“Any man who is under 30 and is not a liberal has no heart; and any man who is over 30 and not a conservative has no brains.” — Winston Churchill
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From the Obama ‘08 website:
Las Vegas, NV- Citing Barack Obama’s long record of fighting for social and economic justice for working men and women, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has endorsed Senator Obama for president. The Culinary Workers Union represents 60,000 members who work at casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, downtown Las Vegas and in Reno.
“Barack Obama began his career as a community organizer and has been a tireless fighter for living wages, affordable health care and workers’ rights,” said D. Taylor, Secretary-Treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226.
Thomas Sowell: Obama’s Worn-Out Economic Ideas:
Senator Barack Obama recently said, “let’s allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country’s middle class again.”
Ironically, he said it at a time when Detroit automakers have been laying off unionized workers by the tens of thousands, while Toyota has been hiring tens of thousands of non-union American automobile workers.
Labor unions, like the government, can change prices — in this case, the price of labor — but without changing the underlying reality that prices convey.
Neither unions nor minimum wage laws change the productivity of workers. All they can do is forbid the employer from paying less than what the government or the unions want the employer to pay.
When that is more than the labor in question produces, some workers who are perfectly capable become “unemployable” only because of wages set above the level of their productivity…
Senator Obama is being hailed as the newest and freshest face on the American political scene. But he is advocating some of the oldest fallacies, just as if it was the 1960s again, or as if he has learned nothing and forgotten nothing since then.
He thinks higher teacher pay is the answer to the abysmal failures of our education system, which is already far more expensive than the education provided in countries whose students have for decades consistently outperformed ours on international tests.
Senator Obama is for making college “affordable,” as if he has never considered that government subsidies push up tuition, just as government subsidies push up agricultural prices, the price of medical care and other prices.
He is also for “alternative fuels,” without the slightest thought about the prices of those fuels or the implications of those prices. All this is the old liberal agenda from years past, old wine in new bottles, a new face with old ideas that have been tried and failed repeatedly over the past generation.
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Michael O’Hanlon from the Wall Street Journal: Obama And Iraq.
Mr. Obama’s problem is not his initial opposition to the war. At this point, that stance strikes many voters as prescient. Even for those of us who believe the main problem in Iraq was shoddy planning by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others, Mr. Obama’s position is hard to dismiss.
But there are nonetheless two problems with Mr. Obama’s Iraq views that call into doubt his ability to build a truly inclusive American political movement. First, he seems contemptuous of the motivations of those who supported the war. While showing proper respect for the heroic efforts of our troops, he displays little regard for the views of those many Americans who saw the case for war in the first place — even as he has called for a more civil and respectful political debate.
This is unfortunate. Saddam Hussein was one of the worst and most dangerous dictators of the late 20th century. The basic proposition of unseating him was hardly an unconscionable idea, even if President Bush’s approach to doing so was unilateralist, arrogant and careless. With our last image of Saddam a resigned figure heading for the gallows, it is easy to forget who this monster was…
Mr. Obama’s second Iraq problem is his insistence that, whatever happens there during 2008, he would withdraw all our main combat forces in the first 16 months of his presidency. Such a message may resonate with Americans, and particularly Democrats, right now. However, it is unlikely that centrist voters will support such a policy once they fully consider its likely implications for Iraqi — and American — national security…
Mr. Obama’s other comment Saturday, that Sunni tribes only organized against al Qaeda after Democrats won the 2006 Congressional elections, was also incorrect. The Sunni awakening began earlier, for reasons having little to do with American politics. And it is more likely to be jeopardized than buttressed by promises of hasty American withdrawal: In that event, Sunnis and Shiites will worry more about war against each other, and be less inclined to work with each other or to target extremists within their own midst.
(h/t: Red State Rascals)