By Padmini Arhant
Health Care Reform - A priority for the victims of the status quo.
Please be sure to watch the videos.
Full Content available @http://www.padminiarhant.com
Thank you.
Padmini Arhant
What many people don't consider is that whatever they have today IS their option. But that option is an illusion. With every tick of the clock it changes... for the worse. Costs are rising. So if you have insurance through your employer the costs will soon be passed on to you at a faster rate. It is getting so that employers can barely pay their part of the premiums now.
The smaller the company you work for the faster this will happen. If you work for a midsize or small company the cost of someone getting sick can cause your costs to rise too. I heard of a case where one employee got cancer and everone's premiums went up. If you are the person who gets sick, this cannot help but make you feel bad.
The insurance companies hate that they have to cover someone's family every time someone gets a new job. They don't know if anyone has pre-existing conditions but they have to accept the whole family anyway. More than anything they would like for employers NOT to cover people as an employee benefit.
The last proposal I saw from the republicans would take away the tax incentive for companies to cover employees. This means that companies would no longer have the tax break and this would give companies a reason to drop their employee insurance (one of their largest costs). That means that every single individual or family would have to qualify on their own. If you or anyone in your family has a pre-existing condition you could never get coverage, unless you agreed to drop anyone who had the pre-existing excluded from the coverage.
The really bad thing about buying single or single family coverage is that you will be dropped when you get sick. You can pay premiums for 10, 20 or more years and you will still be dropped. First, the insurance companies know the odds are in their favor. The chances that you can afford to sue are small and if you do they can virtually always find a clause that excludes you from coverage. For instance, one clause (in one of America's largest companies) states that if you move to another state, even if you pay all your premiums if you get sick your insurance is dropped. You must pay extra to be able to move. It costs more so most people don't buy it, or they don't know it's in the policy.
During the 2008 campaign McCain's insurance plan was to make it easier for your employer not to cover you. The plan was to benefit insurance companies, not you or your family. The very same republicans are in the Senate that were there when George Bush almost collapsed the economy. John McCain is still a Senator. Why would we ever let these people decide where we get our insurance?
Since we have been having town hall meetings, republicans have bussed people around the country to scream, yell and disrupt every meeting until nothing gets said. At first Democrats were showing up at these meetings. But as people started showing up at the meetings with guns, more and more Democrats became frightened and just didnt' go.
How did America get to a place where we are not allowed to have a civil discourse? Why are huge insurance corporations determined to bus their employees around to cause such chaos? Why does the media love to cover this? It is much more interesting than quiet discussion. There might actually be republican citizens who would like to discuss their health insurance too, but they are not going to get the chance.
And there is one government plan that insurance companies love. It is medicare. They love it because it covers the people they don't want... the elderly. They don't want them because they are most likely to be or get sick. The don't want the elderly but they have no problem scaring them about dying. My mother raised two daughters on her own. She worked every day until she died, after work, at age 72. She chose to buy food instead of medicine but we did not find this out until after she died. She would have been too ashamed to tell us she needed help. What the republicans are saying would have frightened her so badly. I think she would still be alive today if President Obama would have been there earlier.
And I hear that young people are not buying single policies, usually because they can't afford them. They have to find a way. Something as simple as a bicycle accident could cause you to be denied coverage forever. This puts you at far greater risk for bankruptcy during your lifetime.
And if you leave or lose your job, you should take Cobra but immediately start looking for something permanent. If you get sick while you are on Cobra, you will not qualify for new insurance.
You have a choice. Right now you have a right to have a say in your insurance. Do not let anyone take that away from you. This is America where we get a say, we do not get manipulated by fear. If you give up the right to choose a choice will be made for you. Eventually the republicans will find a way to make it easier for your employer to drop your insurance. This will lower company costs and greatly increase insurance companies profits. They have already stated in at least one plan, McCain's, that it is what they want to do.
Regarding the friendly disagreement between the Bard and myself, Bush and Cheney already enjoy undeserved folk hero status, and within the far right realms, they will always enjoy such status regardless of outcome.
I appreciate the debate.
Soon as we got a Democrat in the White House, a bunch of Senators claiming to be Democrats rushed to show how independent they are, declaring they won’t necessarily vote in support of the President’s agenda that he was elected to enact. As a Hoosier, I’ll put Indiana’s Evan Bayh (pronounced “Bye” or “Buy”) at the top of the list.
