In Search of Optimism

A somber gathering of America's elites in Aspen.

By Howard Fineman | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jul 3, 2008 | Updated: 11:56  a.m. ET Jul 3, 2008

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  • Posted By: wiesci1 @ 07/15/2008 3:52:01 PM

    Bravo HollyROLLER, yOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. wE HAVE 4 MONTHS TO ELECTION, MAYBE SOME GOOD CANDIDADTE IS SOMEWERE IN USA. COME ON , INTRUDUCE YOUR SELF !!!

  • Posted By: martin_gray @ 07/09/2008 9:51:25 AM

    Holy Roller, too bad you don't think more Holy thoughts instead of cynicism and sarcasm. Your humor, if it can be called that, is neither amusing or appreciated. Just your usual political attack on all who do not agree with you.

    • Posted By: HolyRoller @ 07/09/2008 4:32:51 PM

      Now Martin...it is the Hussein camp, that decided to call any and all, critics of their messiah, RACIST. He has alienated a huge part of the DNC, with personal attacks. Now, his camp wants it to end. I consider it my calling, to do whatever I can to show this crook and fraud for what his true being is.

      Open your eyes. What do you find so attractive, about Hussein? He has never accomplished anything, in his very short legislative career. He is a fraud.

      NOBAMA!!!

  • Posted By: HolyRoller @ 07/07/2008 10:24:59 PM

    Appears Hussein is a man of character, after all. I just picked up this thank you letter due to be released across the country, to all his supporters. I apologize for all my negative comments. He may well be the Messiah...........

    My fellow Americans:

    As your future President I want to thank my supporters, for your mindless support of me, despite my complete lack of any legislative achievement, my pastor's relations with Louis Farrakhan and Libyan dictator Moamar Quadafi, or my blatantly leftist voting record while I present myself as some sort of bi-partisan agent of change.

    I also like how my supporters claim my youthful drug use and criminal behavior somehow qualifies me for the Presidency after 8 years of claiming Bush's youthful drinking disqualifies him. Your hypocrisy is a beacon of hope shining over a sea of political posing.

    I would also like to thank the Kennedy's for coming out in support of me. There's a lot of glamour behind the Kennedy name, even though JFK started the Vietnam War, his brother Robert illegally wiretapped Martin Luther King, Jr. and Teddy killed a female employee with whom he was having an extra marital affair and who was pregnant with his child. And I'm not going anywhere near the cousins, both literally and figuratively.
    And I'd like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her support. Her love of meaningless empty platitudes will be the force that propels me to the White House.

    Americans should vote for me, not because of my lack of experience or achievement, but because I make people feel good.
    Voting for me causes some white folk to feel relieved of their imagined, racist guilt. I say things that sound meaningful, but don't really mean anything because Americans are tired of things having meaning. If things have meaning, then that means you have to think about them.
    Americans are tired of thinking. It's time to shut down the brain and open up the heart. So when you go to vote, remember don't think, just do. And do it for me.

    Thank You.
    Barack Hussein Obama,


    NOBAMA!!!

  • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/07/2008 8:35:02 PM

    And that, in itself, is somewhat optimistic.

  • Posted By: News and Notes @ 07/03/2008 12:35:07 PM

    So how are we going to solve it with the presidential candidates we have? Hillary was the only person who could have fixed this mess, but the Democratic elites made sure she got pushed out of the way. Obama is a smooth talking underexperienced radical liberal, and McCain is a tired old relic who used to be a maverick but is now pretending to be a radical conservative. We spend tens of billions of dollars on pure crap. We've ignored the oil crisis for 35 years. We're entrenched in a senseless war with no turning back. Social security is a ponzi scheme paid for by the poor and middle class. We talk about abortion and flag pins while we watch our economy, reputation, and dignity fall to by the wayside. Neither one of these two creeps will resolve much of anything. It's one step above hopeless.

