Hillary is more dangerous than Bush because people think she's smart

[nuncvendetta]

I just have to vent a bit. This gas tax proposal of Hillary's offends my sense of purpose more than anything else could because it flies in the face of undisputed economic reality. Only a brain-dead lunatic would think that lowering taxes on a good that is refined by oligopolistic producers, the raw materials from which are garnered from a CARTEL, would actually save consumers money. Has she ever seen a supply and demand curve before? Oil companies do not exist at a competitive equilibrium, so their profit-maximization response would be a distributional transfer of burden from producer to consumer. The actuarial realization of the tax would not be passed along as savings. Further, any reduction in price at a pump would be met by increased demand, eating up any savings. Further, you have a cartel at the top that has the complete ability to price-regulate the raw material in response.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080430/pl_nm/usa_politics_gastax_economists_dc

I'd like to give Hillary the benefit of the doubt on this one, but there are only two possibilities: 1) that she knows it's a stupid proposal but is using it as a political ploy to trick people into voting for her, which is conniving and intellectually dishonest, especially considering that people look up to her as a policy wonk; or 2) she doesn't understand basic economics and is so arrogant that she's attacking someone (Obama) with sound economic judgment as to the inefficacy of this plan, which is dangerous considering the economic trouble our country is currently in.

Here's why Hillary therefore worries me more than Bush: At least with Bush, his influence on shaping the polity over the long term was self-limited by people thinking that he's stupid, so they tend to discount his analytical frame of reference. Hillary, on the other hand, is the intellectual "wolf in sheep's clothing." She's more dangerous in galvanizing a bunk interpretation of things because it's like having a professor who teaches you all the wrong things. We as a society would become even more blind.

Even if Hillary ends up implementing good policies once president (if my #1 explanation is what's going on here), then she leaves all of her policies open to being reversed after she leaves office, because we as a society will not have grown in our understanding of things for the sake of her obfuscations. This is the key difference between opportunism and leadership.

[Triana]

1. The word:conniving (key root of the word - CON) n/t

[leftofcool]

2. Too bad Bush isn't running so you could vote for him..........

since he doesn't worry you as much as a Dem

[nuncvendetta]

6. I'd honestly buy a one-way ticket to New Zealand over voting for that monkey

But nice way to try to label me as a Bush-lover to avoid the hard issues.

[Texas Hill Country]

3. ummm... she is a brilliant person actually.

[cliffordu]

5. That's right - And the Lion of Tuzla's HONEST, too!!

[cliffordu]

7. duplicate post

Tuzla

[havocmom]

14. If so, then she is the worst sort of candidate: one who puts personal ambition over the greater good

The nation is in record debt and our infrastructure is crumbling to the point that people are DYING for want of bridge repair. One does not cut taxes for roads under those condition unless one is:
A) a fucking idiot
B) a fucking egomaniac who puts self above all else and doesn't consider PEOPLE ARE DYING from bad choices politicians make.

If she is brilliant, she should think up a way to sell the American people on the idea of rebuilding the nation, not further eroding it for the short term and her own immediate future.

If being a wind sock is all she's got, she ain't that brilliant. Blinding ambition is not the same as intelligence and it is no substitute for moral fiber.

[Texas Hill Country]

31. she has fought for the greater good for 35 years... dont ignore her record.

[havocmom]

36. Yes, her record; Board of WalMart comes to mind as an illustration

Vote to let bush do what ever he wanted with the US military instead of preserving Congressional oversight through the Constitutional authority to go to war...

Sorry, not buying that she gives a tinker's dame for people who aren't rich.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. I don't believe that.

I don't think she'd have blown such a massive lead with so much stupid shit if she were.

[napoleon_in_rags]

4. Yeah! Elect Bush 2008! nt

[SeaLyons]

8. I will trust the economic disaster we're in to Hillary....

she is brilliant.

[nuncvendetta]

10. Can anyone who claims that she's briliant actually give some proof for once?

Because she sounds smart? Because she sounds like she knows what she's talking about? Let's have some substance here. If you're going to entrust our economic disaster to her, I'd like to hear from you what your personal analysis was, step by step, in figuring out that Hillary has sound economic judgment. Please cite treatises and policy papers. Both empirical and theoretical models are acceptable.

and yes, I did that due diligence on Obama. Because if you're just basing it on a "gut feeling" without any intellectual analysis on your part, it's no better than Bush choosing Harriet Myers because "she has a good heart" or thinking Putin is a good man because Bush could "see into his soul."

[mac2]

12. Here is the "substance" for you about Hillary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton_awards_and_honors Hillary Clinton's awards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton Hillary education. She's a lawyer and passed the bar.

You want treaties and policy papers? Who does that when running for public office. Not even Obama.

