Listened to Obama’s entire speech.  One thing I’ll give him: he’s very good at reading Austen Goolsbee’s words off a teleprompter.  (And yes, Cyrena, he was using a teleprompter; I have friends who attended the speech.)

Okay, that was snarky of me.  Let me start again.

It was a good speech, and did cover alot of things.  But there was nothing particularly remarkable about it.  As far as the housing crisis goes, Hillary was first on the scene with a plan in this regard, at least two parts of which Obama lifted in one form or another.

As well, Obama spoke twice (possibly three times) about “college” and school loans.  Yet he was a no-show (yet again...) for the 2007 bill for student loans and student grants (Hillary voted for it.) So, once again, his words and actions don’t jibe.

Obama once again made his claim re “refusing money from federal lobbyists and PACS.” The first claim may be true, but the second is not: he accepted ~$4,000 from PACS.  A tiny amount, to be sure (especially given a total raised of some $200 million), but not “no” money.

He also spoke a couple of time about “special interests” and their stranglehold on government.  And he was largely addressing “Wall Street” during his speech.  Yet according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, Obama has accepted almost $6 million from Wall Street firms, including ~$500,000 from Goldman Sachs (his largest single contributor in ANY industry), ~$300,000 from UBS, ~$250,000 from Lehman Brothers, and ~$150,000 from Morgan Stanley.  Do you really think these companies do not believe that they are “buying” something for their money?  If so, I have a bridge to sell you.

And as noted before, Obama has accepted more money from the energy, oil and gas industries than Hillary has, and almost as much from the legal and health care sectors.

So for all his damning “words” about “special interests,” his campaign coffers tell a different story.

Finally, re the mortgage crisis aspects of his plan, the following is Paul Krugman’s take on the various plans of Obama, Hillary and McCain:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/opinion/28krugman.ht ml?_r=1&sq=krugman&st=nyt&oref=slogin&scp=2 &pagewanted=print

Peace.

Obama’s speech was extremely impressive. It covered the whole picture of how our economy works in simple and clear terms.  We cannot continued to have this bribed government where the guys with the biggest bags of cash set the rules.  It is literally destroying our country and as we are largest single economy it will also destroy the world.  We are losing our rivers streams and lakes and now we have went from having improved air quality in states like California and Texas to a place where our air quality is not the worst in US history thanks to the short years of this moron Bush.  We certainly don’t want someone like McCain who seems to worship at Bush jr’s alter.  We don’t need a Bush jr II.

I was very very impressed with the level of detail of Barack’s speech.  It showed he really was not propagandized and bought off.  It showed clearly that he has a very good sense of the machine of our economy.  But I would add other things like possibly considering a tax credit where the wealthy who invest in bona fide small businesses with severe penalties for those that misuse the tax credit by setting up phony operations or operations in which they or their cohorts are the principle.  These investments should be directed toward the middle class and aiding minorities and poor whites to get their business going and thriving.  Try to use the tax code to help encourage investment in the US economy; that of the 50 states and possessions.

But I have to repeat I really did feel his speech showed a fantastic understanding of what we need to see and do to make our economy thrive for all.  And that it must be about the welfare of every single person.

Bush has literally come out on speeches and said the rich and the super rich are his people.  That should be a crime in a Democracy.

There is a very big difference between free market and anarchy wherein we end up with the few most powerful taking over and ruining any notion of a free market.  The most powerful who don’t succeed through market forces but by bribing the politicians to do their biding and thus we end up with a fascist state.  This doesn’t need to be the end product of free market capitalism.  We absolutely need a strong and free Democracy purged of political bribery and pay offs of any kind.  This and a free press are essential to a free society which in turn, for so many reasons, is essential to a free market place and the immense productivity and efficiencies it brings forth.

Excellent speech from Senator Obama.

There has never been a doubt that he CARES, or that he GETS what most of us fortunately DO understand. That is that we cannot collectively survive unless we individually survive.

This understanding of this most basic concept is what our suvival hinges upon. It is unrealistic to expect EVERYONE to ‘get this’ as proven by some of the posts here.

On the other hand, it is CRUCIAL that our ‘leaders’ ‘get it’ and understand it. So, while we’ve always known that Obama understands it, and that he CARES, this speech is just further proof that he’s figured out some ways to actually get it done.

In other words, he’s a really, really, really, smart guy.

I’d like to offer my cure for the economy:

The US government (or several govs.) award(s) a $1 trillion prize to the person, people, co. that designs, builds and mass produces an auto that does not burn fossil fuel, is relatively cheap to build and operate and does not harm the environment.  Forget electricity.

There would be a time limit, say 2-3 years.

In exchange for the prize, the inventors yield up the design/patent to public domain.

I think we’d get such an auto quite soon--at probably only a third of the cost of the Iraq war, and at pennies on the dollar cost of all the wars yet to be fought over oil, never mind lives saved. 

An eighth grader probably can see the idiocy in our politicians’ musings about the economy.

What the hell, make the prize $5 trillion.  Get the auto a year sooner.