Mr. Obama is right to allow politicians to vote their “consciences” (oxymoron is obvious). Where he’s wrong is in promising to raise money for them. I won’t give one penny to support ANY Senator who fails to toe the line and earnestly help the President do what he promised. Many promises were made. If they’re not kept because Democrats in the Senate support powerful banks and other lobbies against the people who support Mr. Obama’s agenda, then Bayh-Bayh to them come the primary.
If self-described Democrats in the Senate refuse to push through the President’s agenda, then it’s up to us to FIND SOMEONE WHO WILL. I won’t give money to or raise money for Evan Bayh or Arlen Spector or any of the approximately eight others who have declared themselves “independent” of this cause.
They want our money and votes only to betray us to the powerful lobbyists who own them. We need to start work right now finding better people to run against them in the primaries and start raising the money they’ll need to win.
We kept McCain and Palin out of the White House. We certain can put Bayh, Specter and those other eight “independent” Democrats OUT of the Senate. CHANGE is coming to America.
Spring into Action/OFA Pledge Project Canvass
Put a little spring in your step as you enjoy refreshments and walk for your township and COD. Join us at 10 and we will provide breakfast snacks, coffee and juice, plus lunch treats after you've walked your area.
WIN GREAT PRIZES!
RSVP to 630.629.1125 so that we can prepare your walk materials.
Attention all Oregon PCP's (Precinct Committee People). The Mult Dems are looking to fill positions and restructure their committees, and we need your help filling these roles. The current committees include:
1. Budget and finance
2. Campaign and government liason
3. Platform, resolutions and legislation
4. Community action
5. Rules
6. Credentials
PCP's engage with legislators to help direct policy decisions. They follow legislation, report on it, create committees, brain storm and create real change.
If you want to become a Democratic PCP then let me know, I can get you started in the right direction.
Christopher Pierce, DC
The Pickens Plan: For those who would like to become an active participant in a solution for our nations energy needs I urge you to join with T.Boone Pickens in his quest for a cleaner planet through alternative energy.
Also see Green Wave Energy: Green Wave was founded by Mark Holmes and was formulated for viable alternative energy solutions. Green Wave Energy is promoting state-of-the-art energy-saving products and services throughout the country.
Green Wave Energy understands alternative energy technology will become “main stream” when
Call 949.645.1701 for information on how Green Wave Energy can help you save the planet.
Alternative EnergySource: David Apperson
url: http://veterans.barackobama.com/page/community/tag/alternative-energy
"Sen. Joe Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee despite hard feelings over his support for GOP nominee John McCain during the presidential campaign. The Connecticut independent will lose a minor panel post as punishment for criticizing Obama this fall.
Lieberman's colleagues in the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 Tuesday on a resolution condemning statements made by Lieberman during the campaign but allowing him to keep the Homeland Security Committee gavel. He loses an Environment and Public Works panel subcommittee chairmanship, however."
(Actually, he gave up his position on the Environmental and Public Works Committee altogether. However, Lieberman is also on the Armed Services Committee, where he chairs an important subcommittee.)
The article concludes with a statement made Friday by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who opposed the move.
"To reward Senator Lieberman with a major committee chairmanship would be a slap in the face of millions of Americans who worked tirelessly for Barack Obama and who want to see real change in our country. Appointing someone to a major post who led the opposition to everything we are fighting for is not 'change we can believe in."'
I discussed Lieberman's situation in my new blog, Keep Joe Lieberman, which has now achieved its purpose. By their actions, the Senate Democrats have shown that there’s hope for them yet!It is also important to note that Lieberman caucused with the Democrats as an Independent Democrat, so he was not obliged by this to support Obama, just as Bernie Sanders could have supported
I'm glad that Obama seeks to govern rather than to seek revenge. Too bad there are so many "Democrazies" out there who aren't getting the message.
Where Do You Stand: Energy for America and the Truth about Energy?
We Are in a Crisis
Our dependence on foreign oil forms the intersection of the three most critical issues America currently faces: the economy, the environment and our national security.
