Entries for September 2008

Somewhere in heaven, or that other place, J. P. Morgan is chuckling in appreciation at the spectacle of a Republican administration, literally on bended knee, asking Nancy Pelosi to bail out Wall Street.

And at the Republican House members, who are whining that she hurt their feelings with a well-deserved tongue-lashing yesterday.

Pelosi is a fool, Morgan would say, if she doesn't hold Bush up for all he's worth.

Unless we want the grandkids to wonder, as they pay their $175 admission fee at Verizon Glacier Park or the Exxon Mobil National Park at Yellowstone, why there are no grizzly bears on the planet, we may want to do something about saving the big beasts now.

And the first step toward preserving and managing a threatened species, a reasonable person might suggest, is to get an accurate count.

So why, when John McCain was asked in the presidential debate on Friday how he will right the economy and bring good paying jobs to America, did he fall back on a tired joke about wasteful earmarks and mock Kate Kendall's bear count?

Hey, Bonnie, if the video is authentic (and I have not heard Governor Palin say it is not, and the McCain campaign has declined comment), the bishop talking about witchcraft drops a nice little bit of anti-Semitism into his "Christian" sermon as well—about how the wicked Israelites control the wealth, which should be taken and distributed to the righteous.

Barack Obama was at the White House yesterday, looking presidential.

Maybe you remember "presidential." You know: smart, calm, patriotic.

Obama knew, going in, that it was a Republican setup. And that George W was just trying to help his sidekick, John McCain, to a third Bush term.

But when your country is in a fix and the president asks for your help, if you're a patriot you show up. You make the best of an awkward political situation. You do your homework. You ask relevant questions. You participate.

As opposed to, say, McCain.

Given the Republican nominee's untethered (there's that word again) performance in the last three weeks, during which he has swung wildly from Oblivious to Panicky by way of Blurt and Bluster, McCain's performance comes as no surprise.

But it is still instructive to review McCain's actions in the last two days, to see why the notion of him as president is now alarming even some Republicans.

John McCain's actions said all there is to say.

And what they didn't say, David Letterman did.

After announcing to the nation that, as a patriot, he was suspending campaigning and rushing to Washington to solve the economic "crisis," McCain did nothing of the sort.

Instead, he rushed to CBS, so he could get on TV with Katie Couric.

But wait, you say, I'm being unfair. Americans need to hear from their prospective presidents—more than ever in a time of "crisis."

Not if you are McCain, and you're afraid to spend two hours tomorrow night in the glare of a nationally televised presidential debate, attempting to explain why Americans should give the Republicans four more years to finish the job of ruining the country.

Given the magnitude of that task, I'd cut and run, too.

So, you cancel the debate and chat up America's sweetheart.

Is there anyone in this country who doesn't view McCain's (latest) hasty, flailing ploy as a cynical political stunt?

With all due respect to Michael Barone, who has forgotten more about American politics than I'll ever know...

Michael, you might have included the following information yesterday when praising Kevin Hassett's analysis, which fixed the blame for the Wall Street meltdown on the Democrats...

This is from Hassett's bio on the AEI website:

He was an economic adviser to the George W. Bush campaign in the 2004 presidential election and the chief economic adviser to Senator McCain during the 2000 presidential primaries. He currently serves as a senior economic adviser to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign.

Hassett is a likable, smart guy.

But he's got a horse in the race. Big time.

As a graduate of Mr. Jefferson's university, a disciple of America's third president, and a delighted resident of Thomas Jefferson Street, I feel it is time to do the right thing, Enlightenment-wise, and place reason before passion.

And admit that the surge in Iraq has worked.

Well, it has been pretty obvious for some months now that General Petraeus and the U.S. military have done a brilliant job at negotiating the treacheries of Iraq and stabilizing the situation there.

But it's an inconvenient truth, for those of us who think that four more years of Republican wrack and ruin are not what the nation needs right now.

And that does make the words hard to say.

Especially since we're not likely to hear John McCain state something truthy on Friday night like, "Well, yes, the surge has worked, thank God, and offered a dignified end to this catastrophic foreign policy debacle I helped push on the American people."

Or, "Yes, the surge has worked—but Senator Obama deserves recognition for opposing this idiotic and costly war from the start."