These are my random musings. Hopefully they will be witty, insightful, and frequently updated.
A letter from an Italian friend
Published on October 17, 2008 By singrdave In Democrat
Why is it that I get such amazing questions from my friends? This letter is from a wonderful Italian girl who was a foreign exchange student at my high school.  She's now married and lives in Egypt, spending her days scuba diving with her instructor husband and apparently talking about American domestic policy.

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Everybody is talking about it ... and ... I don't have a real opinion yet! HELP!!!! I need some insider info.
Now, we Europeans all love Obama, for the simple fact that he is black and because we don't like Bush.
But that's a bit too simple, right? What does the American think?

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Well, let's look specifically at money. Obama wants to raise my cost of living. He claims to not, but:

1) in raising the taxes that businesses and corporations pay, they pass their added expenses onto the consumer, raising the prices that I pay.

2) by starting national health, Obama's going to raise the price of health care for me and my family by making me cover insurance premiums for the poor. And I won't have nearly the coverage that I have now, which is paid from my own pocket.

3) Obama wants to restrict trade and punish businesses that send jobs overseas. This will raise the cost of the things I buy because the cost of production and import will increase, and those increased costs will be passed onto the consumer (see #1).

4) he wants to leave oil, coal, and natural gas in order to go exclusively wind, solar, and geothermal. Too right, but too fast. We still need oil and coal to get us through until the technology gets further developed. But Obama has refused to OK offshore drilling or any new oil drilling at all. So what do we do in the meantime? Petrol prices are already four times higher what they were five years ago. Expect petrol prices to rise as we forsake oil prematurely. My feeling: yes to wind, solar, water, nuclear, coal, natural gas, and (gasp!) OIL. Use 'em all, because we can use the resources we have until the new technologies come online.

This went on longer than I thought it would, but Obama's plans are so expensive in so many ways that they all need addressing. As you can see, my opposition to Obama is not because of race or the fact that he's not Bush.

And I haven't even addressed Obama's foreign policy yet!

Comments
on Oct 17, 2008

I'm actually new to this format. Do we still have to forum bump?

on Oct 17, 2008

I think your friend is getting their opinions from where most of the rest of the world does.  The decidedly liberal and anti-anything not Obama media.

on Oct 17, 2008

Now, we Europeans all love Obama, for the simple fact that he is black and because we don't like Bush.
But that's a bit too simple, right? What does the American think?

Now that's a scary opinion. I would point you to our new resident British blogger who seems to think that Europe is 10 times better than the US and that Obama can turn the US into the next Europe, now I see why his opinion is so distorted and ignorant. Don't mean to insult your friend Singrdave, but I can't help but thinking some people criticize us for not thinking things thru yet Obama is loved just because he's black. That si mind boggling.

on Oct 17, 2008

CharlesCS


Now that's a scary opinion... Don't mean to insult your friend Singrdave, but I can't help but thinking some people criticize us for not thinking things thru yet Obama is loved just because he's black. That is mind boggling.

Yes, her response to my reply was "I'm shocked!"  That's all, no elaboration.  I have no idea how to read that. If I had to guess, she'd oversimplified the issues to the point where she had no understanding of the policy issues.  It took an actual boots-on-the-ground American voter to "shock" her into understanding.  There are, in fact, more issues at stake bigger than (paraphrased) he's black and he's not Bush.

on Oct 17, 2008

There are, in fact, more issues at stake bigger than (paraphrased) he's black and he's not Bush.

over 30 million americans fit that bill.