Whatever Romney did at Bain Capitial, he does not have the outlook or brains to be president of the United States. No more than did President Carter, who campaigned in 1976 as a "businessman" peanut farmer and then mismanaged the economic crisis he had inherited from Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. In fact, next to Obama's record on jobs, any actual jobs Romney created through Bain Capital are just peanuts compared to what Obama did by saving General Motors.
The stark truth is that President Obama saved an ENTIRE INDUSTRY. Not just any industry either. He saved our BIGGEST manufacturing segment. And since he helped the auto industry, it has done spectacularly well. This past week GM announced a 13% gain in 2011 over the prior year. This puts GM back on top as the world's number one auto company and includes over 2 million autos it SOLD in China! Indeed, all the US auto companies had a damn good year in 2011. They are doing better now than they did for decades before the government stepped in. And, contrary to all the GOP screaming about "socialist takeover", the US government did not proceed to take over other companies. Obama recognized that this one thing had to be done and did it. It took guts. Every bit as much as okaying the Seals' attack on Bin Laden.
Once again, however, Obama doesn't get the credit he deserves. Where's the front page stories about GM's great 2011?
At stake in the auto industry bailout were millions of jobs, far more than the 100,000 "net" jobs Romney claims he created but for which he has no proof. Beyond the auto plant jobs Obama saved were those of the suppliers, the shippers, the ad agencies, the salespeople. Plus all the stores and service people who relied on the spending of those who worked in the auto industry. It is generally held that the multiply factor of one paycheck is ten as the money circulates through the economy.
Keep in mind that Romney OPPOSED the feds helping the auto industry.
He believed it should be allowed to go under because, in his view as a businessman, that was the appropriate business move. Even though his father made a fortune in the auto industry, which is presumably Mitt's money now, Romney couldn't see saving GM as necessary to the US economy rather than a simple business decision.
There's more than irony here. His shortsightedness on this issue is deeply troubling. More than almost anything else it bespeaks a disastrous presidency for the economy should he be elected, for which we shall all pay the price.
If he had been president in 2009, with his "businessman" thinking, he would have taken us right over the cliff into the Second Great Depression. It would have actually been worse than the one in the 1930s. At least back then GM managed to stay in business. In fact, my dad bought a new 1936 Chevy. Sixteen years later it became my first car, but it's not sentiment for Betsy (all good old Chevies were called Betsy) that makes me hostile to Romney for wanting to kill GM. Romney terrifies me on financial grounds.
Romney has all the wrong ideas about the economy, beginning with his basic assertion that his business experience as a takeover-cure-or-kill manager is relevant to the presidency. The United States government isn't some wobbly business ripe for a takeover. It isn't a business at all. The purpose of business is to make money. There's a place for that in our society most certainly. The purposes of government are, however, far different. Not to understand that difference is to be, prima facie, disqualified to be president.
I support capitalism and the free enterprise system. They are fundamental to the success of the American story. But our government has been a major part of that success too. It's so obvious that it shouldn't need saying. And the two - government and business - are, I repeat, different. I've been in both at pretty high levels. Business is about making money. Government is for promoting the general welfare, and sometimes that involves taking a role in business, as in saving the auto industry. But running a business and running a government require different skills, different goals, different principles, and often very different decisions.
Obama understood that in 2009 when he made a governmental decision to save GM. Romney didn't and still doesn't.
Please also keep in mind that the last president we had who was a businessman (Carter wasn't really) was none other than Herbert Hoover.
And we all know how that worked out, don't we?
Friday, January 13, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Newt Gingrich Wrote This For Me
One of my readers suggested a week ago that I write about Mitt Romney and his career with Bain Capital in which he and his cohorts sucked millions out of companies, left them to bankruptcy, and ruined the lives of the employees who lost jobs, health care, and pensions. I was diligently adding to my data on this when Newt Gingrich popped up and said, "Don't worry, kiddo. I'll do it for you."
And he sure is! No matter how Newt or Mitt finish tonight in New Hampshire, Newt has handed Mitt's head to the Democrats on a silver platter. All that he has said about Mitt destroying companies is on tape, as are the similar jabs from Mitt's fellow REPUBLICAN contenders! And apparently Newt is just getting started. He is so angry at how Mitt attacked him in Iowa with millions in ads about his past that he now intends do to the same to Mitt in South Carolina. To add to the joy, the $5 million check Newt just got for this purpose comes from a "casino mogul" in Las Vegas.
You can't make this stuff up. Only in America!
So lean back and laugh tonight as a lot of chickens come home to roost. No matter what the rest of 2012 brings, we'll always have this spectacle of Newt chasing Mitt around the chicken yard with a hatchet, leaving Mitt possibly decapitated to face Obama in the general election.
