Bumfromkorea comments:
Obama just bitch-slapped South Korea for the imbalance of automobile trade during the presidential debate… I guess that means wjk’s voting for McCain…
Well, wjk was probably voting for McCain regardless. At any rate, Yonhap also notes Obama’s citing of Korea, which has, it would seem, become one of the Democratic presidential candidate’s favorite whipping boys.
In the debate at Hofstra University, the alma mater of former Jet wide receiver Wayne Chrebet, Obama said Korea exports tens of thousands of cars to the United Staets, while the United States sells no more than 4,000—5,000 cars in Korea. This, he said, wasn’t free trade.
He said he understood US interests in free trade agreements, but the country needed a president who could stand up to unfair agreements for US businesses and workers.
Mind you, I actually agree that trade with Korea is unfair, and if Obama’s got the balls to tell the Koreans where they can stick their trade barriers, more power to him, but if his definition of free trade is equal trade — per item, no less — things could get very, very ugly.
Between this and North Korea’s tirade, if Lee Myung-back is hitting the bottle right now, he damned well should be.
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What he should have mentioned is that the iPhone — the iPhone! — is currently excluded from the Korean market due to non-tariff trade barriers (at which Korea excels). The losers of such Korean policy are the people of Korea, each of whom would love to buy an iPhone when it’s available. (They’re selling like crack in Japan.) Only the one example of cars was a little weak; he should have offered two.
I’m still not voting Obama, though.
I think Lee must have crapped his pants when he heard that.
I think Obama was using the product-to-product example to keep it simple.
Incidentally I thought McCain was very good in this debate and presented his policies more clearly than ever.
I’m still not voting McCain, though.
Despite Obama’s apparent climb in the polls on the basis of his perceived superiority in economic matters, the reason to vote for him is not economic, it’s leadership. I’ve only seen the second debate, but it’s apparent – EASILY apparent, that Obama has a far better understanding of economic matters than McCain does. And all other matters, too.
America is the biggest, that means it’s important and will always be important in our lifetimes. But it no longer has leadership, it’s lost virtually all respect and credibility. The free world desperately wants America back as a leader, and they are perfectly clear that they would look at your electing Obama as president to be a sign that you are ready again to rebuild your respect and credibility and lead the world once more.
If I were American, I would use my vote to bring in Obama as President, and pair him up with a Republican congress. You can take care of part 2 of that later. For now, join the tide, stop bitching about their respective economic plans, because neither of them have a hope of implementing them anyway – it’s just campaign jabber – and find a way to be happy about electing an intelligent and worthy candidate to be your president. We’ve all got tough times ahead. We need the smart guy in the white house.
Or do what China has just done!
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....60017.html
There’s an American auto manufacturer that sells hundreds of thousands of cars in Korea: GM.
So, if we elect Obama, we get to continue doing the free world’s dirty work. Only the Europeans bitch about it less… as long as no major US national interests are at sake.
Great.
Smart guys got us into Vietnam and Iraq. We need the “I don’t want to save the world” guy, the “Let the Arabs, Russians, et. al. hate the Europeans for a change” guy. And you won’t find such a person on either ticket… not even Gov. Palin.
Smart guys got us into Vietnam and Iraq.
Which smart guy got us into Iraq?
I don’t think Obama equates free trade with equal trade. Rather, I think he was trying to avoid complex numbers, lest he be accused of arugula-fed intellectualism. This bothers me, and I hope it bothers you, too.
I had an illuminating conversation with the girlfriend in which I tried to reconcile my support for Obama with my personal, professional, financial and emotional investments in Korea. What I eventually decided was that Koreans would be hatin’ on Americans regardless of our president or our policies, so I’m kinda ignoring both candidates’ stances towards Korea.
#5,
On top of that, Renault owns Samsung Auto and a Chinese company owns Ssangyong Auto and the Hyundais Accent is known as the Dodge Attitude in Mexico.
Obama may have been using cars as an example, but it isn’t a very good one.
Well, to quote Christopher Buckley:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/b.....for-obama/
And he didn’t even mention Paul Wolfowitz.
Don’t worry, Marm. America can’t afford any adventures for a while, so there simply won’t be any, I think. Your leadership in the near and mid-term will be based on moral authority, not guns and money, cuz you’re broke, and your guns don’t command respect anymore (although they will again one day). That’s why you need someone with the brains to practice some diplomatic leadership, cuz you can’t pay for go-it-alone.
As for doing the world’s dirty work, that just seems to be in America’s blood. Long-term, when you’re back on your financial feet, you’ll be at it again – you can’t help yourselves. It would indeed be something to see Ron Paul take over, but obviously there aren’t enough Americans who agree with him. (He’s the really smart guy, and I’m glad he’s getting his message out, even if the masses aren’t ready to hear it).
