REPLIES TO THE CURRENT QUESTION

Our question last week was:

We've seen President Obama's first hundred days.  Now, what do you think will happen in his second hundred days?

Here are your answers.  The name of a writer is included only if he or she actually placed a name at the end of the message.  Otherwise, we assume the writer wished anonymity and "name withheld" is inserted.

Well, let's see.  He can't spend another three trillion, or can he?  

Maybe he'll appoint himself special prosecutor to take on all of the evil Torquemadas of the prior administration just so he'll have something to do now that he has solved all of the thorny problems of governance that he inherited, etc.

Let's hope that he settles down a bit and tries to figure out exactly what his job is and should be for the next four years.  Sort of a mid-course correction a little earlier than some.  Not likely, but we can hope!

Actually, my real expectation is more of the same.  Unfortunate, but true.

Don Newell
Vancouver, WA

Same stuff, different day. This is going to be a _long_ four years.


- Pete Madsen

It is impossible to predict with precision what will happen in so short a time as 100 days, but over the next eight years these are the trends:

BHO has repeatedly expressed, in exuberant terms, his desire to "remake" America.  Along with the far left in Congress, he is, unfortunately, succeeding.

Where once America was the mighty protector of liberty, under BHO she will be the coddler of tyrants, her military preparedness and technological advantages squandered by cuts.  

The Monroe Doctrine, the longest of our foreign policy positions, will be gone as Obama cozies up to Castro, Chavez, and Morales, while Russia, China, and Iran establish a military presence in our hemisphere.  Nuclear missiles in the Western Hemisphere and the degradation of our own nuclear forces due to the lack of funds to maintain and upgrade them will neuter our ability to respond to threats from those who wish us harm.  

Nuclear exchange in Asia is probably inevitable between either India/Pakistan or Iran/Israel.  The US will be impotent.  Russia and China will form a new Axis of Evil, with their clients Iran and North Korea doing the overt dirty work.  Pakistan will fall to the Taliban and Japan will move further and further away from the US and forge a partnership with China.  Ironically, the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere will have China dominate Japan.  

With the annihilation of Israel by Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt will fall under the influence of the Axis. Saudi oil prices hit will $200/barrel, further crippling an American economy that refuses to drill its own oil, and the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood will ascend to power, creating a larger army of jihadists.

Domestically, we will slip closer and closer to European socialism.  The US health care system, until now second to none, will become as sclerotic as Canada's and Europe's.  The pharmacological, surgical, and medical technology sectors will migrate to friendlier environments.  Ironically, this will be China and India.  

The financial sector, already fading due to Sarbanes-Oxley overregulation and the precipitous decline of the dollar due to unprecedented debt and inflation fears, will decline even further as Asian markets pick up the slack without the undue regulation and their more stable currencies.  Look for a new currency to become the world-wide store of value as the dollar declines.  Can you say "Yuan"?

Unemployment will hit 15% and the Democrats, with the backing of the MSM, will successfully continue to blame it on Bush.  Further government intrusion into our lives will be the acceptable solution, which, of course, will fail, engendering more government intrusion.

Pessimistic stuff!   But ideas, (or the lack of them), have consequences. Fecklessness about how the world works, and the narcissistic faith in one's own persuasive abilities, coupled with total ignorance regarding how wealth is created, do not bode well for our country.  

Benjamin Franklin was asked at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, what kind of government was created.  He responded, "A republic, if you can keep it."  Sadly, collective ignorance is proving his implied warning to be true.

Alan Weick

So far Obama did not make or have to make strong decisions. The G20 meeting
was a failure, but declared a success. The pork stimulus bill was signed.
The financial companies just have to say "systemic risk" and get the cash.

So the testing will continue. Nobody, probably not him, knows the limits of
what he will accept, and there is only one way to know. This applies both to
foreign policy and to interior policy.

Mathieu Dutour Sikiric, Zagreb