn’t get any more complicated than that.
Mrs. Godzilla
June 25th, 2009
10:26 am
Paul
My Pop gave me a lapel pin that says:
You can tell a Swede, but you can’t tell him much”
IHOP! EEEEK! Nasty! Gross!
(I made the mistake of trying their potatoe pancakes once too….)
I have my own platte pan…….
Paul
June 25th, 2009
10:26 am
Brad Steele
[[Especially Norway - huge economic socialist failure.]]
Could you please expand upon that?
http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090514/ZNYT01/905143011/0/NEWS?Title=Thriving-Norway-Provides-an-Economics-Lesson
AmVet
June 25th, 2009
10:28 am
So let’s see if I have this straight.
It took thirty years, four American administrations and untold numbers of complicit criminals at eight different levels (at least) of the free market and government, on Wall Street and K Street, to lay the background for Bush’s orchestrated corporate destruction of capitalism and the Uppity One (being Messianic and all) is to undo it all in thirty days? Or sixty? Or ninety?
You cannot find fiction this entertaining…
I Hate Traffic
June 25th, 2009
10:30 am
What I would like to know is why an army of INS agents wasn’t at the Georgia Dome last night for the soccer game to round up great multitudes of illegals in one big scoop.
I hate EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU who caused a traffic nightmare last night and made many of us miss the first 4 innings of the Yankees-Braves game by backing up I-75 for 2 freaking hours.
Seal the Border, and…
GO, BRAVES !
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
10:30 am
Sometimes reading the wingnut remarks I am reminded of the birth of Jesus Christ as described in the Gospel of James where at the moment of Christ’s birth, everything stopped – the birds froze in mid-air stopped, and after a moment life began again.
Not to compare Obama to Jesus because that’s a wingnut thing, but I seriously think that some wingnuts like RealityKing think that life did not exist before Obama or rather chose to forget, or they think that the economy did not exist prior to Obama that on January 20th, we just threw out the old economy and started anew, so if there are unemployment numbers, it’s his fault, if there is a recession, it’s his fault – no critical thinking at all. Sad.
RealityKing – we are not that stupid.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
10:30 am
REality –
“Not to mention that layoffs began in record numbers after Jan20th, despite the progressive medias instance that the Obama inspiration, and huge increase in deficit spending, would turn the economy around..”
wrong again. initial jobless claims began skyrocketing right after Christmas (when they were at a low of 487K), hitting a peak on 25 March.
And, as I pointed out to Peadawg yesterday, they are a LAGGING INDICATOR. Unemployment will stay high until the economy takes off – NOT the other way around.
Brad Steel
June 25th, 2009
10:31 am
RealtyKing,
Your facts are wrong and your take on your wrong facts are just stupid.
1) the market hit its lows in March, not Oct/Nov
2) the market is at the same level as when Obama was elected and the two months prior to the election
3) markets react to interest rates and earnings information – they’re not correlated to elections.
4) you are a gullible tool
Normal
June 25th, 2009
10:31 am
Sarah Palin-Dick Cheney with lipstick…Just observin’
AmVet
June 25th, 2009
10:33 am
We have a Latino woman nominee to garner as many votes possible in the next election.It doesn’t get any more complicated than that.
Not sure I understand, clyde, sounds sinister and racist. But if my suspicions are correct, I must ask, “What? At the expense of the white vote?”
These must be very dark (get it?) times for the struggling, put upon, old, rich white guys who deserve that seat…
TnGelding
June 25th, 2009
10:33 am
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
9:58 am
That’s old news and the revised numbers are a little better than previously reported.
Obama drops ball at health care forum?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/HealthCare/story?id=7919991&page=1
(Maybe we had better address death with dignity first?)
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
10:33 am
I Hate Traffic,
“What I would like to know is why an army of INS agents wasn’t at the Georgia Dome last night for the soccer game to round up great multitudes of illegals in one big scoop”
And you know they were illegal because? Crystal ball? Telepathic?
I for one think it’s awesome that the Dome was almost sold out for that soccer match. Good for the Atlanta economy.
Paul
June 25th, 2009
10:34 am
GOP for Thee
[[Duh, Paul. Are you trying to claim that the Republican party no longer clings to the philosophy of unregulated, unmonitored, free to kill as the please, environment for big business and that the Democrat party does. Try again.]]
One more time. As Normal put it, I’ll…type…s…l…o…w…l…y…
I pointed out Dems hit Reps with pro big business label. Dems go anti big oil, but in many, many other areas, they’re indistinguishable. I cited support of big Defense and Agriculture industries and the sellout to big industries and rich guys thru cap n trade.
Your response, I believe, was to say “not so. Look at what Republicans do.”
This latest response was to cite more Republican ills and ask me to defend them.
Why would I want to? I’ve stated, quite clearly, the two are, in many ways, indistinguishable. Now, would care to try, a…g…a…i…n… to defend the thesis that Dems are significantly different than Republicans when it comes to being captured by business interests and special interests?
Mrs. Godzilla
My wife has that pin, too………….
And what’s wrong with the potato pancakes?!!?
Ummm, if you don’t care for the pancakes they make from potatoes, might I suggest the vodka?
Turd Ferguson
June 25th, 2009
10:34 am
Recession Part II now beginning…can you say Stagflation?
In Obamas name we pray…Amen.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
10:36 am
TF –
darlin, you have to have INflation to have STAGflation.
we are currently experiencing DEflation.
please leave the economics to people who know what the hell they’re talking about.
Brad Steel
June 25th, 2009
10:36 am
Paul,
Sarcasm. Norway (as well as many of its European neighbors) is a screaming example of the BS steeped in the paranoia of “European socialism.”
booger
June 25th, 2009
10:36 am
Yeah Jay, you tell em. Palin was only mayor and govenor of tiny little places while Obama was a community activist in a real big city. No contest.
Turd Ferguson
June 25th, 2009
10:37 am
Go to cnn.com businees and read the cash for clunkers article. It shows just how out of touch obama is and how these pseudo programs are at best poorly thought out before implementation.
TnGelding
June 25th, 2009
10:39 am
Many Republicans have withdrawn from the economy in protests over “huge” tax increases and “socialism.” I don’t know how organized it is. I don’t think they understand the depths of the economic crisis that started in November 2007. Was Obama the presumed president then?
Mrs. Godzilla
June 25th, 2009
10:39 am
Turd Lemonade…..
feeling Squeezed from both ends…
DB, Gwinnettian
June 25th, 2009
10:39 am
What I would like to know is why an army of INS agents wasn’t at the Georgia Dome last night for the soccer game to round up great multitudes of illegals in one big scoop.
Among other bleedin’ obvious reasons (ever occur to you that your little traffic inconvenience would’ve been worsened had that happened?), your GOP heroes of industry wouldn’t allow it.
Oh, and, um, go Yankmees.
(disclaimer: I hate George Steinbrenner’s Evil Pinstriped Empire almost as much as I do Pat Buchanan, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and those Metropolitans from Flushing, NY are my first baseball love. Sorry.)
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
10:39 am
booger,
He was a community activisit in addition to being University professor who taught Constitutional Law. Why do you wingnuts conveniently leave that one out?
Turd,
CNN.com/business? Really?
Doggone/GA
June 25th, 2009
10:40 am
“Go to cnn.com businees and read the cash for clunkers article”
You’re too late. Jay already panned that one…last week. Maybe someone at CNN should read HIS stuff.
TnGelding
June 25th, 2009
10:41 am
Turd Ferguson
June 25th, 2009
10:37 am
What about paying for the clunkers with lifetime passes on public transportation? The government should have just bought up existing auto inventory and given it away in a national lottery.
clyde
June 25th, 2009
10:42 am
Am Vet.After Obama got elected I sat and thought about his first Supreme Court nominee and realized then that it had to be a Latino woman.No one else could fill the bill.Lo and behold,we have one.This is not a racist comment and it has nothing to do with old white men.It’s simple logic.Obama has the black vote and the liberal white vote sewed up.He needs to make inroads with the Hispanics.I do not doubt Sotomayer’s ability.I do doubt her willingness to rule in an unbiased fashion.Things I read about her bother me. She will be confirmed,barring a catastrophe.Obama has had them before,remember,but this time it looks as if he’s home free.