Oops! Mustn't count our decapitated chickens before they're dispatched! Now go get him, Newt!
P.S. Tiffany's reported today that their recent sales volume fell below expectations. Guess Newt's been too busy chopping to go shopping.
And he sure is! No matter how Newt or Mitt finish tonight in New Hampshire, Newt has handed Mitt's head to the Democrats on a silver platter. All that he has said about Mitt destroying companies is on tape, as are the similar jabs from Mitt's fellow REPUBLICAN contenders! And apparently Newt is just getting started. He is so angry at how Mitt attacked him in Iowa with millions in ads about his past that he now intends do to the same to Mitt in South Carolina. To add to the joy, the $5 million check Newt just got for this purpose comes from a "casino mogul" in Las Vegas.
You can't make this stuff up. Only in America!
So lean back and laugh tonight as a lot of chickens come home to roost. No matter what the rest of 2012 brings, we'll always have this spectacle of Newt chasing Mitt around the chicken yard with a hatchet, leaving Mitt possibly decapitated to face Obama in the general election.
Oops! Mustn't count our decapitated chickens before they're dispatched! Now go get him, Newt!
P.S. Tiffany's reported today that their recent sales volume fell below expectations. Guess Newt's been too busy chopping to go shopping.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Democrats Win Iowa GOP Caucuses! Romney Heads For Monty Python!
The Democrats won big in the Iowa GOP contest, far bigger than Romney with his pitiful 8 vote margin. They won because the result not only shows the deep split in the GOP but because it trumpets how weak a candidate Mitt Romney is.
Mitt Romney and his super-pac spent over $10 million in Iowa, and what did he get? Six less votes than he got in 2008! Six votes LESS!
With a failure like that, Romney might just as well have stayed home and mailed in his campaign. His pathetic showing in Iowa is topped only by Rudy Guiliani's spending $40 million in Florida's primary in 2008 and getting one delegate.
The only pickup for Romney in Iowa is challenger Rick Santorum, who might give him real trouble in South Carolina's fast-approaching primary. If Santorum lasts long enough. With GOP candidates rising and falling every few minutes, will Santorum last? If he can make it to South Carolina, perhaps the evangelical churches can provide the campaign organization he presently lacks. But what happens to him in Florida and the other states after that? Are there mega churches everywhere waiting to volunteer for Santorum? And will Romney unleash his well-financed attack dogs on the sweater-vested, 1930s-looking college boy Santorum, who makes people weep with stories of his dead child. (I lost a son, and I would NEVER publicly exploit that boy's death the way Santorum does the death of his baby. Whatever happened to dignity and respect for one's dead?)
Santorum aside (and that's where he belongs), one things is certainly clear.
Voters don't like Romney. They just don't like him.
Even his own party members don't like him. Four years ago, 75% of Iowa's GOP voters rejected him. After four more years of his campaign in Iowa, 75% of his fellow GOP still don't like him. Six voters in Iowa liked him even less this time around..
Sure. the talking heads will tell you it's because the real hard-core, far-right conservatives don't trust his political flip-flopping. But it's more than that.
He's a jerk.
How much of a jerk? Let me count the ways:
1. He's the kid on the playground who stands on the sidelines and begs and pleads to be let in on the game. His whole being is pleading: stance and face and voice and gestures. "Come on, you guys! It's MY ball! How come I can't play?" You remember that kid? In my second grade class it was a kid named Norman, who was so clean and wore a jacket with a velvet collar. We couldn't stand him! Americans don't want would-be "leaders" who PLEAD with us, for gosh sakes! Romney couldn't lead a dog on a leash. "Come on, doggie. PLEASE!" (Again, whatever happened to dignity?)
2. He's a twit. Remember the Monty Python "Twit Contest"? Oh, yeah! He could take first place in that contest easily.
3. He's so patently insincere. He's trying sooo hard to look like a regular guy that he's now wearing jeans. Wearing jeans? Really? Has no one in his entourage the guts to tell him that men of a certain age and heft through the middle should not wear jeans? Not ever. It's as off-putting as little Norman's velvet collar. Moreso. Because Norman wasn't trying to pretend he was something other than what he was: a rich spoiled brat and a snitch.
4. Romney is Howdy Doody. You're too young to remember Howdy Doody, lucky you. He was a TV puppet in the '50s who swayed from side to side, bent from the waist, and held his lower arms out just like Romney, all the while grinning a barfy big grin painted on his face just like Romney's fake smile. His mouth was exactly the same shape as Romney's! He had big freckles painted on his face, one for each state in the union. That is sooo Mitt Romney, who recited "America the Beautiful" on his last days in Iowa in lieu of saying anything that was relevant.