    • Posted By: mcgreen @ 07/03/2008 9:37:07 PM

      it's tiresome to hear Obama labelled as a liberal - he actually has some conservative values if you bother to look more closely. He is a progressive, but you might notice he talks to righ to lifers, he talks to hard core republicans, he talks to free trade fanatics.

      What we need is for ALL the smart people to get together and bounce ideas off one another, work out the best solution.

      I am fed up with politicians blaming current issue on the other party and refusing to work together to solve the issue.

      americans only have themselves to blame over the energy issue. Jimmy Carter told us 30 years ago, but we didn't wanna...

      we don't need a doddery old man who isn't familiar with new technology, isn't willing to examine past mistakes and is ready willing and able to dump more US treasury in another war...in Iran.

      we need all our attention here. for too long those of us living below the upper middle class and the elites has seen declining life styles and lack of concern for our needs by our elected officials.

      • Posted By: News and Notes @ 07/07/2008 10:52:57 AM

        All they are doing in Aspen is drinking fine wine and telling each other how wonderful each other is. What a waste

    • Posted By: the_shelton @ 07/03/2008 4:01:40 PM

      Well you can go on and on howling about how Hillary would have done this and this, she lost. So what do we do now. Yes it is stupid to look at lapel pins and preachers and all the other junk people look at to keep from confronting the problems. One of the first things that has to be done, is the ethics have to be gotten in on Congress and Washington all together. We have been controlled by the lobbyists and corporations who have only a five year plan in mind, their goal to retirement. They could care less for any real solutions, do you think for one minute the oil companies are paying anything more than lip service to the idea of alternate fuels? Those aren't the solution anyway. The scam of taking something that we didn't produce enough of (mainly grains) and using them now to make fuel (which we waste by the millions of gallons) is not the answer. We have the solution that would put the existing cars we have (internal combustion engines) into using hydrogen (which works great in an internal combustion engine) by retrofiting the car to handle the new fuel (note that that is NEW fuel). We wouldn't be taking it from somewhere else (not too many people use hydrogen, the most plentiful substance in the universe) and putting a scarcity of it there. We just have to put us some fueling stations and some retrofitting places. Seems like for about two or three months of the costs of this stupid war, we could do that.

      Anyway, the problems are here and now. We can't lament over who could do what and when and how it could have been better. There's nothing we can change back there, but there is plenty to look forward to change, this is a democracy, make your voice heard. I'm sure there are all kinds of people out there who would listen to a solution that actually has a chance.

  • Posted By: lillea @ 07/04/2008 9:56:17 AM

    SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, Obama WAS wrong on all issues all along. Otherwise he wouldn't be crossing over and "changing his position" on EVERYTHING. Dems have been dooped!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

    • Posted By: News and Notes @ 07/07/2008 10:48:32 AM

      The party elites pushed Obama through to the nomination without stopping to think

    • Posted By: onepoker @ 07/05/2008 5:49:41 PM

      obama is actually a republican it looks like he really is listening to Bill Clintons advice run as a dem and govern as a republican.

    • Posted By: NickKnight1944 @ 07/04/2008 2:12:05 PM

      DOWN WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!

    • Posted By: Factarereal @ 07/04/2008 10:24:04 AM

      It is the Republican party that is rather taking advantage of the intelligence levels of Americans..........LOL

  • Posted By: lillea @ 07/05/2008 5:51:43 PM

    One thing we can count on is that Obama has told the terrorists that he plans to surrender in Iraq 16 months after he hopes to take office. So now all the terrorists will sit tight and hope and pray that Obama becomes president. They are probably contributing to his candidacy just to insure his victory.

    • Posted By: News and Notes @ 07/07/2008 10:46:59 AM

      Many of us are sick and tired of having a responsible withdrawral from a pre-empitve attack being referred to as surrendering and cut and run. It's been six years. The terrorists are much more powerful under Bush than they will be after he is gone.

    • Posted By: elizabethpaige @ 07/06/2008 9:09:51 PM

      lillea, you're such an idiot - 'surrender' in 16 months or 16 years, it matters not because this 'war' against terrorists cannot be won in Iraq. America is there for oil at what cost? John McCain's demons from Vietnam cannot be allowed to dictate America's future foreign policy.