There is a Solution
America is blessed with the world's greatest wind power corridor and abundant reserves of clean natural gas. The Pickens Plan will utilize these tremendous resources to build a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives and buying time for us to develop even greater new technologies.
The Plan calls for building new wind generation facilities that will produce 20% of our nation's electricity and allow us to use natural gas as a transportation fuel. The combination of these domestic energies can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports. And we can do it all in 10 years.
We Can Bring Change On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office. We're organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration. Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America's energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability.
You can start changing America's future today by supporting the Pickens Plan. Join now.
The Man with the Plan
T. Boone Pickens, founder and chairman, BP Capital Management, is principally responsible for the formulation of the energy futures investment strategy of the BP Capital Commodity Fund and the BP Capital Equity Fund. With more than $4 billion under management, BP Capital manages one of the nation's most successful energy-oriented investment funds. Pickens frequently utilizes his wealth of experience in the oil and gas industry in the evaluation of potential equity investments and energy sector themes. He has not been shy in predicting oil and gas prices and — more often than not — has been uncannily accurate.
Pickens is also aggressively pursuing a wide range of other business interests, from water marketing and ranch development initiatives to Clean Energy, a company he founded and is the largest shareholder. Through Mesa Water, Pickens is the largest private holder of permitted groundwater rights in the United States. Clean Energy is advancing the use of natural gas as a cleaner-burning and more cost-effective transportation fuel alternative to gasoline and diesel.
Boone grew up in Holdenville, a small eastern Oklahoma town. His father was in the oil business, and his mother ran the Office of Price Administration during World War II, rationing gasoline and other goods for four counties. Boone attributes much of his success to his mother and father.
Boone graduated as a geologist from Oklahoma State University in 1951 and started work with Phillips Petroleum Co. in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. After three and a half years, he struck out on his own as an independent geologist. Pickens was founder of Mesa Petroleum in its various forms beginning in 1956. Mr. Pickens' career at Mesa spanned four decades. Under his leadership, Mesa grew to become one of the largest and most well known independent exploration and production companies in the United States; Mesa produced more than 3 trillion cubic feet of gas and 150 million barrels of oil from 1964 to 1996.
From its inception, Mesa was at the forefront of change and innovation. Mesa's fitness program is a good example. Boone has long understood the benefits of physical fitness. Mesa's fitness program has become a model for corporate America, and Mesa was the first company to be accredited by the Institute for Aerobics Research.
Throughout his professional life, Pickens has been a generous philanthropist, giving away almost one half of a billion dollars. In 2006, he contributed $175 million to a wide range of causes and the formation of the T. Boone Pickens Foundation. He has appeared multiple times on The Chronicle of Philanthropy's list of top U.S. philanthropists. The T. Boone Pickens Foundation is improving lives through grants supporting educational programs, medical research, athletics and corporate wellness, at-risk youth, the entrepreneurial process, and conservation and wildlife initiatives.
The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans Inc. selected Pickens as a recipient of the 2006 Horatio Alger Award, which epitomizes those who overcome adversity and humble beginnings to achieve success. It is but one of many honors awarded to Pickens for his achievements, including Trader Monthly's 2006 Trader of the Year award, the Texas Business Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
Pickens lives in Dallas and is married to Madeleine Ann Pickens. He has five children and 12 grandchildren.
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A CHANGE!
New Energy for America
The voters have spoken, but I don’t believe this was a mandate for the Democrats. It was a mandate for Obama’s promises of cooperation and bipartisanship, of treating each other with respect and dignity. It was a vote for the hope of a Washington that functions for the good of the American people.
Can Obama lead America to that reality, as he has promised? Time will tell. But, as Obama has said, getting there requires all Americans. It’s not something he can do by himself. It’s a challenge to all of us to work together so our nation can see better days.
Thank you for taking the time to look at this booklet. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden’s Plan for America
Barack Obama Plan for America
Energy and Environmental
Obama's plan to create five million new "green" jobs would depend upon a ten year, $150 billion investment to "catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future."
Obama has pushed for one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015 and a target of 10 percent of all household electricity originating from renewable sources by 2012.
He has also stressed the importance of providing short-term relief, offering to enact a Windfall Profits Tax that would provide a $1,000 energy rebate to American families.
