Prattling before the Pratfall

Seeing the end of printed newspapers on the horizon, Mark Fiore was one of the first political cartoonists to use Flash animation. Fiore is a liberal, and around the time that George Bush was re-elected I watched a lot of his cartoons. But eventually his bag o’ gag tricks became somewhat repetitive, and I stopped watching.

Back in December, NPR used one of Fiore’s cartoons, and it went relatively unnoticed for a while, but then went viral.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120344047

But Fiore doesn’t give Obama a free ride. Unlike Republicans, Democrats think it’s all right to criticize a sitting President from their own party. The lock-step adherence to the GOP party line during Bush’s tenure was both impressive and appalling.

It is my opinion that George W. Bush was by the far the worst President we have ever had — how I wish we’d never gone into Iraq — but there’s no doubt that the mess he left behind is Obama’s to fix, and I’m pretty much with Jon Stewart in my criticisms of the job Obama is doing so far. Financially, there are two things that I think must happen, where Obama could show some leadership:

1. Eliminate the Bush tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.
2. Bring back Glass-Steagall to separate investment banks, commercial banks, and the insurance industry. (Note: Glass-Steagall was repealed during Clinton’s second term.)

As far as fiscal policy goes, I think we’re spending all we can now. Borrowing more money from China isn’t in our national interest, not even in the short term.