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Europe tour shows Obama feeling more comfortable at the top

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BDBoop

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Obama in Europe: Europe tour shows President Barack Obama feeling more comfortable at the top - latimes.com

Very informative.

With the U.S. budget deficit growing and unemployment hovering at 9%, Obama will probably return to focusing on domestic issues such as jobs. The president will travel this week to a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, where he is expected to tout the company's repayment — six years early — of $7.6 billion in loans from the U.S. and Canadian governments made two years ago. The loans drew heavy criticism at the time from Republicans.
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BDBoop said:
Obama in Europe: Europe tour shows President Barack Obama feeling more comfortable at the top - latimes.com

Very informative.
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With the U.S. budget deficit growing and unemployment hovering at 9%, Obama will probably return to focusing on domestic issues such as jobs.
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This should have been his main focus from the begining. Not touring Europe and other countries.

The president will travel this week to a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, where he is expected to tout the company's repayment — six years early — of $7.6 billion in loans from the U.S. and Canadian governments made two years ago. The loans drew heavy criticism at the time from Republicans.
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Why the hell is he touting this? Them paying it back early has nothing to do with him and everything to do with them.

But the Russian and American teams now have more than 20 working groups that could eventually bear fruit, if only because the two countries continue to talk. This week, for example, Medvedev decided to help the international community in its talks with Libya, where Russia still has contacts. And Medvedev said for the first time that Libyan dictator Moammar Kadafi must leave power, an added weight on the embattled regime.
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If Obama had a hand in this then I'll give him props for it. Otherwise the props would have just go to Medvedev.
 
PresBO plays ping-pong with David Cameron. Sure glad we got that straightened out :roll:

Then he signs the wrong date in the prestigious Westminster Abbey guestbook. Must have been too comfortable :lol:

And then he botches the toast to the Queen. :eek:

All this just days after screwing up the Mid-East Peace Initiatives because he apparently had a major diplomatic brain-fart.

No more comfort. Please.
 
Kal'Stang said:
Why the hell is he touting this? Them paying it back early has nothing to do with him and everything to do with them.
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Because they did it. They weren't expected to, everybody said it was a huge mistake, and they'd never repay it. My guess is the author of the article used the wrong word or phrase. But I guess any opportunity to take a shot at the president shouldn't go unmissed, amirite?
 
Here's what I see in this thread. He can do NOTHING right. Because even if :gasp and heaven forfend: he does, it will be outweighed and buried by what he's done wrong. Yes?:shock:
 
BDBoop said:
Here's what I see in this thread. He can do NOTHING right. Because even if :gasp and heaven forfend: he does, it will be outweighed and buried by what he's done wrong. Yes?:shock:
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Well, in your OP, you chose this quote from the article.
The president will travel this week to a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, where he is expected to tout the company's repayment — six years early — of $7.6 billion in loans from the U.S. and Canadian governments made two years ago. The loans drew heavy criticism at the time from Republicans.
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I am assuming that you believe what the author has said regarding Chrysler, and the loan. Frankly, its not much different than the smoke and mirrors that was GM's "payback:

American taxpayers have already spent more than $13 billion bailing out Chrysler. The Obama administration already forgave more than $4 billion of that debt when the company filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Taxpayers are never getting that money back. But how is Chrysler now paying off the rest of the $7.6 billion they owe the Treasury Department?

The Obama administration’s bailout agreement with Fiat gave the Italian car company a “Incremental Call Option” that allows it to buy up to 16% of Chrysler stock at a reduced price. But in order to exercise the option, Fiat had to first pay back at least $3.5 billion of its loan to the Treasury Department. But Fiat was having trouble getting private banks to lend it the money. Enter Obama Energy Secretary Steven Chu who has signaled that he will approve a fuel-efficient vehicle loan to Chrysler for … wait for it … $3.5 billion. TTAC comments:

Now, technically the DOE loan program is supposed to be used for specific, qualifying retooling projects, so Fiat can’t literally take the DOE money and use it to pay back the government loans. But freeing up $3.5b in capital that would otherwise be spent on retooling with low-cost loans will make it infinitely easier for Chrysler to secure the $3.5b in debt refinancing it needs. And, in light of the GAO’s pointed criticisms of the DOE loan program’s fairness and transparency, it’s hard to overlook the coincidental nature of Chrysler’s need for $3.5b and the government’s allocation of extra funds to apparently guarantee a low cost loan to Chrysler for precisely the same amount. After all, we’ve seen this movie before..

So, to recap, the Obama Energy Department is loaning a foreign car company $3.5 billion so that it can pay the Treasury Department $7.6 billion even though American taxpayers spent $13 billion to save an American car company that is currently only worth $5 billion.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: The truth behind Chrysler
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"Hopey changey" just doesn't work any more for some of us. :roll:
 
BDBoop said:
Here's what I see in this thread. He can do NOTHING right. Because even if :gasp and heaven forfend: he does, it will be outweighed and buried by what he's done wrong. Yes?:shock:
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NO BDBoop, it's not that. Obama has done a few things right.

