A turning point in the U.S.? (Globe and Mail)

[struggle4progress]

JEFFREY SIMPSON
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
March 29, 2008 at 12:00 AM EDT

... For some years now, basic problems have gone unaddressed and have worsened in the United States: fiscal and trade imbalances, unfunded liabilities for health care and Social Security, and the design and execution of a foreign policy that has sent U.S. prestige to postwar lows ...

A staggering 80 per cent say they want "change." This share of voters far eclipses the share who wanted change after eight years each of presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton ...

... Pew Center surveys of world opinion now show support for free trade lowest in the United States of all the countries surveyed ...

Being in debt at home, and in debt abroad, contributes to this sense of not being in control. So, too, does being so heavily dependent on foreign oil, especially when suppliers include such countries as Venezuela, that is anti-American, and Saudi Arabia that Americans do not trust. Looking around the world provides cold comfort for Americans about which countries control large stocks of oil: Arab states, Iran, Russia, Nigeria. At home, all presidential candidates pledge to make their country far less dependent on foreign oil, but no credible plan to do so in the lifetime of any adult American can be crafted ...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080328.wcoessay0329/BNStory/specialComment/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080328.wcoessay0329

Article is weak in places but contains interesting passages

[SteinbachMB]

1. Simpson

is not one of our (Canada's) best writers, IMO. This is basically a paint by numbers article, something he's quite good at.

[struggle4progress]

2. He did pull up some interesting numbers

[SteinbachMB]

4. Yes,

selective numbers. It's very easy to portray an ugly picture of present day America: economy in the tank, an unending war in Iraq, China debt....The article doesn't really tell me anything new. He seems to like Obama, but doesn't mention his earlier comments about renegotiating NAFTA, something that, at least this Canadian didn't particularily appreciate.

[Demeter]

3. No, Mostly Just Going Around in Ever-Shrinking Circles

If we got to a turning point, there would be a lot of BFEE in jail.