I’m not impressed by the sudden swarms of people claiming to have been die hard Democrats with dire predictions for an Obama presidency. How is this anything other than the same type of fearmongering we saw in the campaigns against Democrats the last two times?
1.0 How can he enact strict new gun laws? He will be the President, not the Supreme Dictator.
2.0 The phrase “In God We Trust” shouldn’t be on the damn currency anyway; remember the separation of church and State thingie?
3.0 He will NOT abandon Israel although they would probably be grateful for having their chains removed.
4.0 Hilary Clinton to the Supreme Court is as ridiculous as what’s her name that Bush put forth; she didn’t stand a chance in hell of being confirmed and neither would Senator Clinton.
5.0 If our taxes are raised, maybe we might stand a chance of achieving fiscal responsibility.
6.0 Why is raising capital gains tax a bad idea. The Government of the USA sure needs the money.
7.0 You would prefer he appointed John McCain?
8.0 Our borders have always been basically open; no President has come even close to closing them. What’s new about them being open?
9.0 Isn’t this basically what GW Bush wanted to do?
10.0 This is exactly what the majority of the US AND Iraqi citizens want us to do, isn’t it? And why would it devastate our military?
Well, you see…the Apocalypse is coming, and Obama is just one more sign of it. Not to worry; Believers will be Raptured away. Except that being Raptured doesn’t mean you just up and vanish, that’s silly. It looks much more like being in a transporter in Star Trek.
And get rid of “in god we trust” on currency already. “E Pluribus Unum” too. “Liberty” is good, that’s a FINE national motto, even if we often suck at living up to it.
I actually heard that one from my mother, who got it from her music director at church (so she says). She’s quite serious about it, which frightens me. I’m just amazed by the things I hear from otherwise reasonable adults.
OTOH, I just got this from my Dad:
I think he forgot to add that the moon will turn red, the sky will be as black as sack cloth (whatever that is), dogs and cats will be sleeping together and Gozer the destroyer will appear in the form of a giant marshmallow man with Godzilla and Gamera to ravage the country.
Typo Knig, you got a cool Dad. 
How is raising the capital gains tax a good idea??? This economy needs more investment, not less.
Democrats hate jobs. 
The whole bit about Hillary nominated to the Supreme Court shows a sign of derangement. I guess they don’t know what a ‘Judge’ is.
That appears to be the case, doesn’t it?
Determining whether or not it’s a good idea probably depends on what those additional taxes would be used for.
As for hating jobs: (warning: PDF)
Because we all know the first thing the rich do with a windfall is look for American goods and services to spend it on, right?
The list is ridiculous.
However, I do think some of the responses above are disingenuous. On individual items, the responses vaciliate between “No, this won’t happen,” and “So what if it did?” without ever being clear.
I think the thing to do is ignore such garbage. But if you’re going to treat it seriously for some bizarre reason, then you should clearly identify that a particular proposition is one you agree will happen, and that this is fine because you’re in favor of it. Some people have done this; others haven’t.
No, higher taxes are never the right answer.
4 and 7 are the only ones I could realistically see happen. I could see some moves toward 5, 6, 9, and 10, although not nearly to the degree suggested in the OP. 1, 2, 3, and 8 are absurd. The part of 8 that suggests borders will be extra-open to folks from the Middle East is verging into anal-probing aliens territory of silliness.
Daniel
Question: name one thing that doctinaire, behind-the-times Republicans who still think that Reagan’s issues are enough to win on really hate.
No, not gay people. Guess again.
Daniel
There is no way to know what will happen, so "agreeing that “X will happen” would be stupid.
I will say that one or two items on the list are plausible (most are asinine), but the items that could actually plausibly happen are items which cam merit no other response, but a “so what?”
For instance, it’s not far fetched that Gen Wesley Clark could be appointed SoD, but so waht? It is not clear to me at all why the emailer thinks that’s something to be alarmed at.
Going down the list:
1). Strict new gun laws will be enacted even though he promised he would not.
Highly unlikely. The Republicans would filibuster anything truly Draconian, it would not be worth the expense of political capital and (IMO) SCOTUS is about to rule in favor of an individual rights interpretation of the 2nd Amendment in Heller later this summer.
2). The phrase “In God We Trust” will be removed from all currency.
Not going to happen. Barack Obama has never indicated any desire to do this, would have nothing to gain politically by it, and Congress would never pass it. It’s conceivable that the Supre Court could do it, but not likely, and that would not be Obama’s doing.
Having said all that, so what if it DID happen? Why are we supposed tob be horrified by that (and where did this writer get the idea that Barack Obama is some kind of raging secularist)?
3). He will back away from his pledge to Israel and leave them to the wolves of Islam.
Complete, absurdist bullshit, not wortthy of a response.
4). Hillary Clinton will be named to the Supreme Court.
Not absolutely impossible, if not particularly likely, but this is another “so what?” question.
5). Tax rates will return to their highest levels in 30 years.
6). The capital gains tax will be at least double current levels.
Tax cuts will be rolled back on the top 2%. Capital Gains taxes might go up, but they won’t double. Both these predictions are hysterical hyperbole.
7). Retired Army General Wesley Clark will be named Secretary of Defense.
The most plausible prediction on the list – also the least alarming.
8). The borders will be ‘basically open’ to all comers. Especially those from the Middle East and South America.
9). Amnesty will be granted to all illegals now in the U.S regardless of status or even gang members (MS-13).
Both these items are completely off the rails, ridiculous, xenophobic, racist paranoia.
10). The war in Iraq will be brought to an abrupt end and the results will be tragic and the consequences to our military will be devastating.
The US occupation of Iraq will be gradually drawn down. The current, low-grade civil war in Iraq may well escalate after we’re gone. That civil war will, surprisingly, have no consequences to our military because it won’t be in Iraq any more.
That last sentence in item 10 might be the stupidest on the list. How can the US military suffer “consequences” from a war it is not involved with? The consequences to the military are coming as a result of our presence there.
A moron wrote this list.
Like I’ve pointed out to you before, if you are in favor of having a military, you are in favor of imposing taxes. If you agree that more than 5 dollars should be spent on national defense, then you agree that sometimes higher taxes are warranted.
Conservatives are frauds when it comes to decrying taxes. They’re tremendously in favor of confiscating money from citizens. The only difference of opinion is on what to spend it on.
No, as the Economic Policy Institute correctly points out, at this point, “businesses need customers, not incentives to increase capacity.”
Why should they be? Those ain’t mutually exclusive criticisms.