Obama's first grade: A+ from Brooks

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/opinion/21brooks.html?th&emc=th

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How Show We Then Vote?

I was going to save this until after today, election day. But as I read it again, I think it is a voice that must be heard. A good and thoughtful voice. Not always to agree with, but to, at the very least, think about. Derek Webb and electoral conscience.

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Krauthammer, Never One to Mince Words

He's voting for this guy.

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Big Government Ahead

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/opinion/14brooks.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

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Morning Reading 10.13.08 : On (government-observed) Columbus Day

ESSENTIAL READING - From the cover of Newsweek - There Is A Silver Lining

All the more reason to pick up The Snowball

Playbook Monday : 22 Days

DRIVING THE DAY – John McCain will unveil a new, Salteresque stump speech today designed to get voters and reporters to give him one more look. The campaign provided this excerpt: 'Let me give you the state of the race today. We have 22 days to go. We're six points down. The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq. But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we've got them just where we want them.

'What America needs in this hour is a fighter; someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people. I come from a long line of McCains who believed that to love America is to fight for her. I have fought for you most of my life. There are other ways to love this country, but I've never been the kind to do it from the sidelines.'

Maybe 3 weeks too late...

Kristol in yesterday's NY Times with what might be the best advice for John McCain: be yourself...again.

Freidman on A Post-Binge World:

“I have no idea what the stock market is going to do next month or six months from now,” Warren Buffett told CNBC on Friday. “I do know that the American economy, over a period of time, will do very well, and people who own a piece of it will do well.”

And another recommendation for David Smick's The World is Curved.

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Morning Reading 10.07.08

Playbook Tuesday : 28 Days

The Testing Time by David Brooks

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

Swedish Spoken Here by Thomas Freidman

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.

An initial review of "W."

If you haven't seen this, you should:

Politico Playback:

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VP Debate "Moderator"

Something to watch for in the debates tonight......

The moderator is Gwen Ifill and she has a financial interest in Barack Obama winning in November. Ifill has a book due out around inauguration day. Here's the Amazon.com link for Ifill's book titled "The Breaktrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama". Take a look at the publication date. January 20, 2009. What happens to Ifill's book if Barack Obama is not sworn in on that day? Easy ... it doesn't sell. So why is she moderating this debate when clearly she has a financial interest in making Sarah Palin look bad?

Not-so Free Market Capitalism

For some time now, I've heard it said from those of a very strong conservative viewpoint that Obama would move the United States of America towards socialism if elected. In my own conservative economic point of view, but more liberal social perspective, I laughed this off as an 'extreme' statement that is being used to just scare people away from the candidate they dislike.

However, in the wake of the financial crisis that has risen on Wall Street during these past few weeks, I have started to become more and more concerned that those strong conservatives might actually have some rhyme to their reason. In listening to the first Presidential debate between McCain and Obama last Friday night, I was shocked to hear Obama suggest on multiple occassions that John's view of the "markets just working themselves out" was some type of theory that was impractical in real economics. Time and time again since last Friday, I have heard and/or read democratic leaders from the house talk about how the 'old' theory of the free market won't work on it's own....that somehow 'more' (not better) regulation is the key to economic prosperity. The post on theYreport earlier today from YBS about San Fransisco banning the sale of cigarettes in drug stores is incredibly disturbing and a great example of the democratic party governing 'socialistically'. All of this is incredibly disturbing. How can we ignore all of the economic prosperity that this country has realized as a result of the application of this theory to basically dominate the rest of the world economically for at least the last hundred years?

...And there is absolutely blame to be given to the Bush Administration for supporting this, further evidicing the fact that he has fundamentally changed the definition of what it means to be a republican. