OK, so a majority of Georgians are politically conservative and hate Bill Clinton. Fair enough.
What about the Jan. 7 "Paulson: No easy answer to economic woes," in which Fox News Online reported the U.S. treasury secretary saying "an unprecedented wave of 1.8 million subprime mortgages are to reset to sharply higher interest rates over the next two years," and that "this raised the threat of market failure ... "?
If this happened during Clinton's tenure, the conservative majority of Georgians would've held him responsible for a bad economy. Are they holding President Bush responsible?
When Clinton left office, regular-unleaded gas was $1.30 per gallon. Today the price is $3, a more than 100-percent increase in price in only seven years -- the largest gas-price increase over seven years in history. If this happened during Clinton's presidency, conservative Georgians would've been outraged at him. Are they outraged at Bush?
Fox News Online reported Jan. 11 that fiscal year 2007 put the federal budget deficit at $247.7 billion, still the largest in U.S. history. Conservative Georgians would've voted Clinton out of office for this alone . Would they vote Bush out?
And according to the Jan. 12 Fox News Online article "Georgia : Huckabee leads GOP, Dems close," Mike Huckabee is Georgia 's conservatives' choice for president.
Since there is no difference politically or religiously between Bush and Huckabee, apart from that Huckabee hasn't been given a chance to do exactly what Bush has done, how are all the nation's problems that have come about under Bush going to get any better? By electing a man who is simply going to hold Bush's line, how are Georgia 's conservatives holding Bush responsible for the mistakes he's made, in the same way they would've held Clinton had he made them?
How is that fair enough?
Nathan Kirby, Augusta
Comments
Ok, another card carrying Dem, but Bush only gets credit for one and a half of these three debacles. Definitely put the deficit on him, but most of his own party says that also. He owns some of the gas price issue b/c of his pride foolish decision to go after Saddam instead of shaking Afghanistan until Bin Laden fell out. This LTE is partially accurate and excruciatingly late.
It's President Bush, not Bush!!! Give respect to get it loser!
Welcome to the forum MM...are you an ACE?
A very narrow perspective which does not take into account the increased demand for oil from China and India. How can one man influence the world's oil prices, oil is a worldwide market commodity which the price is influenced by supply and demand (not to mention OPEC's greed and manipulation of oil prices). The subprime lending fiasco is a combination of lenders and borrowers both not using common sense credit practices. Borrowers who get in over there head without reading the fine print and understanding the nuances of their mortgage loans should hold the lions share of the blame. Lenders who craftily create loans to people with substandard credit worthiness are using bad business practices to drum up business. President Bush has surely made his share of mistakes (as all Presidents do), but to solely blame him is to bury your head in the sand and ignore the multifaceted forces that drive business and our economy.
The subprime debacle wouldn't have happened if the consumer used just a little effort to learn how to purchase a house and the lender wasn't being pressured to make high risk loans. Hopefully enough is being made of this to lessen the chances of it happening again soon. The LTE has one huge point wrong. The public doesn't hate Clinton. He's way to charming for that. We just hate what he stands for and what he did to this country. We elected him twice and should hate ourselves, just to be fair. Personally, I hate the way hate is used in every letter by a Dem. It seems hateful.
Wow, I must have been gone too long in Iraq from serving my country, Clinton served TWO terms?? I honestly don't remember that one. If I am not mistaken, our nation was in the BLACK and not the RED from a deficit, and the only thing people remember is that Clinton lied about having an affair with some other lady. Clinton did do some things wrong(every President does), and sat on his butt when he knew about Osama Bin Laden and did nothing....However, he picked his fights carefully unlike our present President Bush. Now it is hard for you to deal with that, but well, so much for our economy.
And while we are at it, for those who borrowed money to buy a home, it also happened in 1984-1985 during the Reagan years, in which the stock market fell a LOT. So as for learning anything, big banking didn't learn much. As for those who borrowed, they were not thinking about having to get laid off from work due to a slowed down economy, as these were working people. You can place blame on others, but that is not going to help our economic state now is it??
And just in case you haven't read the news yet, our dear President Bush was in Saudi Arabia trying to negotiate lower oil prices (So much for getting off our dependency for foreign oil) and addressing issues of visas for allowing more people from these countries to again visit our homeland (wow, what a warm welcome they will get when they are allowed to visit huh?? So much for homeland security)
Well yeah, this is just about the worst administration in at least a century, but otherwise this article is pretty much preaching to the choir. So the party lines are drawn, and blue or red affiliation means more to most people than the good of this country, or common sense for that matter. Tell us something we don't know.