  • Posted By: bswhite56 @ 07/06/2008 3:07:11 PM

    In 1987, he reminded the crowd, the stock market had dropped 25 percent in one day. The current depressing run was months in the making. Nor is the situation like 1982, when we faced a recession driven by sky-high interest rates. By historical standards, unemployment is relatively low at 5.5 percent (the figure held steady this week.)
    I think that it is interesting that Bush continues to get blamed when the rest of the world is experiencing problems, too, plus if you look at the above years, they were during Clinton's administration. However we FORGET!!!!!

    • Posted By: News and Notes @ 07/07/2008 10:45:14 AM

      Bush is to be blamed. His arrogance, incompetence, partisanship, laziness, aggression, and igorance have been perilous to our country

  • Posted By: johnrupert @ 07/06/2008 3:51:27 PM

    Congress at this very moment is considering a bill to bail our Housing Speculators, as well as the Banks and Mortgage companies who financed their undertaking. Ironically the Chairman of the committee Senator Dodd received VIP treatment from the very company he would like to bail out. Something doesn't seem right???

    • Posted By: willnotvoteobama @ 07/07/2008 9:43:56 AM

      looks like 48 democats got great deals on loans including obama guess we tax payers need to help those poor folks out !!

      • Posted By: News and Notes @ 07/07/2008 10:44:07 AM

        Obama got his sweetheart deal from Rezko, convicted felon

  • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/07/2008 10:12:50 AM

    A gathering of brilliant people assembled to chip out the Constitution, long time passing. Their purpose was public and clear and they had the authority to do what they did for the welfare of the general public. The gathering in Aspen might have included as many brilliant people, but I can't find their purpose in the article beyond trying to find out what is going on, and then leaving to somehow make a profit from the information. A private purpose.
    We could really benefit from these brilliant people if they intended to benefit the general public with their meeting, but it appears that they did not intend to benefit the general public. No complaint.
    But, this private conduct by our brilliant people is why we look to government to benefit the general public. Oftentimes, brilliant and private interests prey on the general public, as in the present mortgage crisis.
    When brilliant people who disdain public service for private profit service complain about voters voting for government to protect them from private predatory business practices, they need to look inside to see that ordinary citizens, not brilliant, but plodding daily to provide for their families, are helpless against brilliant schemes to separate them from their hard earned wages.
    One of these long standing schemes is the Insurance Industry, especially that part that takes a profit from the premiums for hospitalization coverage. Our country is one of the few highly civilized societies that still permits this scurrilous practice.
    The race for president speaks to this issue and it is clear that one party intends to keep the present practice alive at the expense of the helpless, and the other party intends to stop it and join the civilized world.

  • Posted By: valark @ 07/07/2008 6:27:03 AM

    These have to be some of the most thoughtless responses ever.

    Who on earth ( or should I say what op-ed column are you regurgitating the idea of ) that the president: controls the price of oil, wants us to be enslaved to oil, or favors big oil profiteering?

    Can you at least not contradict your unfounded comments in the same post?

    And this has to be the most ridiculous of them all: "Politicians no longer thrive for the good of the nation, but rather, for the good of the far too many interest groups (votes). "

    These "special interest groups (votes)" as you call them, have always been played to...including Lincoln and any other lofty idealized president you have in mind.

    The reason why this country falters is the fault of its people, who elect its government. Its all very nice to blame a politician for what is wrong...but tell the truth, what have you do to change it?