5. Romney is selling. He's the guy at the front door with his foot in the door. He isn't even as dignified as a used car salesman. He's selling used shoes. Try turning off the sound on your TV and just watch him. Makes you want to slam the door on his damn foot.
6. He's telling us it's nighttime in America. Not Reagan's "Morning in America". Not Kennedy's "New Frontier". He's doom and gloom. Who needs that? The apocalypse-enamored far-right already have their gleeful doom-sayers such as the two Ricks and Newt, avidly telling us how we are plunging into "decay", moral and otherwise. It's a crock, of course, but evangelicals like being terrified by their preachers and politicians. The rest of us just want to get on with the job. We're a hopeful people. If we were to ever select a National Chicken (and why not?), it would be The Little Red Hen, not Chicken Little. (Oh, hell, we can't even agree on a national flower, let alone a National Chicken! But that's another story.)
There's plenty more about Romney that's repulsive, including his politics, but that's enough for now. Since he's likely to be the GOP nominee, there will be lots of time to recite his repulsiveness in the months to come.
"Oh, no," someone says. "That's not fair! We shouldn't judge a book by its cover. What does it matter how a candidate looks or gestures?"
Plenty, kiddo. Americans are who they are. Absent a king or a queen or George Washington, they have to feel okay about their president. And Romney makes their collective gorge rise. Think about it: Would the guys at Valley Forge have stuck it out through that winter for Romney like they did for George Washington?
If you answer "yes", I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. But first, let me get Romney's foot out of your door.
Mitt Romney and his super-pac spent over $10 million in Iowa, and what did he get? Six less votes than he got in 2008! Six votes LESS!
With a failure like that, Romney might just as well have stayed home and mailed in his campaign. His pathetic showing in Iowa is topped only by Rudy Guiliani's spending $40 million in Florida's primary in 2008 and getting one delegate.
The only pickup for Romney in Iowa is challenger Rick Santorum, who might give him real trouble in South Carolina's fast-approaching primary. If Santorum lasts long enough. With GOP candidates rising and falling every few minutes, will Santorum last? If he can make it to South Carolina, perhaps the evangelical churches can provide the campaign organization he presently lacks. But what happens to him in Florida and the other states after that? Are there mega churches everywhere waiting to volunteer for Santorum? And will Romney unleash his well-financed attack dogs on the sweater-vested, 1930s-looking college boy Santorum, who makes people weep with stories of his dead child. (I lost a son, and I would NEVER publicly exploit that boy's death the way Santorum does the death of his baby. Whatever happened to dignity and respect for one's dead?)
Santorum aside (and that's where he belongs), one things is certainly clear.
Voters don't like Romney. They just don't like him.
Even his own party members don't like him. Four years ago, 75% of Iowa's GOP voters rejected him. After four more years of his campaign in Iowa, 75% of his fellow GOP still don't like him. Six voters in Iowa liked him even less this time around..
Sure. the talking heads will tell you it's because the real hard-core, far-right conservatives don't trust his political flip-flopping. But it's more than that.
He's a jerk.
How much of a jerk? Let me count the ways:
1. He's the kid on the playground who stands on the sidelines and begs and pleads to be let in on the game. His whole being is pleading: stance and face and voice and gestures. "Come on, you guys! It's MY ball! How come I can't play?" You remember that kid? In my second grade class it was a kid named Norman, who was so clean and wore a jacket with a velvet collar. We couldn't stand him! Americans don't want would-be "leaders" who PLEAD with us, for gosh sakes! Romney couldn't lead a dog on a leash. "Come on, doggie. PLEASE!" (Again, whatever happened to dignity?)
2. He's a twit. Remember the Monty Python "Twit Contest"? Oh, yeah! He could take first place in that contest easily.
3. He's so patently insincere. He's trying sooo hard to look like a regular guy that he's now wearing jeans. Wearing jeans? Really? Has no one in his entourage the guts to tell him that men of a certain age and heft through the middle should not wear jeans? Not ever. It's as off-putting as little Norman's velvet collar. Moreso. Because Norman wasn't trying to pretend he was something other than what he was: a rich spoiled brat and a snitch.
4. Romney is Howdy Doody. You're too young to remember Howdy Doody, lucky you. He was a TV puppet in the '50s who swayed from side to side, bent from the waist, and held his lower arms out just like Romney, all the while grinning a barfy big grin painted on his face just like Romney's fake smile. His mouth was exactly the same shape as Romney's! He had big freckles painted on his face, one for each state in the union. That is sooo Mitt Romney, who recited "America the Beautiful" on his last days in Iowa in lieu of saying anything that was relevant.
