2012 Democrat Party National Convention

• BoatShoes

  John Kerry was the best of the night in my opinion. Never thought I'd say that.
  
  Two great lines
  
  "Talk about being for it before you were against it."
  
  "Mitt Romney talks like he's only seen Russia by watching Rocky IV"
• gut

  Oh yeah, the other line that I can't get past - "I'm the more experienced guy in foreign policy". Yeah, now, but I didn't hear you admit to any mistakes. So if you can do it, why couldn't Romney?
  
  And then follow that up with a rather ironic joke about Romney making a gaff in Britain, of all places.
• gut

  BoatShoes;1263477 wrote:John Kerry was the best of the night in my opinion. Never thought I'd say that.

  And he wasn't that good, which is even more telling.
  
  One thing that really stood out to me is Paul Ryan has the charisma that Obama used to have. Ryan and Romney finished the RNC strong. Biden and Obama kind of went out with a whimper. You really got a sense from that convention, IMO, the the crowd was a bit disappointed with Obama. Sure they cheered and applauded frequently, but it was not nearly the same enthusiasm we've seen.
  
  I really thought Obama could knock this out of the park and damage Romney. That honestly went better for Romney than I ever could have reasonably have hoped.
• gut

  Gotta love the romanticizing of Bill Clinton, policy and economic genius. Time has treated him well from a guy that, in early 2000's, was credited mostly for staying out of the way (and then asleep at the wheel) of the internet bubble. Again, a bipartisan failure just like we saw with the housing bubble (well, Bush did try to reign that in, but he failed). I guess liberals aren't able to process that reality.
• Manhattan Buckeye

  gut;1263483 wrote:Gotta love the romanticizing of Bill Clinton, policy and economic genius. Time has treated him well from a guy that, in early 2000's, was credited mostly for staying out of the way (and then asleep at the wheel) of the internet bubble. Again, a bipartisan failure just like we saw with the housing bubble (well, Bush did try to reign that in, but he failed). I guess liberals aren't able to process that reality.

  Agreed, few people remember how unpopular he was in his first two years before the GOP Congress sweep in '94, then Clinton when centrist and the nation prospered, and as someone working in NYC at the time I remember the March '00 (again during Clinton's Presidency) burst - we went from working 20 hour days to no work at all. Because of the Gore/Bush election the economy's implosion during Clinton's last year was overshadowed.
• gut

  Manhattan Buckeye;1263485 wrote:Agreed, few people remember how unpopular he was in his first two years before the GOP Congress sweep in '94, then Clinton when centrist and the nation prospered, and as someone working in NYC at the time I remember the March '00 (again during Clinton's Presidency) burst - we went from working 20 hour days to no work at all. Because of the Gore/Bush election the economy's implosion during Clinton's last year was overshadowed.

  And, really, Clinton and that Republican congress was really ground zero for the subsequent housing burst. Ignoring the Fannie/Freddie mandate and laissez faire, the internet bubble is what led to juiced interest rates that fueled the housing bubble. During and shortly after, Slick Willy was best remembered for staying out of the way getting blowjobs in the oval office.
  
  Heck, 9/11 was on him to for gutting the CIA. He had a shot at Bin Laden and passed. That's not really fair criticism, but it's only after W and Obama that Clinton has transcended a remarkably unremarkable presidency.
• Manhattan Buckeye

  "Heck, 9/11 was on him to for gutting the CIA. He had a shot at Bin Laden and passed. That's not really fair criticism,"
  
  Fair is in the eyes of the beholder, many of my military friends got demilitarized during Clinton's budget surplus years, it was to the point that if a Marine officer had a tattoo they weren't getting promoted, meaning they were out.
• I Wear Pants

  gut;1263483 wrote:Gotta love the romanticizing of Bill Clinton, policy and economic genius. Time has treated him well from a guy that, in early 2000's, was credited mostly for staying out of the way (and then asleep at the wheel) of the internet bubble. Again, a bipartisan failure just like we saw with the housing bubble (well, Bush did try to reign that in, but he failed). I guess liberals aren't able to process that reality.

  How?
  
  Biggest failure during Clinton's administration was Glass-Steagall.
• gut

  I Wear Pants;1263508 wrote:How?
  
  Biggest failure during Clinton's administration was Glass-Steagall.

  https://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/the-white-house-warned-congress-about-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-17-times-in-2008-alone/
  
  There was a failure of regulation, but there's fair debate as to whether Glass-Steagall was the real culprit. AIG is not a bank, and Bear and Lehman, as pure investment banks, were unaffected by Glass-Steagall. And while mortgages have been a staple of traditional retail banks, it was actually the prop arms of IB's that got into trouble when their risk models failed. It's not like they were leveraging retail bank assets.
  
