With History On His Side, Obama Opens Economy Debate
Barack Obama wasted little time in defining the general election campaign by focusing on the economy as the central theme. That's the horse they're surely betting on to carry him through to Pennsylvania Ave. And rightly so. The numbers are in his favor:
One indicator of the economy is the performance of the stock market. The stock market, by nearly every indicator, performed magnificently from January, 1993, when Clinton-Gore took office, through January 1, 2001 — 8 years later— the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose from 3310.00 to 10,788.00 during the Clinton-Gore years (up 7478 points). The NASDAQ market index — most of the high technology companies — rose from 696.34 to 2,470.52.
The DJIA today closed at 12,280.32 (up only 1492 points in 7 years) and the NASDAQ is 2,459.46 (actually lower than on New Years day 2001). The Bush Administration has had years to get things going but it just hasn’t happened. There are all sorts of arguments to explain, or explain away, these numbers— but John McCain is clear, he will maintain the status quo on the big economic issues like taxes, the war, globalization, medical insurance and so on if elected.
A better idea will be to turn the page and move forward with progressive strategies for solving the real problems facing the country—the war(s), the economy, education, globalization, oil dependence, food production and the environment— by ensuring that John McCain becomes a footnote while George W. Bush goes down in history as being the last gasp of the old regime.
From Barack Obama's Speech on the Economy 6/9/2008 from Raleigh, N.C.:
"We did not arrive at the doorstep of our current economic crisis by some accident of history. This was not an inevitable part of the business cycle that was beyond our power to avoid. It was the logical conclusion of a tired and misguided philosophy that has dominated Washington for far too long." Read Entire Speech>>