(He’s the really smart guy, and I’m glad he’s getting his message out, even if the masses aren’t ready to hear it).
Ron Paul shouldn’t be leader of anything but Mayberry.
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....ent-195524
Wolfowitz
” Bush 43: Yale. Rumsfeld: Princeton. Paul Bremer: Yale and Harvard. What do they all have in common?
Rich daddies with a lot of influence.
“We need the “I don’t want to save the world” guy, the “Let the Arabs, Russians, et. al. hate the Europeans for a change” guy.”
A “Let’s build a mile high wall around the country and go live in 19th century Mormon paradise?” sort of guy?
Maybe, because we got a bad transfusion from the early 20th century Eurotrash who insisted we pull their bacon out of the fire into which they had leapt. But our genes are still isolationist. See GW’s Farewell Address and the knock-on 125 years of US history.
Obama’s car pitch was probably aimed at voters in the key swing states of Michigan and Ohio.
What can anyone in the public or private sector do to save Detroit? Asking.
Make foreign cars illegal, and require Americans to buy a new car every five years.
You can put your hands up is what you can do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYPqA4slnbQ
(sorry…off topic but could not resist)
Even Americans don’t buy American cars. And he wants foreigners to buy American cars… Ridiculous.
Americans buy American cars in huge numbers. unfortunately they are mainly big gas guzzlers.
I think there are plenty of models, tho, that could sell well here if not for the barriers and xenophobia. Cracking our “ally” on the head for auto barriers is totally legit. And for a list of other trade wrongs as long as your arm.
And here I thought this FTA was to eliminate that “barrier of xenophobia”. The FTA makes Korea eliminate all tariffs on American cars. But I guess that’s still a barrier of xenophobia because Korean government doesn’t want what the American car manufacturers are demanding – managed trade that would entail Korea importing a set number of cars from America (whether they sell them or not).
iPhones, Carr has a point there. Autos? The American car manufacturers are using an excuse not to compete with the Japanese and Europeans whose sales have climbed tremendously over the last few years.
One of the most lamest and dishonest pandering I’ve ever heard from American officials – Korean government uses tax audits to audit foreign car owners. This is Korea 2008, not 1997. Either they’re too lazy to check their facts or it’s a useful propaganda tool.
So instead of some complicated, costly, set of emissions standards Koreans decide to tax cars based on engine displacement, which correlates strongly with fuel consumption and emissions. Then America decides to cry because it’s discrimination against their over-sized, gas-guzzling automobiles. What a load of crap.
If large Korean cars with large engine displacements are taxed just like large American cars with large engine displacements, how is that a discrimination? If American manufacturers want to avoid the engine displacement tax, sell cars with smaller engine displacements. Oh but wait, there aren’t too many American cars that fits that bill. So that’s going to happen.
What Obama said about the exchange of cars is misleading. Remeber, GM owns 50% of GM Daewoo, which is the 3rd leading seller of cars in Korea.
BUT… GM Daewoo’s cars aren’t built in Detroit, so…
BUT… GM Daewoo’s cars aren’t built in Detroit, so…
And Hyundai’s cars are built in Alabama.
u-81,
The point is that Hyundai and GM Daewoo’s cars are not built by Detroit auto UNION MEMBERS… a big constituency of the Democratic Party.
It doesn’t matter how many Hyundai cars are build in a RED STATE or how much of the profits of Daewoo’s cars go to GM’s bottom line. Koreans don’t employ Detroit automotive union members, thus the trade is unfair!
Oh, and keeping iphones out of Korea is unfair on the Korean side…
So, Korea has been treating its “ally,” America, like crap for the last six or seven years.
I guess it is a surprise that Korea is getting negative attention now.
Hyundai does have a plant in Alabama, but most of the cars sold here are imported from Korea.
wow, there is BROAD interpretation and plenty of EXCUSES for Obama’s statement on Korean cars.
fact is, he’s a dumb ass.
US is selling a lot of things to Korea, like beef, under a possible free trade. Beef, pharmaceuticals, licensed entertainment, etc.
fact is, he’s a dumb ass.
So what if Korea sells Hyundai’s? Like as if that’s the main engine taking away all the GM, Ford, Chrysler customers. It’s Toyota and Honda.
fact is, he’s a dumb ass.
Everyone, especially Korean gyopos,
Please stop making excuses for Obama.
Don’t make up things that he never said.
Don’t project that, “Yeah, he actually means this and that…he actually favors free trade, blah, blah, blah, he’s a smart guy, etc.”
fact is, he’s a dumb ass.
Primarily because he’s a S O C I A L I S T !
how much dumber can the US gyopo society be?
