I would consider myself an conservative independent as well (I don't really like Mitt either), but I just think it's funny how Democrats just eat up President Obama's false promises and plans.
Personally I'd be considered way left in America mostly due to my stance on personal issues (abortion, gay marriage, drug legislation, and prostitution) rather than anything else.
My economic stance isn't aligned with either side -- basically I think Keynes had it right, including the parts nobody pays attention to, people on the right accuse Keynesian economics of being 'spend spend spend' and people on the left like to ignore that Keynes advocating cutting spending when the economy is strong. In conclusion they're both buffoons, and if electoral cycles are lucky enough they balance out.
This being said, I've seen no real evidence to indicate they're not Obama's personal plans (beyond the usual "he's a politician" reasoning), Obama has been stuck with gridlock in the houses for basically his entire term (Obama had an effective majority in both houses for about 1/8th of his term). The only mistake Obama made was compromising on the Bush Tax cuts in 2010 instead of just letting them die for everyone, but the other option was to be stuck in gridlock for the rest of his term. Personally I think he should've held his ground given the state of the economy, but it wasn't going to achieve anything.
The unstable bonds is an effect of Spain's deficit, not the cause. Because of Spain's debt, their credit rating has been downgraded. This makes buying their bonds more risky, which means the yield on their bonds must be higher (I believe Spain's is above 6%, which is ridiculous). If the US ever gets to the point that our credit rating goes down because of our high debt, you will see the US bond market become very unstable. We have already seen a slight downgrade in our credit rating.
Spain's bonds are not problematic simply because of their debt, they're problematic because it's becoming a concern if they have any capacity to actually pay their debt (which in turn forces credit prices up and makes it even harder to repay their debt). Spain isn't showing any signs of real recovery while the US is gradually coming back, that's why Spain shouldn't be too much of a concern for you in my books.
I find the time of these revised numbers from this summer to be funny. Not wrong, just funny. I also find it funny that most of the jobs that the US gained were part-time jobs, while manufacturing jobs have decreased. Not really as good of a sign as you think.
Manufacturing jobs will never increase in a country with decent wages (manufacturing in the US has been on a steady downward slide since the late 70s), you get to pick 2 of the following: decent minimum wage, unskilled jobs, free trade with other countries.
Those are your options, if you want people being paid enough to live on and free trade with China or any other number of countries where $2 a day is enough to live then yes you'll lose manufacturing jobs. It's an unfortunate but inevitable result of a strong currency -- this being said I believe manufacturing in the US has improved since 2009.
That's why it's better to discuss the deficit as a % of the GDP. And when you look at it that way, it is still at it's
lowest point since World War 2. I'm pretty sure it's over 10% now.
There has also been the worst economic crash since prior to WW2 recently, it's not so simple a situation to judge in my view.