Home > Jay Bookman > Archives > 2008 > November > 21
Friday, November 21, 2008
Hillary taking State Department
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The high-profile seats in the Obama Cabinet are filling up: Clinton at State, Geithner at Treasury, Richardson at Commerce, joining Holder at Justice and probably Daschle at Health and Human Services.
They’re all strong picks — Wall Street in particular seems pleased by Geithner, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. These are smart, competent people.
Personally, I’m a little surprised that Clinton chose to take the job and leave her Senate seat, but reports are she wasn’t all that happy as one of 100 anyway. Some politicians are born legislators, others are meant to run things. I think she’s the latter, and apparently she thinks so too.
Permalink | Comments (91) | Post your comment |
More ominous news for the GOP
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An irrelevant Republican Party does no one any good. It isn’t good for the Republicans, obviously, and over the long term it also isn’t good for the Democrats, who need an effective opposition to keep them in line.
Most of all, it isn’t good for America.
But take a look at the latest Gallup Poll findings:
PRINCETON, NJ — The Republican Party’s image has gone from bad to worse over the past month, as only 34 percent of Americans in a Nov. 13-16 Gallup Poll say they have a favorable view of the party, down from 40 percent in mid-October. The 61 percent now holding an unfavorable view of the GOP is the highest Gallup has recorded for that party since the measure was established in 1992.
Democrats, on the other hand, are viewed favorably by 55 percent of Americans. That’s a spread of more than 20 points between the parties, and it’s a margin that is proving durable. The last time the two parties had fairly equal favorability ratings was almost three years ago.
Among independents, 32 percent rate the GOP favorably, while 47 percent feel favorably toward the Democrats. And while 59 percent of Republicans say the solution to their party’s problem is to become more conservative, that sentiment is shared by only 35 percent of independents. Getting more conservative may make a lot of Republicans feel better about themselves, but it’s not going to bring in new supporters.
For a lot of people in Georgia, where the GOP is still dominant, those Gallup numbers may be hard to believe. It doesn’t jibe with what they see everyday. But when you account for the party’s continued strong standing in the South, its numbers in the rest of the country must really be low to produce national numbers this bad.
Permalink | Comments (53) | Post your comment |
Delayed inauguration date has to be fixed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is a dangerous interregnum for the American people, with a lameduck president whose mistakes have stripped him of credibility, influence and apparently confidence, and a new president still two months from taking power. That’s a problem we’ll eventually need to address with a constitutional amendment that moves up the date of inauguration for future presidents.
The current date was set by the 20th amendment, which accelerated the transfer of power from the original March 4 to the current Jan. 20. Not surprisingly, that change occurred in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, when Americans decided they couldn’t afford to wait four months between presidents. The amendment was passed by Congress in 1932 and in less than a year it had been ratified by enough states to take effect, which suggests the seriousness with which it was taken.
Now, with another major financial crisis underway, the lack of leadership from Washington could be a real problem. In one sense there’s not a lot a president could do — there’s no magic bill he could sign or rule he could change to make things better. But the markets are always driven by psychology, and never more so than in a moment like this. The difference between a sense of drift in Washington and a sense of strong leadership at the helm could be significant.
As the New York Times reports:
“We can’t get from here to Feb. 1 if the current ‘who’s in charge?’ situation continues,” said Robert Barbera, the chief economist of ITG, an investment firm, arguing that Congress should adopt a stimulus package, including temporary tax cuts, as rapidly as possible. Instead, he said, Washington seems paralyzed…
The Standard & Poor’s index of 500 stocks fell by more than 6 percent on two consecutive days, Wednesday and Thursday, something that had not happened since July 20 and 21, 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, when panic was brought on by collapsing commodity prices.”
The current collapse may halt, at least temporarily, when the New York markets open this morning, given what happened overnight. According to the AP, “European and Asian stock markets rebounded Friday as expectations of a recovery on Wall Street prompted investors to scoop up battered financial and energy shares.” But it’s hard to argue with any certainty that this is the worst of it.
Back before the election, legal scholar Sanford Levinson foresaw just this calamity, even proposing a possible if unlikely solution:
“As it happens, one doesn’t need to amend the Constitution to ‘solve’ this problem at least for this year: Dick Cheney could resign on November 5, to be replaced by the winner of the election. This could take place simply by following the procedures of the 25th Amendment, which allows a president to nominate a new vice president should the office become vacant, subject to congressional confirmation. Upon such confirmation, President Bush could then resign, to be succeeded by the newly installed Vice President….”
As Levinson acknowledges, that’s not going to happen. For the moment, we’re stuck with both our current president and our current system. One problem is two months from a solution; fixing the second will take a little more time.
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