  • Posted By: acereplyr @ 07/06/2008 10:19:21 PM

    In partial agreement with nickchorey:
    Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. That we are. Kevin Phillips, author and political strategist to U.S. President Richard Nixon, argues that the United States is a plutocracy in which there is a "fusion of money and government." Some in government are part of this elite class, and the rest are funded and elected by this class. Oil directs the world's economy. No politician will ever pull the plug on it.
    Fascism is a political system which commonly promotes statist nationalism, and government-directed economic practises such as corporativism and national syndicalism. This we are not. The great USA has lost its identity for the sake of political correctness. Politicians no longer thrive for the good of the nation, but rather, for the good of the far too many interest groups (votes). Government sets standards/regulations for the corporate world, and then watches as corporate money runs and rules the nation and the world. Syndicalism in our nation is on a steep decline. Many labor leaders have sold out to both politicians and corporations.
    Wars have been fought over oil, and wars will continue to be waged over oil. Is McCain or Obama willing to sacrifice his political life, or that of his party, by waging war against oil? I doubt it!!!

  • Posted By: dahayford @ 07/06/2008 8:57:47 PM

    It seems clear that the reason we don't get off oil is that the high price of oil is supported, ehanced even, by the goverment's actions, or lack thereof, in favor of big oil and MIC profiteering. I get that. But why don't elite people outside of those interests start demanding that we follow Brazil's effective plan and get off the stuff? It's so obvious what can and should be done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAUmFjHxI1c

  • Posted By: nickchorey @ 07/06/2008 7:33:31 PM

    I've read through all of the comments submitted in your discussion column by the other members. They're
    delusional. They believe they are living in a working democracy. I would like to remind them of Eisenhower's warning about cetain Texas millionaires and the oil industry. I suggest that we are living in a plutocracy embedded with a tinge of fascism. Voting is illusory, it doesn't make a difference who gets into the congress and the presidency becaise of the hidden plutocratic bossmen.

  • Posted By: lillea @ 07/06/2008 3:51:39 PM

    Obama truely does appear to be another Jimmy Carter. If you lived through the Carter administration....it was horrible. America was the laughing stock of the world. Carter had legislated a wage freezes on all Americans and at that time and there were lines at the gas pumps because of gas rationing. HORRIBLE!!!! Let's just hope Obama doesn't get into the White House!!!!!!!!!!11

  • Posted By: johnrupert @ 07/06/2008 3:44:20 PM

    This entire economy has been talked down in an effort to elect the elitist Obama. Obama will ruin any remants of our economy, and may I ask you Mr. Fineman exactly how would you solve the economic problems of this country and the rest of the world?

  • Posted By: t_mccluskey@charter.net @ 07/03/2008 1:55:44 PM

    just who are these people talking about when they say the american people / voters are too smart .... i live in bush country tx now as a result of regan nomics of the 80's which devestated many nothern state economies ,he sold us the people ,the voters a line of *** and we bought it for two terms and escalating nation debt with rah rah go usa and with slogans like rising tides lift all ships, and ooh it.s all carters fault ,than we bought his protagee's continued bs of new new taxes ,what he meant to say was no new corporate taxes,actually not only no new taxes but also that, the burden of those needed taxes would be pushed onto the people/taxpayer/ voter .and still it was the democrates fault ,those damm liberals and learn to buckle up and get used to to less because its just the of the world with armagedon and all coming up , than we did 'nt buy nor see or acknowledge was the progress and equality for all of america's people including debt reduction,the promotion of education,attempt at universal healtcare, peace, job and wage growth etc, and instead of continuing forward with these mostly progressive and well intended police's with al gore ,we the people ,the voter allowed the self rightious radical right to anoint their messiah George *** -W Bush . who ,after all that went to hell during his first term. we the smart wise and knowledgeable Vote re-elected this Moron. If all the desruction he caused could be summed up in blow - job i would give it to him myself !