5. Romney is selling. He's the guy at the front door with his foot in the door. He isn't even as dignified as a used car salesman. He's selling used shoes. Try turning off the sound on your TV and just watch him. Makes you want to slam the door on his damn foot.
6. He's telling us it's nighttime in America. Not Reagan's "Morning in America". Not Kennedy's "New Frontier". He's doom and gloom. Who needs that? The apocalypse-enamored far-right already have their gleeful doom-sayers such as the two Ricks and Newt, avidly telling us how we are plunging into "decay", moral and otherwise. It's a crock, of course, but evangelicals like being terrified by their preachers and politicians. The rest of us just want to get on with the job. We're a hopeful people. If we were to ever select a National Chicken (and why not?), it would be The Little Red Hen, not Chicken Little. (Oh, hell, we can't even agree on a national flower, let alone a National Chicken! But that's another story.)
There's plenty more about Romney that's repulsive, including his politics, but that's enough for now. Since he's likely to be the GOP nominee, there will be lots of time to recite his repulsiveness in the months to come.
"Oh, no," someone says. "That's not fair! We shouldn't judge a book by its cover. What does it matter how a candidate looks or gestures?"
Plenty, kiddo. Americans are who they are. Absent a king or a queen or George Washington, they have to feel okay about their president. And Romney makes their collective gorge rise. Think about it: Would the guys at Valley Forge have stuck it out through that winter for Romney like they did for George Washington?
If you answer "yes", I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. But first, let me get Romney's foot out of your door.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Why the Big Guys Stayed Out of the GOP Primaries
The Iowa caucuses are almost history. Thank heaven!
No matter which candidate wins or even survives to go on, a lot of Republicans will be disappointed.
How the Republicans have longed for a real candidate for president. Not just any candidate - they've had plenty of second, third and fourth-rate wanabes. But nobody they dreamed of as "really good", such as Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Mitch Daniels, or Paul Ryan. Ann Coulter said months ago that the GOP had to nominate Chris Christie to win: "Nominate Mitt Romney and we will lose."
So why aren't the big guys in the game? One simple reason: they doubt that 2012 is their year. They don't want to waste a bid for the presidency by going against Obama. Much better, in their calculations, to wait for an open shot in 2016. Traditionally, beating an incumbent president is very hard. Clinton beat George Bush the elder because Bush was a lousy candidate. Obama is certainly not a lousy candidate. Indeed, he is superb.
But what about the economy, you say. Doesn't the economy doom Obama? Well, the economy's seemingly getting better. It doesn't have to actually be better by next summer; it just has to be clearly headed in that direction. The GOP big guys weren't willing to bet against the economy in advance in order to have a shot at the presidency. These are careful men.
Their caution also spared them the humiliating experience of sharing the debate stage with some of the wackiest people on the planet. As it is, the GOP brand has been brought very low by the likes of Michele Bachman, Herman Cain, Donald Trump, Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich. Standing next to this bunch for debate after debate is not where a serious candidate wants to be. Please note that it has done Mitt Romney no good. With such a gang of crazies, no one can shine who carries their party label.
Another compelling reason for the big guys to stay out is that their party is in shambles. Back in the days of Nixon and his Southern Strategy, the GOP made a deal with the devil. And as the old saying goes, "When you sup with the devil, use a long spoon." First embracing the white racist reaction of the South to civil rights in '68, the GOP then proceeded to embrace the evangelical right, beginning in the '70s and cresting in George W. From these elements came the Tea Party. And the Tea Party is now destroying the GOP.
If any of the big guys was thinking in 2010 of running in 2012, the Congressional election in 2010 was certainly a red flag. Sure, the GOP won big, but the way it won was alarming for the GOP. It was a victory of extremists. Most of the House seats that went Republican went to Tea Party candidates. The governorships that went Republican in Ohio and Wisconsin, two key swing states, went to extremists who have almost been run out of office.
This has been bad news for the GOP, making a GOP run for the president very difficult. The Tea Party House has played right into Obama's hands, clearly establishing the GOP as the party of a reckless"no" at a time when the economy desperately needs federal action. For his part, Obama has clearly established himself as a reasonable man. Independent voters like reasonable leaders, even if some of Obama's party members were "disappointed" that he couldn't do what he couldn't do. Then - at just the right moment - Obama began his crusade to save the middle class.
How do you run against that? How do you run for president as a Republican when your Congressional wing wants to increase taxes on the middle class while giving ever more tax breaks to the 1%? How do you run with Eric Cantor grinning right next to you?
Could the GOP big guys foresee all this back in 2010 when they might have been mulling a race for the presidency? You betcha! Reading political tea leaves (no pun intended) is what makes these guys into political big guys. They could see the outline if not the details.