[nuncvendetta]

13. I'm sorry but that doesn't cut it

because there are many people out there who graduated from a good law school, passed the bar to become an attorney, and has received awards and distinctions who shouldn't be allowed to run the country. Mitt Romney, for example. Awards, distinctions, and resumes merely serve as imperfect proxies for intelligence, and they unfortunately can be both under- and over-inclusive.

The only way to hit at the issue directly is to analyze someone's policy positions, position by position, to see whether they make sense. To figure out whether they make sense, especially in an area not of one's expertise, look to scholarly articles perhaps not directly analyzing a particular policy position, but giving a framework of reference into which one can judge a position's efficacy.

So no, I don't mean for the candidates to write treatises and policy papers. But treatises and policy papers have been written about the mechanics behind how things work (e.g. taxation in oligopolistic market structures) that provide a jumping-off point with which a particular candidate's position can be scrutinized. I think short of doing this, one is relying too heavily on proxies and is setting one's self up to be burned.

[mac2]

19. Many men don't have as impressive a resume.

I don't care if you don't like her. Her resume is impressive. Her politics you have a right to disagree with certainly.

[dailykoff]

26. Especially working for Gerald Ford and the congressional RNC.

Impressive lady.

[dailykoff]

25. She flunked the DC bar exam.

She eventually passed it in Arkansas. Yeah, bril.

[mac2]

27. How many years out of university?

I doubt I could pass my college exams, etc. today.

[Skwmom]

28. She initially FAILED her bar exam.

[mac2]

30. So did a lot of people including John Kennedy

[dailykoff]

32. John Jr.

And you are a disgusting creep for speaking ill of the dead.

[mac2]

33. Yes....Jr.

It's a fact not an insult. It was well known.

[guyanakoolaid]

9. All tax breaks and other handouts to the oil companies needs to end now

The Democrats all need to make a concerted, unified effort. We saw the oil execs get "dressed down" in front of Congress, and now the American people are still wondering what the hell more you're going to do about it.

[mac2]

11. Hillary is smart and can speak a whole sentence.

She like Bush is a graduate of Yale. Yale is a globalist institution today. It used to be a Protestant divinity school. Their endowments are huge. What would they say if they knew their university had become a Fascist teaching one?

Tony Blair is to teach religion, trade, and government. What! A man who committed genocide along with Bush with their Shock & Awe to get one man teach young students at Yale (one of our Ivy League universities who educate/graduate future leaders)?

The Congress, the wealthy, and many government leaders (in and out of office) belong to those secret illegal organizations who decide our fate in secret and behind closed doors with other world elite leaders (mostly European royals). It violates the Logan Act.

Most of the group from Chicago area are Leo Strauss believers. The elite rule...even though they themselves prospered under our democratic contract.

They have taken an American University and wealth/power and used it for themselves and the future loss of our nationhood,freedoms, and democracy.

Who do I vote for when it is a lose, lose situation for our future?

[polmaven]

16. And Obama is safer because....

people think he isn't smart?????? :shrug: Ummmmm!

[mac2]

21. The media and books, magazines , posters all over said so.

They spent a lot of money to prove he is.

[Yossariant]

17. LOL! I have the same problem with Bush that I have with Obama. It's not how dumb he is.

It's how dumb he thinks "I" am.

[cali]

23. funny, hillypoo does that for me. and this bullshit gas tax holiday

is evidence of her treating the voters as stupid. screw her.

[futureliveshere]

18. She is smart which is why she knows that if you control the media.. you can say anything..

..and get away with it. There is no way this tsx will help anyone but the oil cos, and I am 100% sure she know that. But hey, "say whatever you want" politics works in America. Go ask the good people of PA and OH if you don't believe it.

[KingFlorez]

20. McCain is the only one more dangerous than Bush

[mac2]

22. Cheney?

[barack the house]

24. Yep, Hillary is fooling people the same way but using more sophisticated manipulation.

If we don't focus we are in for trouble, if Hillary did this to Obama she has worse in store for the rest of us. His plan is wiser tax cuts for middle class and working folk to have more in pocket all year round to afford the gas. She has no qualms of selling folks out for the big bucks all it does is give oil cops more profits as they raise the price due to demand.

[OmahaBlueDog]

29. Remember -- in 2000, people thought George W was smart.

People thought he'd be the CEO President, and touted his MBA.

[mac2]

34. No the RWers thought he was smart because he went to Yale.

He had an MBA. Media hype.

Someone must have taken his tests since he was learning challenged. Barbara admitted it.

[Eutanasio]

35. Clinton support universal health care, embryonic stem cell research

Is pro-choice, etc. etc. How can a person who has better view of the world than Bush be more dangerous than him? Your analysis is kooky.