Obama has even announced a plan to eliminate our current imports from Venezuela and the Middle East within ten years. Obama proposes a $7,000 tax credit for purchasing advanced vehicles.
Economy Obama's Stance on the Economy Barack Obama has offered a detailed plan to get America’s economy back on track, by creating new jobs and easing the burden on hardworking Americans by offering middle-class tax cuts three times the size of McCain’s. Learn More
Read the Pickens Plan Pledge below and then tell your Member of Congress to join with T. Boone Pickens and his army of supporters in calling for an Energy Independence Plan to be enacted within the first 100 days of the new administration. CLICK HERE TO EMAIL CONGRESS NOW!
GET THE DETAILS:
Attachments:
Sometimes a picture speaks louder than beautiful words written in a blog. I think this photo says it all. The image on my iphone, held above my head, was taken right after I cast my vote for Obama in Houston, Texas.
I believe, with all my heart, that America will be on the road to change if Barack Obama is elected President of the United States of America. We, as Americans, will then have the perfect chance to contribute to this cause. The reason I believe this is because Barack said it. He said, as he spoke in Henderson, Nevada yesterday (October 31st), that 5 million jobs will be created after he becomes President. Jobs, in my opinion, are one of the things that makes our Nation great. We absolutely need to be the Nation that invents things and values education.
I have come to see that Barack is a man of his word. He's honest and helps communities become better. From the stories I've seen of him, he has committed his life to helping people have better lives. I started out being a supporter of Hillary Clinton. She's a very smart woman. She, and her husband, think that people come first in our country. They certainly do! Without people, we wouldn't have the wonderful towns and businesses that make this country great. The corporations wouldn't have advocates of their own businesses without American employees. Inventions wouldn't happen so quickly without American creativity. The military wouldn't be so quick to respond without American patriotism. Barack knows, from what I've heard, that people are very important when it comes to making this country great.
But soon, I realized that Barack had the attention of the younger generation by huge amounts! And that is when I paid more attention. A lightbulb went on over my head! I realized I was still thinking and remembering the 1990's! I then realized we needed to be in the 21st century, and our younger generation seemed to know that better than me! Senator Obama showed me the way as he organized his way to the top of the Democratic Campaign! He called me personally one day to tell me so, but at the time I didn't know who he was! I said I was a Hillary supporter and that was how it was! He said, at the end of our conversation, "Well, Mrs. Morrison, remember, you'll have to think of who the RIGHT candidate is before you vote"! That sentence was in my mind for months later! I didn't quite understand what he meant by "the RIGHT candidate". I always prided myself on thinking I knew who the right person for President could be.
Senator Obama's vision paves a path forward that will be transitional. We need to improve our country with more jobs, improve infrastructure, and improve education, to become more competitive. I was told recently by my son, who is taking classes at a community college to get a Cisco Certification in Silicon Valley, that Cisco is slowing down on hiring because they are waiting to see who is going to be elected for President! Now I would say that maybe that is smart of them to do that. But, on the other hand, my husband, http://www.chuckmorrison.com, has noticed a significant slowing down in the hiring process this September and October. He's a Sr. Project Manager that normally can be hired within a months time, but now he is seeing this slowdown in Silicon Valley. It appears that our America is so concerned about what is happening within this current administration, the corporations don't want to move forward until after the election. This is obvious if you are watching the stock market and the financial crisis that has gripped the country! Senator Obama wants to change the deceptive eight year behaviour of this administration by making more jobs open to the public. What good does it do for a country that can't move forward because they are in a stale-mate!
I have made two pictures for the art community I contribute too. One picture shows that we need a new path to progress in America. This is where you can see it: http://www.artistrising.com/products/344468/path-to-progress.htm We need a new path where everyone is involved in order to move our country forward. The other picture was made as a digital painting from two pictures I photographed from my own televison set! http://www.artistrising.com/products/344371/we-the-people.htm This picture is about working together to promote change and progress in America and shows the last scenes at the Democratic Convention at the stadium, as a digital painting. I hope you enjoy looking at them. So far, they seem to be staying on the front page of the "People" section at http://www.artistrising.com. It appears people are looking at them. I know people want hope and change for our country.