@@
June 25th, 2009
10:42 am
Paul:
There’s a vast difference between Norway’s population and ours. From your link:
Norway is a relatively small country with a largely homogeneous population of 4.6 million and the advantages of being a major oil exporter. It counted $68 billion in oil revenue last year as prices soared to record levels. Even though prices have sharply declined, the government is not particularly worried. That is because Norway avoided the usual trap that plagues many energy-rich countries.
Some here worry that while a cabin in the woods and a boat may not approach the excesses seen in New York or London, oil wealth and the state largesse have corrupted Norway’s once-sturdy work ethic.
“This is an oil-for-leisure program,” said Knut Anton Mork, an economist at Handelsbanken in Oslo. A recent study, he pointed out, found that Norwegians work the fewest hours of the citizens of any industrial democracy.
Socialism dependent on oil exports? Won’t last forever. Just a matter of time unless they reduce population through socialized medicine. Last I checked, they’re pretty eager to do just that.
Mrs. Godzilla
June 25th, 2009
10:44 am
They were soggy!
‘Zilette # 1 made me homemade potatoe pancakes one mothers day a few years back. At the time she was a newlywed with NO culinary skills.
As I sat in bed waiting, I heard her holler…”Mom, what color are they supposed to be?” I responded golden brown.
She had diced the taters the night before and left them uncovered.
Mothers love sometimes requires eating gray food.
lovelyliz
June 25th, 2009
10:45 am
Sotomayor has a grasp of reality that I don’t know that Sarah Palin has ever had.
Besides, one can have intelligence and still be stupid. I depends on your area of expertise and you ablitly to recognize and over come your weaknesses.
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
10:45 am
Duh, once again, Paul. Are you claiming that the Republican party is not the party that supports the philosophy of “no holds barred” big business and that the Democratic Party is now supporting that Republican Party stronghold. If you are, then feel free to provide links to some evidence. Something published by the respective parties would be good.
Now, quit trying to put your interpretation of my words in my mouth, so to speak, and feel free to try again.
@@
June 25th, 2009
10:46 am
Take this Norwegian for instance.
Just around the corner from Norway’s central bank, for instance, Paul Bruum takes a needle full of amphetamines and jabs it into his muscular arm. His scabs and sores betray many years as a heroin addict. He says that the $1,500 he gets from the government each month is enough to keep him well-fed and supplied with drugs.
Mr. Bruum, 32, says he has never had a job, and he admits he is no position to find one. “I don’t blame anyone,” he said. “The Norwegian government has provided for me the best they can.”
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
10:48 am
Its really not that hard to search the web ya know..
There are several rules of thumb for identifying a recession, one of which is “two down quarters of GDP”
Considered a rare and extreme form of recession, a depression is characterized by abnormal increases in unemployment, restriction of credit, shrinking output and investment, numerous bankruptcies, reduced amounts of trade and commerce.
Another proposed definition of depression includes two general rules: 1) a decline in real GDP exceeding 10%.
Using 1): Welcome to the Obama depression..
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
10:49 am
clyde – and now you know how many of us felt about Alito and Roberts. welcome to the club.
Gandalf, the White! (!)
June 25th, 2009
10:49 am
She is Latina, so she is MORE brilliant than the rest of us. Palin is much hotter though, Sotameyer is freakin’ FUGLY, like Michelle, the Hater, Obama. Barry should cheat on her like Clinton did on his ugly wife. Why are democrats so UGLY? Look at the view, all the ugly woman are liberals. The one true hottie is a conservative. That goes to show ya, just sayin’ Liberal Girls are easier, but who wants a FUGLY girl? Just sayin’
Brad Steel
June 25th, 2009
10:50 am
booger,
nice omission of senator from illinois – population 12 million as compared to alaska 600 thousand. oh but i forgot wasilla. my high school class president got more votes than the mayor or wasilla.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
10:51 am
Reality –
wow. and that’s why you hear SO MANY TRUSTED economists saying that we’re in a depression. because they adhere to your chosen definition.
the reason you don’t hear economists saying that we’re in one is because that definition isn’t the accepted definition.
you should be more careful when grasping at straws.