So ignore the pundits who have been saying for three years that Obama is a one-term president. The GOP guys who didn't run think otherwise. They have seen him all along as a very, very formidable candidate for re-election. And they are the ones who know best.
And he is a formidable candidate as we start 2012.
Provided you are there this year to make it happen.
No matter which candidate wins or even survives to go on, a lot of Republicans will be disappointed.
How the Republicans have longed for a real candidate for president. Not just any candidate - they've had plenty of second, third and fourth-rate wanabes. But nobody they dreamed of as "really good", such as Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Mitch Daniels, or Paul Ryan. Ann Coulter said months ago that the GOP had to nominate Chris Christie to win: "Nominate Mitt Romney and we will lose."
So why aren't the big guys in the game? One simple reason: they doubt that 2012 is their year. They don't want to waste a bid for the presidency by going against Obama. Much better, in their calculations, to wait for an open shot in 2016. Traditionally, beating an incumbent president is very hard. Clinton beat George Bush the elder because Bush was a lousy candidate. Obama is certainly not a lousy candidate. Indeed, he is superb.
But what about the economy, you say. Doesn't the economy doom Obama? Well, the economy's seemingly getting better. It doesn't have to actually be better by next summer; it just has to be clearly headed in that direction. The GOP big guys weren't willing to bet against the economy in advance in order to have a shot at the presidency. These are careful men.
Their caution also spared them the humiliating experience of sharing the debate stage with some of the wackiest people on the planet. As it is, the GOP brand has been brought very low by the likes of Michele Bachman, Herman Cain, Donald Trump, Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich. Standing next to this bunch for debate after debate is not where a serious candidate wants to be. Please note that it has done Mitt Romney no good. With such a gang of crazies, no one can shine who carries their party label.
Another compelling reason for the big guys to stay out is that their party is in shambles. Back in the days of Nixon and his Southern Strategy, the GOP made a deal with the devil. And as the old saying goes, "When you sup with the devil, use a long spoon." First embracing the white racist reaction of the South to civil rights in '68, the GOP then proceeded to embrace the evangelical right, beginning in the '70s and cresting in George W. From these elements came the Tea Party. And the Tea Party is now destroying the GOP.
If any of the big guys was thinking in 2010 of running in 2012, the Congressional election in 2010 was certainly a red flag. Sure, the GOP won big, but the way it won was alarming for the GOP. It was a victory of extremists. Most of the House seats that went Republican went to Tea Party candidates. The governorships that went Republican in Ohio and Wisconsin, two key swing states, went to extremists who have almost been run out of office.
This has been bad news for the GOP, making a GOP run for the president very difficult. The Tea Party House has played right into Obama's hands, clearly establishing the GOP as the party of a reckless"no" at a time when the economy desperately needs federal action. For his part, Obama has clearly established himself as a reasonable man. Independent voters like reasonable leaders, even if some of Obama's party members were "disappointed" that he couldn't do what he couldn't do. Then - at just the right moment - Obama began his crusade to save the middle class.
How do you run against that? How do you run for president as a Republican when your Congressional wing wants to increase taxes on the middle class while giving ever more tax breaks to the 1%? How do you run with Eric Cantor grinning right next to you?
Could the GOP big guys foresee all this back in 2010 when they might have been mulling a race for the presidency? You betcha! Reading political tea leaves (no pun intended) is what makes these guys into political big guys. They could see the outline if not the details.
So ignore the pundits who have been saying for three years that Obama is a one-term president. The GOP guys who didn't run think otherwise. They have seen him all along as a very, very formidable candidate for re-election. And they are the ones who know best.
And he is a formidable candidate as we start 2012.
Provided you are there this year to make it happen.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Memories from 2011 Equal Tears and Laughter
The year 2011 was remarkable. The Arab Spring. The end of Bin Laden and Khadaffi. The Japanese quake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. One weather calamity after another, here and abroad. The debt ceiling crisis. Occupy Wall Street. The crazy GOP run-up to the primaries. The end of our occupation of Iraq.
We all have our specific memories. In no particular order, here are some of mine.
- Peter Falk died. It's well to remember an actor like Falk, who spread delight for decades in a wounded world. If the going gets rough in 2012, watch "The In-Laws", one of the funniest movies ever made. We'll miss you, Mr. Falk. "Oh, there's just one other thing..."
- 9-9-9 and Cain's bizarre ad with his smoking campaign manager and Cain's weird leer. (Actually, I wish this memory would go away!)
- The brave Japanese workers who kept going back into those hideously dangerous nuclear plants.
- The death of Vaclav Havel. Truly a man for all seasons, the poet and freedom fighter who proved that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.
- Michele Bachman's husband dancing with her on a campaign stage. And badly too.