He just said on the most watched national tv debate of the year, the equivalent of a “fuck you Korea.”
amazing.
go ahead. Sing your praises of Lee Myungbak, Korean economy, etc.
Obama’s not your man.
McCain is actually better for America AND Korea.
This, I knew from the beginning.
It’s disingenuous of Obama to talk about how free trade needs to include environmental protections, and then support an FTA which specifically removes Korea’s very own such protections.
Disingenuous statements from a politician during an election campaign?!!??!
What is the world coming to….
it’s interesting you keep jokeying from
“smart guy”
to
“politician”
he defeated Clinton with one theme.
“I voted against the Iraq War.”
He’ll pretty much take any position and say anything to win.
If you pay any attention at all, he’s vowing to do a lot of stuff Bush is already doing now, despite criticizing him and all.
insincere, repackaged “change”…O B A M A.
you do know that no country in the EU currently has a working model of Obama’s tax cut plan, right?
I dare you, actually.
search. France? England? Sweden? Ireland? Germany?
5% of tax payers have NOT managed to pay for 95% of tax payer’s social benefits in ANY country.
that’s Harvard Law school, for you.
and cutting taxes? That’s a Republican thing.
why is Obama acting like a Republican?
anything to win, baby. Anything.
Even if it’s mathematically IMPOSSIBLE.
wjk it’s pretty easy. You read the entire thread, decide which comments you want to reply to, and post a coherent reply to each post placing a few sentences in each PARAGRAPH. You do not randomly spam the thread with 6 posts in a row, all formatted so as to take up as much space as possible, not to mention never citing who you are replying to so no one can understand what you’re on about.
Obama’s plan on healthcare is even more laughable.
He says, he’ll cut govt spending on healthcare, because what is being spent now “isn’t making heatlhcare in America any better for the average senior citizen.”
good luck on that.
some who can afford to do so, don’t even see Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP patients.
You’re gonna pay them LESS?
Most of that money is paying for
1/ Residency programs to TRAIN doctors.
2/ Public hospitals.
3/ Nursing homes.
pay them LESS, and provide Universal healthcare?
you might see “brain flight.”
try medical tort reform. Revision of EMTALA, etc.
by the way, he admits lawyers pour a ton of money into the Democratic Party. I’ll cred him on that.
I’ve never understood what WJK said half the time.
So I just ignore him and usually skip by his ramblings, to read the next post.
maybe because it’s you’re dumb?
cognitive dissonance supporting Lee Myungbak, while opposing conservative economics in North America.
you’re supporting Kim Dae Jung policies in North America.
don’t hurt yourself if you actually understand.
wjk,
When did you come to the states? I’m guessing your late teen years.
I’m guessing the day before yesterday.
It would indeed be something to see Ron Paul take over, but obviously there aren’t enough Americans who agree with him. (He’s the really smart guy, and I’m glad he’s getting his message out, even if the masses aren’t ready to hear it).
Ron Paul is a very smart guy in the same sense that Ted Kacinski (minus the mail bombings) is a very smart guy. Paul’s ideas about putting the dollar currency back on the gold standard puts him in an odd-ball fringe category.
I am not a trained economist but I do know that Paul is against fiat currency due to possible abuses of monetary policy that can lead to hyperinflation and other fiscal dangers. The idea seems to be that the gold standard would place a built-in restraint. But re-introducing it would also deprive the government of some major macro-economic tools it uses to stabilize the economy. The US Constitution is vague about government power in printing money. Furthermore, there is simply not enough gold in the world to sustain the entire US economy alone at its current size.
Ultimately, a truly developed economy should have a robust system of self-restraint based upon well-tuned regulations and other means of check-and-balances, not on a regressive method like the gold standard.
Rather than Ron Paul, who is a medical doctor by training, the most respectable independent candidate is Ralph Nader, who has decades of experience battling corrupt government and corporate powers.
Under an Obama Administration, we may finally realize the end of over half a century of the American Empire’s military occupation of South Korea.
During the second debate, Obama used the rationale of the Iraqi government having a surplus of $80 billion to justify a time-lined withdrawal from Iraq (as opposed to McCain’s indefinite presence there). This would also free up some troops to be deployed to Afghanistan, where they are badly needed.
If Obama intends to play some hardball with LMB, it should be about the 33,000 troops sitting idle in Korea who could be better serving the Empire’s goals by redeployment to the Afghani front and seeing some real action instead of harassing hookers and taxi drivers in Itaewon.
As the world’s 13th or 10th (I forget what it is these days) largest economy, let South Korea defend itself! No self-respecting sovereign nation relies on a foreign power for its national defense.
No self-respecting sovereign nation relies on a foreign power for its national defense.
Canada, U.K, Japan, Germany, France, Korea, Taiwan, all of the E.U.
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