  Sure, claim Glass-Steagall created "too big to fail", but actually (at the time) you had capital markets dominated by the [then] 8 bulge bracket IB's. When contagion spread, credit markets froze and it would not have been substantially different if the mergers had never been allowed in the first place. The IB's were already too big to fail. Actually, that's really not the case either as Bear and Lehman WERE allowed to fail. But with AIG now going under the risk became uncontrollably systemic. Not a single bank by itself was then or is now too big to fail, but as an industry group you're talking 15% of GDP or something like that at the time. It's the concentration, as you have with the auto industry, that makes it difficult to absorb losing a player. And, again, it would have survived Bear and Lehman, but probably not also AIG and obviously not with the housing market now in free fall.
  
  It's not uncommon to have a company need emergency/rescue financing. It's happened in the banking industry 2 or 3 times before since 1980 alone. But with credit markets frozen, the economy devastated and contagion spreading, only the govt was capable of providing the needed expedient financing. Same thing for GM and the auto industry.
  
  The lack of regulation/CDO's is really much more to blame than Glass-Steagall. That's what led to massive hidden leverage and a web of cross-default exposure that served to concentrate, rather than diversify, risk. It was contagion that effectively had the banks operating as one entity that resulted in "too big to fail". They lacked the sophistication and understanding to properly regulate the CDO's. It's happened before and it will happen again.
  
  But financial engineering has been a source of competitive advantage for US companies for decades. People forget the S&L crisis. It wass very similar with a new and not fully understood security at the center. It sent Michael Milken and others to jail. Junk bonds were blamed, rightly so, for a big recession. Today they are more politely referred to as "High Yield" and a vital source of capital - to the tune of $1.3T (and that's just the US) - for companies.
• vball10set

  lulz on a Friday :laugh:
  
  
• fish82

  

  vball10set;1263544 wrote:lulz on a Friday :laugh:
  
  

  Reps are incredibly stupid.
  
  That said, I'm giving you reps.
• gut

  Anyone catch this dingbat at the DNC last night? I suspect she may have single-handedly kept the crack dealers in business during the great recession. Watch the coke flow strongly in her beginning at 1:52. Also, see if you can spot the "Heil Hitler" salute to Obama in the last 12 seconds (I shi.t you not).
  
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_X1LVgh0Vl0#t=112s
  
  
• isadore

  gosh a criticism from the party of legitimate rape
• QuakerOats

  http://www.humanevents.com/2012/09/06/hey-lets-ban-corporate-profits/
  
  Seriously, are these people just complete morons, or are they truly Marxists and communists?
• gut

  With all the comparisons of Repubs to the Nazis this week, it's ironic that Jennifer Granholm giving Obama the Hitler salute received wild applause.
• se-alum

  

  Obama's backpedaling and hypocrisy were pretty hilarious last night!
• Manhattan Buckeye

  QuakerOats;1263634 wrote:http://www.humanevents.com/2012/09/06/hey-lets-ban-corporate-profits/
  
  Seriously, are these people just complete morons, or are they truly Marxists and communists?

  They aren't bad people, almost all of my DEM friends are totally embarrassed now. They tend to be not on the fringe, unfortunately the DNC decided to put up the fringe with Elizabeth Warren and Sandra Fluke.
• QuakerOats

  [INDENT]I forgot to tell you the plan for this Saturday. You, me, bar, beers, buzzed. Wings, shots, drunk, waitresses, hot. Football, Cornell-Hofstra, slaughter! Then quick nap at my place, and then we hit the tizzown!
  
  
  
  Unlike obama, you have a helluva plan.
  [/INDENT]
• QuakerOats

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKux363Dg64
  
  The podium meltdown.
  
  
  Dear [EMAIL="dum@s$"]dum@s$[/EMAIL], I mean Ms. Granholm,
  
  GM filed for bankruptcy on June 1, 2009.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  U.S. Taxpayers
• jmog

  QuakerOats;1264024 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKux363Dg64
  
  The podium meltdown.
  
  
  Dear dum@s$, I mean Ms. Granholm,
  
  GM filed for bankruptcy on June 1, 2009.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  U.S. Taxpayers

  She's almost as crazy as Pelosi...almost.
• 2kool4skool

  

  fish82;1263595 wrote:Reps are incredibly stupid.
  
  That said, I'm giving you reps.

  
  You should. You copy and pasted it to another site.