But the Auto Bailouts were NOT good things.

The industry insider said that the more Obama talks up the bailouts, the more politics enters the showrooms and the more the still-unpopular bailout will hurt the auto business, further hampering the efforts of GM and Chrysler to turn their companies around.
As far as the automakers are concerned the government’s exit from their business “can’t happen quick enough,” the expert said, highlighting the fact that the sooner the Treasury Department sells its remaining shares in both companies the faster they can get back to being fully private companies.
“The Treasury’s exit can’t happen quick enough. The company simply wants to get back to being a car company. The quicker that that happens the quicker the company’s products and prospects will be judged on [their] merits.”
The expert also told CNSNews.com that it was “inconsistent” for Obama to claim the bailouts were responsible for the companies’ return to profitability, while at the same time insisting that the government was not running their business.
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Obama
 
Councilman said:
I see Obama as a worthless joke who has the intelligence of a dead house fly.
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I disagree. Obama is a very intelligent man. Underestimating his intelligence means not recognizing the damage that he has the capability do to this country, given his ideology. However, in regard to the auto bailout, he actually made the taxpayers a profit, which is not a bad thing.
 
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danarhea said:
I disagree. Obama is a very intelligent man. Underestimating his intelligence means not recognizing the damage that he has the capability do to this country, given his ideology. However, in regard to the auto bailout, he actually made the taxpayers a profit, which is not a bad thing.
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As noted by the Prof, how do you define "profit" ? I believe we are effectively $20-30 billion in the hole, and perhaps much more if all the baloney is peeled away. For instance, the stock shares that the Government still owns need to sell as about $54 just to break even on that equity swap. GM is around $31 right now, down from its Nov 10 IPO of $33. The rest of the market is up since Nov 10, btw.
 
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BDBoop said:
Because they did it. They weren't expected to, everybody said it was a huge mistake, and they'd never repay it. My guess is the author of the article used the wrong word or phrase. But I guess any opportunity to take a shot at the president shouldn't go unmissed, amirite?
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It was a huge mistake and bailing out businesses, big or small, is not something in which governments should involve themselves. It means no one can fail, except the governments themselves. Perhaps they'll bail out Starbucks or Sears. Who really knows?

Also the shareholders were shafted in the Chrysler deal favor of the unions, a highly immoral, if not illegal, act.
 
danarhea said:
I disagree. Obama is a very intelligent man. Underestimating his intelligence means not recognizing the damage that he has the capability do to this country, given his ideology. However, in regard to the auto bailout, he actually made the taxpayers a profit, which is not a bad thing.
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Exactly what world do you exist in? The bailouts were a net loss for Taxpayers, we'll never be repaid.
 
MrVicchio said:
NO BDBoop, it's not that. Obama has done a few things right.

But the Auto Bailouts were NOT good things.


Obama
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I cannot pass up this opportunity. What has he done right.
 
BDBoop said:
I cannot pass up this opportunity. What has he done right.
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Allowed Osama to be killed when the Bush era intelligence lead us to his front door.
 
danarhea said:
I disagree. Obama is a very intelligent man. Underestimating his intelligence means not recognizing the damage that he has the capability do to this country, given his ideology. However, in regard to the auto bailout, he actually made the taxpayers a profit, which is not a bad thing.
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Wait...what? Where the hell is my profit if he did this?
 
BDBoop said:
I cannot pass up this opportunity. What has he done right.
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The Osama mission comes to mind, as well as not closing Gitmo, NOT forcing the trail of KSM in NYC, NOT pulling out of Afghanistan, NOT ending the Patriot Act...
 
BDBoop said:
I cannot pass up this opportunity. What has he done right.
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If you don't like traffic, we got $4 gas, going to $5. Should help out.

Added a new lexicon to our seasons. a "Recovery Summer". Can mean whatever you want it to mean.

Taught a few of us the new math about how more folks can be out of work, with a declining LFPR, and yet Unemployment goes down.

Showed me what "Hope for Change" really means. Got me praying at that altar now. :roll:

Made my wife look thrifty. :)

Prolly a couple other things will come to me later.
 
BDBoop said:
I cannot pass up this opportunity. What has he done right.
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Depends on if you believe he knows that he is destroying America or not.....If you believe that this kind of trash is exactly what he wants in order to "Fundamentally Transform" this country, in that Cloward/Piven mold, then he is right on schedule.

It is either that, or he is just an inept fool.

j-mac
 
Jetboogieman said:
And thats an opinion of your opinion :prof
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An opinion shared by many today, and as the economy continues to flounder, and things get worse, time is running out for this fraud we have occupying the WH will be just another mistake in American history. A failed one termer to rival Carter in the worst ever catagory.


j-mac
 
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