OK. And this is why there cannot be thoughtful discussions with you.dajo9 said:calbear93 said:Not sure what you mean by being too eager for war. He is the one who withdrew from Iraq instead of destroying a government without a replacement like second Bush.dajo9 said:calbear93 said:Clearly not Trump, but yes, and I would add Reagan and the first Bush.dajo9 said:calbear93 said:Any president other than Carter and maybe the second Bush. Heck, even among the Democrats, Clinton was one my favorite president, and Obama, before he went down the rabbit hole of identity politics, was effective and mostly inspirational.bear2034 said:Abraham Lincoln. I have pics of his inauguration somewhere.dajo9 said:Who you got?bear2034 said:C'mon man.dajo9 said:
Joe Biden has been the best President of my lifetime
So in my adult life, you've got Clinton, Obama, and Trump. Interesting choices.
Obama sucked at responding to the Great Recession. We had the slow rebound and Biden has done a great job avoiding that. Clinton did a lot of great things but ultimately his deregulation of the financial industry led to real problems a decade down the road. He also cut capital gains taxes.
Don't get me wrong - Clinton and Obama were both successful but Biden has brought us from a complete mess to thriving normalcy.
Obama did not suck at responding to the Great Recession. Not sure what you were doing at the time, but, without intending to be offensive or insulting, I don't take your assessment of the economy or economic policies very seriously. Sorry, but you have shown lack of deep and actual insight (beyond posting stupid graphs or twitter but actual, real life knowledge) of financial and economic realities. So, from my end and having represented corporations during that time (even some who were on the verge of bankruptcy because of shut down in liquidity), Obama did what was necessary and forced the even healthy banks to take the shame away from rescue by forcing everyone to take a rescue and avoid an existential threat of our financial systems. Idiots who had no understanding of what was at stake and what was being done complained about it.
Biden, based on my frequent discussions with people who are actually financial leaders, board members, CEOs, etc., is generally view as clueless and always behind. If you think he did a great job on the economy the last three years, we will never agree, and you may need to deal with actual people in leadership and decision makers. Sorry, not trying to minimize your great MBA, but you and I will never agree on economic assessment because, for the most part, things you write on these topics are so counter to what I am seeing with my investments, my advisement on boards, and my friendships with private equity and hedge fund managers, and not just folks renting out their second home. Sorry, we disagree. Biden is not good for the economy, and even the folks he appointed at the SEC and FTC are absolute, utter disasters.
You and I don't need to go into the weeds on this, because we have crossed this path many times before, from inflation, equity investments, interest rates, monetary policies, and you seem to live in an alternate reality from mine.
I was a minor when Reagan and Bush Sr were elected but Bush Sr was far too eager for war for my tastes. I don't think anybody supports his type of foreign policy anymore.
Obama embraced conservative austerity and set the recovery back years. It was clear the economy needed more government spending in his 1st term but he acquiesced too easily to Republican demands.
Not sure what you also meant by austerity. Assume you realize that the Republicans had the House (assuming you know how government works and who holds the purse in the federal government) and that his Fed appointment juiced the monetary policy to create the most amount of wealth and biggest bull market in my lifetime.
But here we go again. Your reality is divorced from my experience, so let's leave it here. Not sure my assessment of your economic acumen needs more degradation, and we won't convince each other.
Iraq and Panama. Both unnecessary Bush Sr. wars. Imagine us invading a Central American country like that today.
Obama's entire approach was always to find compromise with Republicans. It's why I supported Hillary. It was obvious they wanted to sabotage Obama with fiscal austerity and a bad recovery for the American people. Obama went along rather than fighting. It was his biggest mistake and it was a painful mistake for the American people.
You provide your uninformed opinion as a fact that decides the conclusions of the debate.
Ignoring the historical maze in the Middle East, Iraq's role in the cold war, then our role in the Iran-Iraq war, our fragile relationship with Saudi Arabia, the need for influence on oil production controls, Israel-Palestine tension with Iraq supporting Palestine, potential for greater war in Middle East if Iraq was not expelled from Kuwait, and the coalition we had formed. But you conclude that it was an unnecessary war just because you say so.
Same with Panama. The quagmire that had Noriega part of our assets, then not, then corruption, murder, and overturning of an election, drug trade that we had enabled but then tried to end, and then death of one of our soldiers. But you conclude that it was unjustified and that's that. No casualty and elimination of a monster that we admittedly created.
Never mind. You can play your role of some expert that we all know you are not.