Dave R.
June 25th, 2009
10:51 am
No, Ambling Veterinarian, but if you turn the little wheel thingy on the big battleship, you see something positive happening in a relatively short time.
Ain’t seein’ nothin positive with Hope & Change in charge.
Conservatism Leads To Paranoia
June 25th, 2009
10:51 am
It is mind boggeling to me that anyone with a brain thinks it would be a good idea for Sarah Palin to be President of the United States. Even if she has above average intellect, which I think she does, she still came off totally uninformed on many topics and she was clueless on foreign policy (not withstanding she could see Russia from her porch steps). Intellect does not always translate into good judgement (see George Bush the decider). When the face of your party are folks like Rush Limbaugh, Newt three wives Gingrich, Ann Coulter, Sean the great American Hannity and Pat the biggot Buchannan what can you expect for the future? Not much
George American
June 25th, 2009
10:51 am
I wonder what “community” he was organizing. Maybe the _________ (inset your liberal special interest group here) community. (wink)
Paul
June 25th, 2009
10:52 am
Brad Steele
Thanks. As the article pointed out… well, it does refute that contention. ‘Course, it does help when you have a whole bunch of oil and treat the revenues as a national resource, not as something owned by a few.
@@
Sure there is! Remember that post a while back citing someone who said how things were simpler, extolling health care, free, and education and maternity leave and all the other stuff?
Then he lamented he’d never get rich there and couldn’t quite figure out why?
‘Cause everything costs and someone pays, that’s why!
But as Brad pointed out, the debate often reduces to the simplest points.
And, I’ll offer, Pres Obama was pretty clear in telling the Europeans how and why the American character is different and how risk, work, and good fortune should be rewarded. But along goes with it, responsibility.
I do think some of their ideas are intriguing. Remember the guy in charge of the cell phone manufacturer (Nokia?). Got a speeding ticked with a fine of a couple hundred thousand or so? ‘Cause their fines, punishment for violating laws and to act as a deterrent, are based upon percentage of income, not a flat rate? Because a fine of a grand is a lot more penalty to someone making $45k a year than it is to someone making $45 mill a year.
I kinda like the idea. Fines. Taxes. The whole bit.
Soros is gonna open up more Caribbean accounts to hide more money….
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
10:53 am
Funny that TN should use November 2007.., because thats exactly when I sold off my funds, taking the cue from Jay and his drunked band of newly elected democrats attempts to talk down the economy, for political gain. Thanks again Jay..
Normal
June 25th, 2009
10:54 am
TnGelding
June 25th, 2009
10:41 am
What about paying for the clunkers with lifetime passes on public transportation?
—————
Yes! And bring back the trains. Make more of them and make them electric (green). It makes jobs, stimulates the economy…Airlines can fly overseas, but take a train domestically…a wonderful way to travel.
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
10:54 am
@@,
Yeah, let’s take one Norwegian drug addict, and make him representative for the entire country.
Normal
June 25th, 2009
10:55 am
Gandalf…Bless your heart…
AmVet
June 25th, 2009
10:56 am
clyde, I knew that was your intent. My snarkiness and your prescience aside.
And for what it is worth, I have always been suspicious of who BHO has surrounded himself with. One of numerous reasons I would not vote for him. At least this nominee seems “normal”.
As for the inroads with Latinos, I don’t expect them to bolt en masse to the “Big Tent” GOP any time soon, if you catch my drift. They’ll be lucky to garner more than about 10% of that vote any time this century, I’m guessing…
Sunspot, you still play that kid’s game Battleship?
