Obama speaks; investors respond with a big raspberry

Obama made a speech today--his first to the public since the downgrade. Here are the highlights:

• He quoted a major investor saying the U.S. should have a triple-A rating;
• Said "markets continue to affirm our creditworthiness";
• Called for tax hikes
• Will present a plan "real soon" (kidding: "in the next couple of weeks") to lower the deficit;
• Called for more government "stimulus" to create more jobs;
• Called for yet another extension of unemployment benefits;
• “No matter what some agency says, we will always be a AAA country”
• Says “markets agree” we should have AAA rating.

When he began speaking, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 400 points. After his masterful, reassuring speech (the cadences that some idiot talking head named Matthews claimed gave him "tingles up his leg"), the market paused to weigh his words.

After carefully considering Obie's points, the Dow responded by dropping another 233 points in 90 minutes.

Back when I was flying we had a saying: You can defy the laws of aerodynamics...just not for very long. Barky combined a mellow voice and a great smile with crappy socialist nostrums and zero experience in running anything successfully, and for awhile the nation followed a lovely arc through the fiscal heavens.

Turned out to be a ballistic arc.