    • Posted By: News and Notes @ 07/03/2008 3:15:13 PM

      You are completely right. Bush's subtle mantra in the 2004 campaign was "I hate gays more than I hate war". All of his cronies and the Republican party followed in lockstep. People ignored the fact he was a right wing radical, incompetent, arrogant, ignorant, out of touch, bigoted, elitist, spolied oil tycoon and heir. In 2004 I thought it couldn't get worse. IT DID !! I didn't think Bush could get re-elected. HE DID. Did democrats learn? NO. Democrats are about to nominate the weaker of the two finalists. Now, in 2008, I know... It CAN get worse

      • Posted By: thehappyamerican @ 07/03/2008 8:33:02 PM

        The DNC has wages 5 discrimination campaigns against Americans, and they are not subtle.
        These are against Christians, Achievers, Law Enforcement, Military Experts and Gun Owners. (AKA Fellow Americans).
        Maybe you'll feel better if the Discrimination Campaigns were more ascertive than they have been? You're sure a very un-happy American.
        I wish to respectfully point out that the Congress under DNC leadership has lower approval than President Bush...consistently. The 70's style Discrimination Campaign formulas are now militating against the DNC because Americans are put off by discrimination campaigns, and their crafted buzz-word terms.
        There are those who insist Obama maintain and use them in their original form, like Clinton did and still does.
        And most of what Bush has done over the years,particularly with the war, was approved by the Congress. The DNC controled Congress.
        Bigoted elitists and their creepy little discrimination campaigns laced together by the ACLU and National Lawyers Guild and groups of very hatefull little people,and silly people behind closed doors.

        • Posted By: bswhite56 @ 07/06/2008 3:28:45 PM

          You're right, the happyameican. The Congress' approval rate is at 19% (a lot LOWER than Bush's).

        • Posted By: News and Notes @ 07/05/2008 5:48:20 PM

          I am a proud patriotic american, not the least bit unhappy. Bush had a republican controlled congress for 6 years, and Democratic for a year and a half. Between Bush's vetos and republican's filibusters, congress can't accomplish much.. BOTH democrats put up partisan, elitist candidates, including Obama. Have we learned nothing after 7 1/2 yearsof Bush's living hell?.

        • Posted By: News and Notes @ 07/05/2008 5:40:39 PM

          Over the years? Bush had a republican congress for 6 years, and a democratic congress for 1 1/2 years. Bush REFUSES to work with congress, and the republicans in the Senate filibuster any legitimate legislation. I am not promoting the democratic party, they are about to nominate a terrible candidate. However, Bush is by far the worst president in recent history. Unless you are a wealthy radical republican, he doesn't give a damn about you.

    • Posted By: finnland 2007 @ 07/03/2008 3:40:18 PM

      IF ANYONE I A MORAN, IT'S YOU. YOU ARE SO UNINFORMED!!

      • Posted By: jp_negri @ 07/03/2008 4:08:25 PM

        finnland: I believe the word for which you're unsuccessfully groping is "moron" .
        "MORAN" ,or MURRIN is the Anglicisation of two Irish names, O'Morain, and O'Mughrain who are an ancient Connacht family of Ui Fiachrach and were located in north of County Mayo and County Sligo. Another branch settled in south County Galway. In latter times, the name became changed to Moran, in Irish, O'Morain, possibly deriving from the word mor, meaning big. (courtesy www.brennan-laois.com).
        By the way:
        No! YOU'RE uninformed! So there!

  • Posted By: putoff @ 07/05/2008 10:18:20 PM

    It seems to me that many of the people there are part of the problem and not the solution. Bush's Commerce Secretary, for example, can certainly make no claim to have created any solutions. J.P. Morgan Chase, charging poor and middle class Americans outrageous fees and interest, has not helped this economy. And those in the media have done their part to fail America as well. You have gone along with the government's spinning of the truth, when you had to know better. Shame on all of you gathered there who did your part in knifing the American people and our economy. You all act like "hired guns" that shoot BS opinions and pretend you are delivering the news.