“Ain’t seein’ nothin positive with Hope & Change in charge.”
Must be dark up there…
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
10:57 am
I was merely pointing out the traditional definitions of the terms reccession and depression. Ones that your progressively educated TRUSTED economists are now feverishly trying to re-define..
Bosch
June 25th, 2009
10:59 am
RealityKing,
“Ones that your progressively educated TRUSTED economists are now feverishly trying to re-define”
Are you ever able to back up any of the tripe you post?
booger
June 25th, 2009
11:01 am
I lived and worked in Norway for two years. Norway only has 4 million people and some of the largest oil resevoirs in the world. This is why they are so successful.
Why so few people. Practically everyone in Norway wants to work somewhere else. When I was there I was paying 90% tax on everything above about $40k. Norwegians love Norway, and all plan to return, but they want to make some money then return. most don’t. They remain a small country because their population is expatriating.
For those who remain life is good. Socialism assures their basic needs, and they have a responsible population who don’t take advantage of the government. They are very plain as to why socialism works there. They are a homogeneous society. They allow very few people to immigrate there, and this is usually temporary work related immigrants. Lots of Texeans, and Louisianans. They will tell you that this would not be possible in a more diverse society where some people would take advantage of there programs.
In short, Over 50% of the Norwegians in the company I worked for wanted to work somewhere else, preferably The US. All say they will return to Norway, most don’t.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:01 am
HOOOOORAAAYYYYYYY!!!
The Supremes voted that the school violated the 13-year-old girl’s rights when they strip searched her … the vote was 8-1
Paul
June 25th, 2009
11:01 am
@@ 10:46
I think one of the lessons, on health care or anything else, is to learn from the excesses and what didn’t work in other countries,
and not do it here.
People can point to others who went on diets and became anorexic or who overdid exercise and got hurt.
Doesn’t mean people shouldn’t diet or exercise. Just do it smarter.
GOP for Thee 10:45
You’re becoming tedious.
I put forth a proposition on similarities of Dems and Reps. Didn’t justify Reps in doing so. Said Dems want to paint themselves as different than Reps but in many ways are the same.
Again, I’m not defending any Rep philosophy or action. If it’ll move things along, I’ll even stipulate to everything you’re written about Reps.
Now, back to my original question about Democratic sellout to Defense and Big Agriculture and Energy Interests and Rich Hedge Fund Managers….
or does thinking about that reality give you a headache, too?
GOP for Thee
June 25th, 2009
11:03 am
Darkness! Darkness and Zicam. A GOP tradition in the making.
RealityKing
June 25th, 2009
11:03 am
Sotomayor will be confirmed because democrats control the process, reguardless of what she is.
Sarah will continueally be attacked by Jay and his progressive band of kool-aid drinkers because they fear young girls looking up to a tradional Ameircan women. Personally, I’d perfer she was VP for 8 years first for the exact reason Jay stated. The last thing we need now is another inexperienced strawman(woman) at the helm.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:04 am
Reality –
“Ones that your progressively educated TRUSTED economists are now feverishly trying to re-define..”
“progressively educated”
please. to define.
does that mean that they went to a university that doesn’t have the word “bible” in its name???
DB, Gwinnettian
June 25th, 2009
11:05 am
Palin was only mayor and govenor of tiny little places while Obama was a community activist in a real big city
It’s kind of funny what people choose to believe. Fact is, Obama became an elected official the same year Palin became mayor, early ‘97.
Although if you want to split hairs, she’d been a member of the Wasilla city council a few years prior to serving as mayor, so I guess technically she’s a bit more of a (scary music) career politician than Obama. Is that where you want to go with this?
Oh, and while she was on the city council, Obama wasn’t a “community organizer” any more–just to swipe from the wiki because I’m lazy…
Obama served as a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School; as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004.[42] In 1993 he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a twelve-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2002.
USinUK
June 25th, 2009
11:05 am
surprise-surprise … Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter in the group
does anyone really need to add a comment on that??? I think it speaks for itself.