- Obama's great comic performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner while, unknown to us, he was waiting word on the outcome of the raid on Bin Laden.
- The voter who told a pollster that Newt Gingrich has "too much luggage".
- Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell endorsing Mitt Romney because "he's been consistent since he changed his mind."
- The Tea Party Congressman who vowed he would not only vote against raising the debt ceiling but would vote "to lower it". (Which is the equivalent of telling your bank that you've decided you owe it less than you do.)
- Mitt Romney constantly saying, "Ha. Ha. Ha." The man doesn't laugh. He SAYS, "Ha. Ha. Ha." Heaven help us, not eight years of THAT!
- John Boehner repeatedly being the man who couldn't deliver on deals he had made (which is a fatal flaw in politics).
- Donald Trump's stony face at the White House Correspondents Dinner while Obama shredded him. Also Donald Trump's hair and his weird little mouth. (I wish I could forget Donald Trump entirely.)
- How handsome and beautiful the Russians were who were photographed at the anti-Putin protests. They looked straight out of "Dr. Zhivago". Love those Russian hats! (Maybe Donald Trump should get one to cover whatever it is that is dead and lying on his head.)
- The thugs on camels attacking the Egyptian protesters, and then the joy of the Arab protesters when they triumphed in country after country.
- The OWS people occupying the "Law and Order" set that was a mock-up of the real thing and asking the TV folks, "What are your demands?"
- Jon Stewart bemoaning the end of Herman Cain but then delighting in the prospect of a debate moderated by Donald Trump. Stewart is the master! (Will Trump EVER go away?!)
- George Will on a Sunday morning talk show, apoplectic about the GOP candidates: "Charlatan entrepreneurs!"
- The last U.S. Army truck leaving Iraq.
- President Obama's smile.
Let's be sure he's still smiling at this time next year. Then we can all smile.
So here's a toast to the people of laughter and courage: Obama, Havel, Jon Stewart, Peter Falk, those Japanese and Arabs and Russians and Occupiers, and our brave men and women now back from Iraq and the ones who never came home. And let us not forget the photographers and journalists who brought us the story of 2011 and especially those who died doing it.
"Ah, brave new world that has such people in it."
Happy New Year! Let's make it a good one!
We all have our specific memories. In no particular order, here are some of mine.
- Peter Falk died. It's well to remember an actor like Falk, who spread delight for decades in a wounded world. If the going gets rough in 2012, watch "The In-Laws", one of the funniest movies ever made. We'll miss you, Mr. Falk. "Oh, there's just one other thing..."
- 9-9-9 and Cain's bizarre ad with his smoking campaign manager and Cain's weird leer. (Actually, I wish this memory would go away!)
- The brave Japanese workers who kept going back into those hideously dangerous nuclear plants.
- The death of Vaclav Havel. Truly a man for all seasons, the poet and freedom fighter who proved that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.
- Michele Bachman's husband dancing with her on a campaign stage. And badly too.
- Obama's great comic performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner while, unknown to us, he was waiting word on the outcome of the raid on Bin Laden.
- The voter who told a pollster that Newt Gingrich has "too much luggage".
- Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell endorsing Mitt Romney because "he's been consistent since he changed his mind."
- The Tea Party Congressman who vowed he would not only vote against raising the debt ceiling but would vote "to lower it". (Which is the equivalent of telling your bank that you've decided you owe it less than you do.)
- Mitt Romney constantly saying, "Ha. Ha. Ha." The man doesn't laugh. He SAYS, "Ha. Ha. Ha." Heaven help us, not eight years of THAT!
- John Boehner repeatedly being the man who couldn't deliver on deals he had made (which is a fatal flaw in politics).
- Donald Trump's stony face at the White House Correspondents Dinner while Obama shredded him. Also Donald Trump's hair and his weird little mouth. (I wish I could forget Donald Trump entirely.)
- How handsome and beautiful the Russians were who were photographed at the anti-Putin protests. They looked straight out of "Dr. Zhivago". Love those Russian hats! (Maybe Donald Trump should get one to cover whatever it is that is dead and lying on his head.)
- The thugs on camels attacking the Egyptian protesters, and then the joy of the Arab protesters when they triumphed in country after country.
- The OWS people occupying the "Law and Order" set that was a mock-up of the real thing and asking the TV folks, "What are your demands?"
- Jon Stewart bemoaning the end of Herman Cain but then delighting in the prospect of a debate moderated by Donald Trump. Stewart is the master! (Will Trump EVER go away?!)
- George Will on a Sunday morning talk show, apoplectic about the GOP candidates: "Charlatan entrepreneurs!"
- The last U.S. Army truck leaving Iraq.
- President Obama's smile.
