"I fear that in trying to do everything at once, they will do nothing well. I fear that we have a group of people who haven’t even learned to use their new phone system trying to redesign half the U.S. economy....I worry that we’re operating far beyond our economic knowledge. Every time the administration releases an initiative, I read 20 different economists with 20 different opinions. I worry that we lack the political structures to regain fiscal control. Deficits are exploding, and the president clearly wants to restrain them. But there’s no evidence that Democrats and Republicans in Congress have the courage or the mutual trust required to share the blame when taxes have to rise and benefits have to be cut.....I have to go to the keyboard each morning hoping Barack Obama is going to prove me wrong."
We’re probably entering a period, in other words, in which smart young liberals meet a stone-cold scarcity that they do not seem to recognize or have a plan for.
He is the quintessential suburban American, the service economy worker, the guy who wears khakis to work each day, with the security badge on the belt clip around his waist.
He lives in northern Virginia, along the I-4 corridor near Orlando, Fla., in or near Columbus, Ohio, along the Front Range of Colorado, in the converging megalopolis between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and in many other places.
He has a house — worth less and less — in a relatively new development. He’s holding off on the new car. He’s trying not to look at his retirement account balance. But he’s happy with the new street-scape shopping area where he and his family can stroll before a movie.
(I've been alerted that "some" may have a hard time getting to the NY Times articles on this blog. As a free-market capitalist, I believe it is the God-given right of every man and woman to have a FREE NYTimes.com subscription. Sign up today, it's "all the news that's fit to print.")
This is the test. This is the problem that will consume the next president. Meanwhile, the two candidates for that office are talking about Bill Ayers and Charles Keating.
He also has a book recommendation: The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy by David M. Smick
Making history is not simply about the will to do so. It’s also about the way — the resources you have to achieve your ends. Whatever wills the next American president comes to office with, he is going to find that his ways have been diminished and restricted — until we roll up our sleeves and work our way out of this mess.
In the category of random, useless information: The Measure of a President. The crazy thing is that on a number of these, you might actually be able to guess who they are without seeing their names - just the recognition of stature. Be sure to see Teddy's glowing eyes, Carter's smile, and then length of Dukakis' pants.
Brooks - reviving the "Text or Context" conversation - money quote - "...what disappoints me about the McCain campaign is it has no central argument. I had hoped that he would create a grand narrative explaining how the United States is fundamentally unprepared for the 21st century and how McCain’s worldview is different."
And in response, I post the wise words of John Yates II, rector of The Falls Church written to his Virginia congregation Sept 14:
"There is a movement afoot to recruit pastors next Sunday to 'preach politics.' The Alliance Defense Fund wants to challenge an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code, dating back to 1954, which says non-profit, tax-exempt entities (including churches) may not 'participate in, or intervene in ... any political campaign behalf of any political candidate.' It is hoped that, in their sermons next week, pastors will not only evaluate the current political situation and what sorts of candidates are desirable according to Scripture, but will also deal with specific elections and candidates, with specific recommendations about whom to support. That would, of course, violate the law.
"Over the years our policy here has been never to analyze individual candidates or to speak directly about political issues from the pulpit or in any other public forum. Candidates have visited us and attended worship, but we have refrained from singling them out in any way. I've always felt that our membership is extraordinarily well-informed on political matters and needs little encouragement from me to participate fully in the electoral process.
"But this law has always troubled me. I'm skeptical about the government's authority to dictate to the church in this way. There is a cultural elitism in America that would like to keep religion privately comforting but publicly irrelevant! But if our biblical faith does not inform and shape our thinking on public policy and guide us in whom to vote for, we are simply failing in our responsibility as followers of Christ. We won't always agree with one another, but it is unthinkable that followers of Christ wouldn't evaluate candidates policies in light of the Word of God. I don't plan to break the law next Sunday. But I could envision a time arising when I would feel that I would be disobeying God not to speak to you about some political issue or election."
And it happens on both sides...we like this Joe Biden (start at 4:00):
But then the "handlers/strategists" get involved:
"Having now reviewed the ad, it is even more clear to me that given the disgraceful tenor of Senator McCain's ads and their persistent falsehoods, his campaign is in no position to criticize." -- Senator Joe Biden
The high road is no longer.
Michael Gerson, via Politico Playbook nails it:
THE BIG IDEA -- Michael GERSON on “the death of policy in this election”: “[I]t is President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, by proposing the massive government purchase of bad debt, who have assumed the mantle of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is John McCain and Barack Obama who are playing the role of Roosevelt's more timid, forgotten foils, ‘Martin, Barton and Fish.’ Having last week criticized the role of the Federal Reserve in bailouts -- demonstrating a tin ear of elephantine proportions -- McCain now calls for a bipartisan oversight board to review the government's rescue attempt. Mankind perishes. The world grows dark. McCain calls for a review board.
“Obama has been no better, responding with his usual mix of caution and blame. … The 2008 presidential campaign has become notable for its vacuity … It did not begin this way. Early in the campaign, McCain talked about his un-Republican environmental views and undertook a national poverty tour that brought him to places such as Gee's Bend, Ala., and Inez, Ky. Obama endorsed the outlines of Bush's faith-based agenda and stated in a Father's Day speech at an African-American church: ‘We need (fathers) to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child -- it's the courage to raise one.’ But those sparks of originality and outreach have been doused.”
As we seek to find truth among the varying data points we encounter, we laugh, we think, and most importantly we listen - admitting that learning is a lifelong endeavor...sometimes you need to be a consonant and sometimes a vowel.
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