Friday, January 27, 2012

[POLITICAL THEATRE] This video has been circulating a lot on Facebook:



I think this is exactly where I'd want the President's rhetoric. The President can't run on cutting taxes; everyone knows the Republicans will do more tax cutting than anyone else. He has to make the case for taxes. So he does.

Notice how he jumps almost immediately to "strong military." In the past this has been a Republican talking point. Obama's stealing it. He makes the point that you can't cut taxes, cut the deficit, and have a strong military.

At the end he makes the Elizabeth Warren argument. You're going to be hearing it a lot more this year. No one ever got rich on their own.

You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.
“Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

Unsuccessful Democratic candidates apologize for the social contract, I think; successful ones (Bill Clinton, Obama) embrace it.

The smart money seems to be 50-50 on Obama getting another four years. Based on this speech, and the most recent economic numbers, I'd put it a bit higher.

(But I wouldn't bet $10,000 on it.)

Labels: Politics

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