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Index of the Weekly Forecast & Review
Ultrapolis
Weekly Forecast & Review
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
© Copyright 2010, The Ultrapolis Project – May be used freely with proper
attribution. All other rights reserved.
Sarah
Palin at Fox News
The Best News Liberals Could Hope for
Fox may be unwittingly undoing what the liberals have been unwittingly doing, which is making Sarah Palin a rallying point for rank and file conservatives. Sarah Palin has benefited from the very personal and vicious attacks directed at her by a left-leaning media, especially at MSNBC, and entertainers like Bill Maher and Rachel Maddow, who can’t help coat their legitimate complaints with heavy doses of personal venom while repeatedly bringing her to public attention. Had it not been for them, Sarah Palin’s real short-comings would have been judged more dispassionately by the right-of-center electorate, who have circled the wagons around her. Now, Fox’s disingenuous assignment of Palin to their team of news pundits will do what liberals could not: regularly expose Palin to an environment in which she has to constantly think and analyze and comment on her feet – not her best suit. An admittedly uninformed person until well into adulthood, and apparently even well into 2008, as self-exposed in the disastrous Katie Couric interview during the campaign (has it already been more than a year!!?), she will not be able to shine. The liberals turned Palin into an idolized martyr for the right. Fox will turn her back into a daily mediocrity. The best thing liberals could do is stay off her back.
China Eclipses the United States in yet another Category
6, 5, 4, 3 …
As of 2009, China is now the world’s largest automobile market in terms of total number of cars, the first country to surpass the U.S. in this category. China is projected to eclipse the United States as a whole (in total economic might) somewhere between 2020 and 2025. The repercussions will be felt at every cultural and political level, with a non-Western power ascendant over the world for the first time in recorded history. In 1980, China was the world’s 6th largest economy after France. In 2007, it surpassed Germany’s, becoming 3rd. It is expected to surpass Japan’s by 2012, to be 2nd after only the U.S. Anyone under age 20 should learn how to speak Chinese. In a related story, Google is saying no to China’s further use of its services for rooting out dissenters. Google will lose.
Harry Reid and Trent Lott Both Misspoke
But Only One Expressed a Desire.
Both old guys who misspoke and both with party faithful defending them either cynically or with partisan blinders. But the truth is there is a difference between the two comments. Trent Lott’s comment suggested – however inadvertently – that the world might have been better with a racist in the Whites House in 1948. This was an expression of what he would have preferred. Reid, on the other hand, merely vocalized an opinion of what is – however unpleasant – that is held by most people, across all races. Reid’s statement, as crudely and stupidly put as it was, was not an expression of what he would have preferred. By this measure, Lott’s comment was more disturbing.
Obama on Expected Course
One Year Down, One to Go
We predicted in the days leading up to the 2008 election, that we expected Obama to struggle for the first two years of his term, for his administration to flail until the mid-term elections. That was, and is, our expectation of the learning curve for some one of so little experience coming into the highest office in the world. Obama’s approval ratings have fallen precipitously, there’s talk of a Republican resurgence in 2010, and a year later, no major piece of legislation has passed, no major achievement for Obama to tout. The Iranian Mullahs have rebuffed him, nothing has changed in North Korea, Afghanistan has begun to sink, and even the Europeans who love him have given him little in concessions. Not even the Olympic Committee was swayed by his rhetoric. But, not all is lost. Ronald Reagan at this stage was also in the lows of his two-term presidency, as was Clinton. Now, he will not be a Bush I or a Clinton, who were merely effective administrators. Instead, barring some cataclysmic event that propels him into greatness, it will be 2011 before we know if we have a Carter (inept, ineffective, and unable to merge his vision to the complex realities of our world), or a man like Reagan who is able to reform the political landscape to his ends.
Main
Index of the Weekly Forecast & Review
© Copyright 2010, The Ultrapolis
Project
May be used freely with
proper attribution. All other rights
reserved.