I would like to stress the importance of the idea of creating new jobs in America. The Nation has moved in a downward curve for eight years. We can't stand much more. We need a President with inspiration and hope to move our country forward. We the People can do it with this kind of inspired leadership. We can move down a New Path to Progress if Barack Obama is elected!
I had a dream: We are writing the year 2016, America has left behind the economy crisis of 2008 and developed to a green, social and prosperous society. The unemployment rate is down at 2.3 %, the number of poor people dropped from 37 to 9 million, the national deficit is only a fourth of that in 2008. Every American has affordable health care now, and Obama`s tax cuts have put more money into the pockets of the middle-class American, which led to higher consumption, re-fueled the economy, and created millions of new jobs. Above all 5 million new created green collar jobs and a better, more effective environmental policy with solar, wind and other renewable energies dropped America`s energy bill, air pollution and CO 2 balance by 25%, making the country cleaner and almost independent of foreign oil. America´s is about to become the world leader in green technology, especially due to the broad-scale introduction of US built hybrid cars. In foreign politics America has restored faith and regained respect in the world community of nations as a wise and peaceful mediator in all conflicts. This and other measures also led to an improvement of the national security. The dark Bush years are history and America has made the real CHANGE to a better future - YES WE COULD - And due to the great achievements of Barack Obama`s successful 8 years in national and international politics a committee was founded, proposing the extension of his presidency for 4 more years, as applied during the Roosevelt administration.
Was all of this just a dream ? - No, you can make it happen by voting for OBAMA next Tuesday - It is now up to you, America !
SHOP AMERICA SUPPORTS OBAMA
By now many of you have seen the email floating around, especially here in Texas about the horrors of voting "a straight democratic ticket" that results in Obama not being selected. Not only is this not true it has the adverse effect of deselecting Obama if you also vote for him within the list.
SPREAD THE WORD! EARLY VOTING STARTS MONDAY...IF THE OTHER EMAILS CONTINUES IT COULD BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE TO ALL OF OUR HARD WORK AND MONEY!!!!
The actual link to the story from Dallas Morning News can be found here for anyone wanting to verify its validity: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D93R2C780.html
I'm happy to report that Granny Gobama has decided to stay in Ohio through the election. She already sent her request to California for her absentee ballot and has changed her flight home. The project that we launched together - 85andchange.com - has been more popular than we could have imagined and after all our effort, we could not imagine being apart on Election Day. So my grandmother will be moving over to my house to stay for a few weeks.
Together we will focus more energy on her blog, and try to get her out to even more events. This will also allow her to have further face-to-face conversations with some of her older friends here in Ohio and tell them again why she is supporting Barack Obama. Maybe... just maybe... she'll be able to convince another voter, as she was able to convince her Florida voting Son!
Go Obama!!
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=12342127
AS THE financial crisis pushes the economy back to the top of voters’ concerns, Barack Obama is starting to open up a clear lead over John McCain in the opinion polls. But among those who study economics for a living, Mr Obama’s lead is much more commanding. A survey of academic economists by The Economist finds the majority—at times by overwhelming margins—believe Mr Obama has the superior economic plan, a firmer grasp of economics and will appoint better economic advisers.
Our survey is not, by any means, a scientific poll of all economists. We e-mailed a questionnaire to 683 research associates, all we could track down, of the National Bureau of Economic Research, America’s premier association of applied academic economists, though the NBER itself played no role in the survey. A total of 142 responded, of whom 46% identified themselves as Democrats, 10% as Republicans and 44% as neither. This skewed party breakdown may reflect academia’s Democratic tilt, or possibly Democrats’ greater propensity to respond. Still, even if we exclude respondents with a party identification, Mr Obama retains a strong edge—though the McCain campaign should be buoyed by the fact that 530 economists have signed a statement endorsing his plans.
Does their opinion matter? Economics is just one of the many things the next president will have to worry about; voters still seem to prefer Mr McCain on foreign policy. And even on the economy, economists may not have the same priorities as the population at large. Arguably, what a president says about economics on the campaign trail is less important than how he responds to the unexpected challenges that inevitably arise once he is in office.
Yet economists’ opinions should count for something because irrespective of any party affiliation, most of them approach policy decisions with the same basic tool kit. Their assessment of the candidates’ economic credentials and plans represents an informed judgment on how well they will handle difficult trade-offs between efficiency, equity, growth and consensus-building.
