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Thursday, September 25, 2008
Clinton politics, small bank bailouts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:
Bill Clinton demonstrates why he succeeded in politics. He understands voters. His explanation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s popularity — her family, including the children, a husband who stayed in the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race, going 500 miles with a broken arm. “Why say, ever, anything bad about a person? Why don’t we … just say that she was a good choice for him and we disagree with them?”
Small banks want bad construction loans dumped on taxpayers, too. That is the problem. Once the bailout window is opened, everybody wants to unload their mistakes on taxpayers.
Apology Window Reopens, extended Christmas hours. Why? To accommodate parents who blamed Johnny’s failure to score well on the eighth-grade state math exam on a faulty test. An independent audit finds that the test was not defective. The problem is what passes, or doesn’t, between Johnny and the math instructor. Write legibly 500 times: “Miss Kathy, we is sorry for blaming you.”
Studies and various other reports purporting to show something revealing related to commutes, poverty, insurance, and other trendy topics almost always require explanation that’s often missing about when and how the measurement standard was changed. Case in point: Commuting. More people now appear to walk to work. But wait. The database before 2006 did not include dorms and military barracks.
Why not to fly with famous people — or even the niche famous. You become the fine print. Two pilots and two passengers died in a South Carolina plane crash. Headline: “Performers hurt in fatal jet crash.” The celebrities were the former drummer for Blink-182 and a disc jockey.
Requiring specially-refined designer gas for the 45 counties in Metro Atlanta, even when pumps are running dry is not a government that serves us. It’s one that toys with us, intentionally inflicting pain on motorists. The federal Environmental Protection Agency yielded to pleas for relief from Gov. Sonny Perdue, but it should be automatic whenever a hurricane is headed toward refineries.
Think health insurance is unaffordable now? Wait until businesses are required to provide the same level of coverage for mental health as they do for physical. That was part of a massive tax bill the Senate passed 93-2 this week. Health insurance premiums for employer-sponsored plans rose 5 percent last year, according to a survey by Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research & Educational Trust. The overall inflation rate has increased 29 percent since 1999, wages 34 percent. Meanwhile, the cost to employers has gone from $4,247 to $9,325, a 119 percent increase, the employee portion has risen from $1,543 to $3,354, a 117 percent increase.
Advocates of commuter rail to Athens summoned mayors, commissioners and council members to a meeting to discuss “creative funding options and true partnerships” among beneficiaries and the several governments along the proposed route. Creative funding options, huh? That would have sounded more interesting before creative financing brought down much of the Wall Street financial sector. Creative funding now should specify that fares cover the debt — and lenders who think that will hold the note.
John McCain afraid to debate Barack Obama? You’re kidding, right? Remember Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church forum and Obama’s declaration that questions about when a living being acquires human rights are above his pay grade? Obama off TelePrompTer is an uh and ah, off-message journey into trouble.
I may be premature here — or as the elders said “talking out of school” — but I have it on good authority that the Georgia Republican Party endorses Saxby Chambliss. This revelation follows the announcement by the Clayton County Democratic Party that it is endorsing — brace yourself, Betty, it’s a shocker — the Democrats running for sheriff and for the school board. Joe Lieberman prompts the parties to declare. I guess. Connecticut Democrats, angry that he spoke at the GOP convention, are circulating a censure resolution unendorsing him.
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Obama a crisis ornament
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
John McCain demonstrated Wednesday that he has the instincts, skills and leadership ability required in time of crisis.
Barack Obama, faced with the opportunity to reveal himself as presidential-in-crisis, flunked. He’s a stand-around kind of guy. Oh, if they need him, he’ll be there where the administration and Congress are attempting to save the nation from possible financial meltdown. But the campaign is more important and, besides, a President has to demonstrate that he can do two things at once — presumably campaign and save the nation by phone. He is, after all, talking daily with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others.
He’s a crisis ornament, repeating now the pattern of his public life. He’s best at second-guessing. His gig is to let somebody else do the heavy lifting in taking risks and making decisions and then to declare when they are imperfect afterwards that had he made them, they would have been smarter, wiser and better. In this campaign, he’s revealing why his life’s accomplishments outside politics are so thin. He’s a talker.
The debate scheduled for Friday night is useful and somewhat important. But it’s utterly inconsequential when compared to the importance to the country of the financial rescue now being attempted by the Administration and Congress.
Both political parties bear responsibility for failure and for a solution. It truly is one of those occasions where bipartisanship is required, where politicians are obligated to put aside their petty games and pass legislation that addresses the specific problem without turning the rescue effort into a Christmas tree.
McCain’s insticts were right. Put the distractions aside. Sit down, finish the job responsibly and demonstrate to the nation that in time of crisis, politics recedes. As President Bush said Wednesday night, a failure to act could trigger “a long and painful recession” with consequences that represent “a distressing scenario.” He’s invited both McCain and Obama to meet with congressional and administration leaders today at the White House and both have accepted.
As for the debate, Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs said he expects it to be held even if Washington hasn’t done it’s work and addressed the crisis. “My sense,” he said, “is there’s going to be a stage, a moderator, an audience and at least one presidential candidate.”
Nothing could more dramatically demonstrate the difference in the two candidates than the scenario Gibbs envisions. If Washington hasn’t acted and the one-actor performance goes on, Obama will lose this election. It will be a reminder to all America how out-of-touch with their problems politicians can be.
Bill Heard Chevrolet closed its 14 dealerships Wednesday, putting 2,700 people out of work. Tell those now-unemployed workers that it’s more important that they know a tidbit more about where Obama and McCain stand than that the two of them are at work in Washington, doing the job they were elected to do, addressing the nation’s financial woes. Tell them. And then tell Obama to perform his one-candidate show.
