Let’s ignore the fact that there is nothing in the Constitution about the president as “financial-advisor-in-chief.” His moronic and repeated bashing of Vegas is not only digging a deeper hole for his water-carrier in the Senate, but almost guaranteeing that he himself won’t be winning Nevada in 2012.
I need to write a longer post on this, but the notion that this man or his advisors are political genii is pretty laughable at this point. The only reason he won is that a) the Dems weren’t that thrilled about Hillary, b) he has charisma for people susceptible to such emotional nonsense, c) McCain was a lousy candidate and ran a lousy campaign and d) the media was totally in the tank for him and refused to run anything negative and e) almost any Dem was going to win in 2008.
Why small business isn’t hiring, and why the tax credits won’t work. I love this line:
The good news is that, when it comes to reshaping the U.S. mortgage market [any market for that matter — ed.], the Obama administration’s top guns are bringing to bear all of the brisk, rough-’n’-ready entrepreneurial know-how they picked up in their previous careers as university professors, nonprofit activists, and holders of political sinecures.
Clark Lindsey has an extensive run down on what happened last year. It was quite a year. This year may be a bigger one, though.
[Update a few minutes later]
I’m back to house renovation in Colorado, and too busy to blog, which is a shame because it’s a news-rich week on the space front — even more than last week, when we were only dealing with rumors. Fortunately, Clark is on the case. Just keep scrolling.
If there’s a single event for which Obama himself is to blame, one decision that explains his predicament, it is his mishandling of the stimulus at the dawn of his administration. Put aside the debate over whether it has “worked,” and forget the White House’s absurd trick of talking about jobs “saved or created” (for the record, I save or create 500 push-ups every morning). Obama made a rookie mistake outsourcing his first major domestic policy decision to Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the Old Bulls of the Democratic Party, and that blunder has done lasting damage to his presidency.
May it continue. And based on his behavior, it seems likely to.
For this baby boomer who grew up in the Cold War, the world has gone bizzaro. Here is Jeffrey Manber on Russian TV defending the capability of commercial companies to design and fly manned rockets and disputing Alabama politicians who are attacking such companies and claiming that only a government agency can do such things. The irony is manifest when Jeffrey notes that said agency will be paying a Russian company to launch its astronauts.
I would argue that the new direction is not just the best option for NASA, but the only one. NASA already has no choice but to rely on the Russians for rides to the International Space Station after the shuttle retires this year. It’s an embarrassment. Obama’s budget will open the door to homegrown solutions for crew and cargo delivery to the space station, while providing much needed research funding for the development of next-gen technologies such as heavy-lift rockets and on-orbit refueling depots.
It’s a step that’s long overdue, though not one without peril. The private sector will have some very big shoes to fill, without the track record to prove that it’s up to the job. And can it succeed without succumbing to the kind of bloat that has eaten our defense budget alive? Working with the government tends to increase the amount of paperwork and oversight, along with the bureaucracy required to handle that extra workload, so it’s a legitimate concern. But, after all, the goal is to reduce the cost of reaching space. It has become clear to the right people, including many engineers and managers at NASA, that the traditional way of doing things hasn’t been working. NASA and the White House have every incentive to keep out of the way of the private contracts as much as possible.
/– How to deal with safety questions on Capitol Hill?
Bigelow: As a client, safety of the lifters is extremely important. We are going to expect well used and understood systems.
Anderson: NASA had astronauts flying on Ares I on its second flight. The commercial rockets will have flown many times before they every carry crews.
Musk: Southwest might have half the ticket price of a competitor yet no one thinks they are doing that by cutting on safety. Southwest’s safety record is one of the best.
Of all the lies, damned lies and statistics in this ongoing debate, the subject of safety has been the most meretricious.
Good stuff, all.
Clark also has as round up of all of the rapid-fire shoddy reporting on today’s announcements.