Let's be sure he's still smiling at this time next year. Then we can all smile.
So here's a toast to the people of laughter and courage: Obama, Havel, Jon Stewart, Peter Falk, those Japanese and Arabs and Russians and Occupiers, and our brave men and women now back from Iraq and the ones who never came home. And let us not forget the photographers and journalists who brought us the story of 2011 and especially those who died doing it.
"Ah, brave new world that has such people in it."
Happy New Year! Let's make it a good one!
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
New Year's Predictions for 2012
It's risky predicting anything, especially in politics. But - what the heck! - I'm only old once. So here goes for 2012!
1. Obama will turn thumbs down on the XL pipeline.
2. The environmentalists will still be mad at him about something.
3. The Congress will enact an additional 10 month extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits after the Tea Party House members try to hold the provisions hostage AGAIN.
4. Eric Cantor will try to get the Speakership away from John Boehner.
5. Secretary Clinton will keep traveling all around the world as the best and hardest working Secretary of State in modern times and therefore still not have time to get her hair done.
6. Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential nominee.
7. Chris Christie will be the GOP vice-presidential nominee.
8. The GOP will attempt to steal the election in November with the help of a lot of GOP governors who will arrange for "problems" at polling places in Democratic precincts.
9. Ron Paul will run on the Libertarian ticket or some third party ticket. He won't win.
10. Ruth Bader Ginsberg will retire from the Supreme Court, and Obama will replace her with Hilary Clinton, who will thus have time to finally get her hair done.
11. Economics experts will make a lot of wrong predictions.
12. Stuff will happen.
Will Obama win?
As Winston Churchill once said, when he was saying everything that Mark Twain hadn't said: "People get the government they deserve."
You're the only one who knows if Obama will win because you are the one who will make it happen. Or not.
So what's it going to be?
1. Obama will turn thumbs down on the XL pipeline.
2. The environmentalists will still be mad at him about something.
3. The Congress will enact an additional 10 month extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits after the Tea Party House members try to hold the provisions hostage AGAIN.
4. Eric Cantor will try to get the Speakership away from John Boehner.
5. Secretary Clinton will keep traveling all around the world as the best and hardest working Secretary of State in modern times and therefore still not have time to get her hair done.
6. Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential nominee.
7. Chris Christie will be the GOP vice-presidential nominee.
8. The GOP will attempt to steal the election in November with the help of a lot of GOP governors who will arrange for "problems" at polling places in Democratic precincts.
9. Ron Paul will run on the Libertarian ticket or some third party ticket. He won't win.
10. Ruth Bader Ginsberg will retire from the Supreme Court, and Obama will replace her with Hilary Clinton, who will thus have time to finally get her hair done.
11. Economics experts will make a lot of wrong predictions.
12. Stuff will happen.
Will Obama win?
As Winston Churchill once said, when he was saying everything that Mark Twain hadn't said: "People get the government they deserve."
You're the only one who knows if Obama will win because you are the one who will make it happen. Or not.
So what's it going to be?
Monday, December 26, 2011
XL Pipeline Deadline: A Gift from the GOP to Obama?
Will Obama win or lose points in 2012 on the XL pipeline? Do you even know what the XL pipeline is?
Briefly, it's a pipeline to carry tar sands oil from Canada to Gulf coast refineries. It's a stupid project, roundly condemned by environmentalists and anyone with half a brain, but the GOP seized on it as a potential campaign issue and inserted it into the just-concluded fight over extending payroll tax relief and unemployment benefits. As the price for agreeing to the two-month extension of these two vital measures, the GOP included a provision requiring Obama to approve or deny the XL project within sixty days. Prior to this, the administration had announced it would delay a decision until the present environmental studies were complete, probably at least a year.
On the surface it may look like the oil industry and their bought-and-paid for GOP Congressional representatives have scored a victory on the issue. But they didn't. The 60-day provision is a trap, a dog and pony show misguidedly staged by the GOP for the oil industry. It actually makes it easier for Obama to kill the project. In fact, it virtually begs him to kill it!
How? Because sixty days is obviously not enough time to complete the environmental and health studies for the project, and the public can understand that, especially as they learn that the project will possibly endanger the water supply for much of the Midwest. Once Obama has been "forced" by the new deadline to deny the project, it goes all the way back to square one, i.e. the proponents have to start all over with a new filing. All the way back to square one is a long, long way back. This is the kind of delay we environmentalists have always used to obstruct or kill bad projects.
But will Obama actually deny the project when the sixty days are up? There are three indications that he will.
First, he has already countermanded the State Department's premature approval of the project by requiring more study after environmentalists started screaming this fall.