Amen to justus4 and DeborahElliott2. As usual patriciathomas had a comment....she comments on every article in the paper. Wish I was that smart.
Let's not forget Congresses role in this mess. They are the true criminals that just use the President's office as a scapegoat and dodge. The Rep and Dem political machines are like the Everready bunny.
Economists will tell you that the president, whoever he is, has no control over the economy or the price of oil. Consumers influence the economy and OPEC controls oil prices. He can do nothing about the stupidity of the American borrower. The fact is the president can do little without the approval of the congress. I don't know why someone hasn't advised Mr Kirby that Pres Bush is not running for president. His term is almost up. The important thing is what his replacement will do. And pray for the hatred you feel for your fellow man.
Deborah..The period you mention began with the Carter administration, long before 1984. and carried over to Reagan . When I purchased my first home in 1981 the interest rate was 18% (compared to about 6% now).. I did NOT fall into that trap. I made a short term, low interest loan at an affordable rate and kept renewing until the rates finally fell.
dani, good points, Unfortunately, you can't reason with idiots.
Bill Clinton, the good old days for everyone. I miss those days.
owens..Don't cry. It appears that we are heading back there. Where the heck is Monica.
Interested Citizen, I, too, wish you were smart. See, we do agree on something. By the bye, you commented on this article also.
The subprime debacle is an issue of greed of banks and mortgage lenders. This is not President Bush's fault. However, as the President, you get the blame along with the glory. Gasoline prices is a result of our country over the last 40 years not listening to environmentalist and scientist telling us to leave gasoline behind, and focusing on technology that exists to make us free. Conservatives and big oil companies just laugh and call it hysteria. There's not a lot of people laughing right now.
Checking with the news regarding the candidates for president,
I have noticed many of the people interviewed say they are voting for Obama because he could be the first black president. Others are voting for Hillary bcause she could be the first woman president. Still others are saying, 'he' is the only one who has a chance of beating the Dem noninee. _Now..Aren't These all great reasons for electing for the next leader of the free world.
President Bush answer to everything is, "We were attacked on 9/11".
By the way, Rudy Giuliani use that same line..
its chump bush, no respect given! respect is earned not given!
he's a policy/agenda pushing thug with no respect for the troops for lying to them and us!
Deborah, you honestly didn't know Bill Clinton served two terms? If that is your level of political knowledge, any opinion from you needs to be ignored. And your comment about the stock market during Reagan's years---1982 - 2000: Superbull market. The Dow experiences its most spectacular rise in history. From a meager 777 on August 12, 1982, the index grows more than 1,500% to 11,722.98 (actual and theoretical intra-day highs of 11,750.28 and 11,908.50) by January 14, 2000, with the exception of a slight turndown in the late 1980s.
justthe facts..Easy..Deborah is a Democrat.
None are so blind as those that won't see.
Is Reagan a wuss to , remember Beirut
I meant to mention, just to be fair, that Clinton deserves a lot of credit for the market climb during his administration. Reagan's tax cuts got it started.
Wow, get a load of shivas, he's actually right for a change.
dani, if the president has NOTHING to do with the economy and can have NO control at all over it then Bush is a liar. He said tax cuts would cause economic growth. You don't think that having control of the huge Federal Budget, and where it is spent,can have DIRECT effects on the U.S. economy? How can the economic woes of the 70's be Carter's fault if the president has NO control over the economy or oil prices? The problem with you so-called conservatives is that you are hypocrites. You are the anti-gay party but yet you are full of closet [filtered word] and perverts. You all are for fiscal sound policies but yet you all are running the LARGEST debts in history. You all sare suppossed to be the party of Defense but ush and his junta have mismanaged every aspect of the so-called 'War on Terra'.You all are just a bunch of phonies that are using the government to enrich a few at the expense of the many. You all preach 'protect the homeland' but the pusure policies that make us less safe and create more genuine terrorist to fight at a later date. Or as Dudya puts it, 'The next administartion' will ahve to deal with it. As usual, the Democratic Party will have to clean up ya'll mess. Hypocrites.
Some interesting points and counterpoints made here. Here's an undisputable fact: wholesale inflation was up 6.3% last year. That's the most since the heady days of Jimmy Carter's presidency (well, early Reagan years). Ouch. That fact should make any Bush supporter wince. And think what it will do to those who hate the man!
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