  • Posted By: lillea @ 07/05/2008 11:20:52 AM

    Obama has "refined" his stand on all the issues he stated during the primary. So the Dems have been totally dooped!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Posted By: larocco @ 07/05/2008 1:50:51 PM

      In answer to lillea: I am a Dem and I have not been duped by my candidate of choice - Sen. Barack Obama. I have been cheated and lied to and stolen from by your President and his gang of criminals - George W. Bush. You apparently still don't realize that we were brought to this ppoint by the current administration. And you never will be capable of realizing this - it would require logical and indepentant thinking - something that apparently you and the other 20% of the "core" Republicans cannot grasp. The majority of the Republican Party members are also dismayed at the situation that - thanks to #43 - we find ourselves in. If we do not impeach him now he should definetly face criminal charges (along with Cheyney Rumsfeldt and the rest of them - after he leaves and President Obama has to clean up his mess. And I am sure that you and your fellow lemmings will immediately start whining when we all have to step up to the plate to start paying the $30,000.00 that this war has cost each and every one of us. I hope that you remember THEN that "W" got us into this - and that Wolfowitz thought they would get rich and happy on the Iraqi reconstruction that Irq would have to pay out of it's oil revenues. Isn't going to happen - the real democracid=es of the truly "free" world will see to that. Lemmings, parrots and sheep - what a disqusting group of ignorants the 20%ers are.
      Katherine in Naples

      • Posted By: sharenews @ 07/05/2008 8:46:15 PM

        I agree that George W. Bush has been a nitemare as our President, but I am an ObamaNot.

      • Posted By: lillea @ 07/05/2008 5:54:25 PM

        Bless your poor dooped soul.

      • Posted By: onepoker @ 07/05/2008 5:34:07 PM

        The only person you were cheated by is the people who wrongfully educated you to the point where you would post such rediculous crap.

  • Posted By: natureboynik@yahoo.com @ 07/04/2008 10:09:38 AM

    the comment liberals are spending all our money on welfare is the crux argument of the right wing..Unfortunately they fail to mention that Carter's 200 mil deficit was enlarged to 1 trillion under Reagan. Yes the same Reagan that ran under" I'm gonna balance the budget". Bush Sr. took Reagan's 1 trillion and turned it into 3 trillion while managing to still raise taxes. Bill Clinton managed to lower the deficit by cutting Federal spending (gee I thought the republicans did that) Now look what Dubya has done..please don't go raising your flag saying how much right-wingers love America while you piece by piece destroy the country by giving our Budget away to corrupt Corporations and Oil Companies...Besides there is more money spent on Pentagon retirees than the entire Welfare department..Over 51% of our budget goes to Military spending..In the words of Jimi Hendrix "When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power then the World will know Peace"

    • Posted By: onepoker @ 07/05/2008 5:47:23 PM

      Reagan defeated the soviet Union without firing a shot. Then this new peaceful situation is what led to the great prosperity that followed up until just recently.

      Pentagon Retirees earned their money Welfare recipients didn't do a damn thing.

      Those corrupt corporations are actually American's doing what we do best creating wealth providing all the goods and services that make this country great.

      • Posted By: OBWan @ 07/05/2008 7:28:27 PM

        onepoker
        The Afghanistan war broke the Soviet Union - they did it to themselves, just as we are doing it to ourselves in Iraq. If the truth hurts, so be it.

    • Posted By: larocco @ 07/05/2008 2:18:41 PM

      I agree with most everything that "natureboynik" has to say - would like to add that even though 51 % of our budget may be Military spending these people will spnd our national wealth on military hardware but when it comes to Veterans Benifits they vote against these programs - from tuition for our Vets to all other Veterans programs. Yex, these "support our Troops" people want only to support them if the funds are funneled throu the likes of Haliburton and other defense contractors - not direct funding to support our troops and their families where they need it - in benifits and pay and better care facilities and good housing etc, etc. The members of this administration from the president on down are treasonous, corrupt and unpatriotic.. W even threatened to veto one bill that called for a pay increase of 3 1/5 % increase instead of 3%. Shame of them all.

    • Posted By: rayalitrade @ 07/04/2008 11:27:30 AM

      natureboy has done his homework. Although I thought we needed a tough son-of-*** like Reagan in the 80' (we were getting our butts kick around) it is true that he started this upward turn with the deficit and it continued with Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. Clinton did more to lower the deficit than any republican since yet we are led to believe that the Democrats are to blame. In the last three decades the disparity between the rich and the middle class (if there is such a thing anymore) has only gotten wider and its not because o the Democrats.

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