Second, a prominent White House staff person has said Obama is unlikely to approve the project within the sixty-day limit because that's not enough time for environmental review. The staffer speaking was Gene Sperling, director of Obama's National Economic Council. White House team members do not go on record with such statements unless the President concurs. They don't if they want to keep their kneecaps. Also, since Sperling is head of an economic council in the White House, NOT an environmental one, his statement indicates that the White House has decided to go along with the environmentalists in the Democratic party and not with the labor unions that want the pipeline jobs.
Third, two very major Democratic Congressmen have said they have been reassured by the White House
that Obama will turn thumbs down on the project when the sixty days runs out. The Congressmen are no other than Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts. These are heavy-duty dudes, and you don't tell them "not to worry" unless you really mean it.
So there you are. The GOP in the House and the oil industry may think they got something with that sixty-day measure, but they got zilch. And they gave Obama a lovely opportunity to score political points, not just with his environmental base, but with lots of Midwest voters who have been worried about their water supply. In fact, because of the GOP drum-beating about the 60-days provision, far more voters are now aware of the pipeline and its potential problems.
And who really set all this up to happen? Rumor is that Obama himself quietly tempted the GOP into the entire trap. If so, he's learned how to set the bait every bit as well as Clinton used to for Newt Gingrich. When Speaker Gingrich seriously goofed and shut down the government back in the day, Clinton's fingerprints were all over it. Like Gingrich, the present House GOP contingent is blinded by its self-bestowed glory and can't resist over-reaching. Suckers!
I'm willing to stick my neck out and offer an early prediction for the New Year: the XL pipeline is not headed for the Gulf coastline in 2012. It's headed for the toaster.
Briefly, it's a pipeline to carry tar sands oil from Canada to Gulf coast refineries. It's a stupid project, roundly condemned by environmentalists and anyone with half a brain, but the GOP seized on it as a potential campaign issue and inserted it into the just-concluded fight over extending payroll tax relief and unemployment benefits. As the price for agreeing to the two-month extension of these two vital measures, the GOP included a provision requiring Obama to approve or deny the XL project within sixty days. Prior to this, the administration had announced it would delay a decision until the present environmental studies were complete, probably at least a year.
On the surface it may look like the oil industry and their bought-and-paid for GOP Congressional representatives have scored a victory on the issue. But they didn't. The 60-day provision is a trap, a dog and pony show misguidedly staged by the GOP for the oil industry. It actually makes it easier for Obama to kill the project. In fact, it virtually begs him to kill it!
How? Because sixty days is obviously not enough time to complete the environmental and health studies for the project, and the public can understand that, especially as they learn that the project will possibly endanger the water supply for much of the Midwest. Once Obama has been "forced" by the new deadline to deny the project, it goes all the way back to square one, i.e. the proponents have to start all over with a new filing. All the way back to square one is a long, long way back. This is the kind of delay we environmentalists have always used to obstruct or kill bad projects.
But will Obama actually deny the project when the sixty days are up? There are three indications that he will.
First, he has already countermanded the State Department's premature approval of the project by requiring more study after environmentalists started screaming this fall.
Second, a prominent White House staff person has said Obama is unlikely to approve the project within the sixty-day limit because that's not enough time for environmental review. The staffer speaking was Gene Sperling, director of Obama's National Economic Council. White House team members do not go on record with such statements unless the President concurs. They don't if they want to keep their kneecaps. Also, since Sperling is head of an economic council in the White House, NOT an environmental one, his statement indicates that the White House has decided to go along with the environmentalists in the Democratic party and not with the labor unions that want the pipeline jobs.
Third, two very major Democratic Congressmen have said they have been reassured by the White House
that Obama will turn thumbs down on the project when the sixty days runs out. The Congressmen are no other than Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts. These are heavy-duty dudes, and you don't tell them "not to worry" unless you really mean it.
So there you are. The GOP in the House and the oil industry may think they got something with that sixty-day measure, but they got zilch. And they gave Obama a lovely opportunity to score political points, not just with his environmental base, but with lots of Midwest voters who have been worried about their water supply. In fact, because of the GOP drum-beating about the 60-days provision, far more voters are now aware of the pipeline and its potential problems.
And who really set all this up to happen? Rumor is that Obama himself quietly tempted the GOP into the entire trap. If so, he's learned how to set the bait every bit as well as Clinton used to for Newt Gingrich. When Speaker Gingrich seriously goofed and shut down the government back in the day, Clinton's fingerprints were all over it. Like Gingrich, the present House GOP contingent is blinded by its self-bestowed glory and can't resist over-reaching. Suckers!
I'm willing to stick my neck out and offer an early prediction for the New Year: the XL pipeline is not headed for the Gulf coastline in 2012. It's headed for the toaster.
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