Regardless of party affiliation, our respondents generally agree the economy is in bad shape, that the election is important to the course of economic policy and that the housing and financial crisis is the most critical economic issue facing America.
The detailed responses are bad news for Mr McCain (the full data are available here). Eighty per cent of respondents and no fewer than 71% of those who do not cleave to either main party say Mr Obama has a better grasp of economics. Even among Republicans Mr Obama has the edge: 46% versus 23% say Mr Obama has the better grasp of the subject. “I take McCain’s word on this one,” comments James Harrigan at the University of Virginia, a reference to Mr McCain’s infamous confession that he does not know as much about economics as he should. In fairness, Mr McCain’s lower grade may in part reflect greater candour about his weaknesses. Mr Obama’s more tightly managed image leaves fewer opportunities for such unvarnished introspection.
A candidate’s economic expertise may matter rather less if he surrounds himself with clever advisers. Unfortunately for Mr McCain, 81% of all respondents reckon Mr Obama is more likely to do that; among unaffiliated respondents, 71% say so. That is despite praise across party lines for the excellent Doug Holtz-Eakin, Mr McCain’s most prominent economic adviser and a former head of the Congressional Budget Office. “Although I have tended to vote Republican,” one reply says, “the Democrats have a deep pool of talented, moderate economists.”
There is an apparent contradiction between most economists’ support for free trade, low taxes and less intervention in the market and the low marks many give to Mr McCain, who is generally more supportive of those things than Mr Obama. It probably reflects a perception that the Republican Party under George Bush has subverted many of those ideals for ideology and political gain. Indeed, the majority of respondents rate Mr Bush’s economic record as very bad, and Republican respondents are only slightly less critical.
“John McCain has professed disdain for ‘so-called economists’, and for some the feeling has become mutual,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. “Obama’s team is mainstream and non-ideological but extremely talented.”
On our one-to-five scale, economists on average give Mr Obama’s economic programme a 3.3 and Mr McCain’s a 2.2. Mr Obama, says Jonathan Parker, a non-aligned professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, “is a pragmatist not an ideologue. I expect Clintonian economic policies.” If, that is, crushing federal debt does not derail his taxing and spending plans.
On his plans to fix the financial crisis, Mr Obama averages 3.1, a point higher than Mr McCain. Still, some said they didn’t quite know what they were rating—reasonably enough, since neither candidate has produced clear plans of his own.
Where the candidates’ positions are more clearly articulated, Mr Obama scores better on nearly every issue: promoting fiscal discipline, energy policy, reducing the number of people without health insurance, controlling health-care costs, reforming financial regulation and boosting long-run economic growth. Twice as many economists think Mr McCain’s plan would be bad or very bad for long-run growth as Mr Obama’s. Given how much focus Mr McCain has put on his plan’s benefits for growth, this last is quite a repudiation.
Mr McCain gets his highest mark, an average of 3.5 and a clear advantage over Mr Obama, for his position on free trade and globalisation. If Mr Obama “would wake up on free trade”, one respondent says, “I could get behind the plans much more.” Perhaps surprisingly, the economists rated trade low in priority compared with the other issues listed. Only 53% say it is important or very important. Neither candidate scored at all well on dealing with the burgeoning cost of entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security.
The economists also prefer Mr Obama’s tax plans. Republicans and respondents who do not identify with either political party see Mr McCain’s tax policies as more efficient but less equitable. But the former prefer Mr McCain’s plans—43% of Republicans say they are good or very good—and the latter Mr Obama’s. Of non-affiliated respondents, 31% say Mr Obama’s are good or very good.
Either way, according to the economists, it would be difficult to do much worse than George Bush. The respondents give Mr Bush a dismal average of 1.7 on our five-point scale for his economic management. Eighty-two per cent thought Mr Bush’s record was bad or very bad; only 1% thought it was very good.
The Democrats were overwhelmingly negative, but nearly every respondent viewed Mr Bush’s record unfavourably. Half of Republican respondents thought Mr Bush deserves only a 2. “The minimum rating of one severely overestimates the quality of Bush’s economic policies,” says one non-aligned economist.
