Democrats: Better Than The Alternative (For Now)

This is from a registered Democrat: President Obama had better get his act together. I see some troubling signs that he is tone-deaf on some very key issues that are critical to our recovery as a nation and a society. If he truly wants to restore America's greatness, he needs to solve these problems to prove that he is up to the task:

One, California. I've been going back and forth on this for a while, but at this point the crisis has become critical. The state needs a bailout. If government loans are the answer, so be it. Attach strings that will force our state to get its financial house in order. We simply cannot handle junk status on our bond ratings, falling tax revenues, and huge cuts in our world-class university system and expect the biggest economy in the United States to recover.

Two, foreclosures. It was a boneheaded move to tie the hands of bankruptcy judges. They should be allowed to adjust mortgages to keep people in their homes. I've even heard that banks are now bulldozing homes because it's cheaper than keeping them on the market. This is insane.

Three, China. Allowing the country into the WTO without forcing it to change its mercantilist policies was a suicidal maneuver. General Motors is forced to build cars in China in order to sell there, meaning that Michigan will continue its slide into irrelevancy. The fact that Obama's "brain trust" led by Larry Summers thinks this is protectionism on our part just goes to show how out of touch that guy really is. And that leads me to...

Four, the American economy. Why are Joseph Stiglitz, Nouriel Roubini, and Paul Krugman being ignored? These are some of the brightest minds in America, and Tim Geithner and the aforementioned Larry Summers have the President's ear instead. Geithner didn't even pay his taxes until he was trying to become Treasury Secretary, and he's in charge of the IRS now. Does that strike anyone else as odd? These guys are the understudies of Robert Rubin, who did a fantastic job leading Citigroup to zombie status. Obama needs to learn from Schwarzenegger's mistakes and realize that in order to make every single other priority of his Administration a reality, the American economy needs to become dynamic again. That does not mean Goldman Sachs should make billions while small businesses scrape by and unemployment creeps above 10 percent.

I'm not the only person that sees what is going on, and that's why Obama's approval numbers are slipping. If he wants to turn things around, he needs to make a course correction now.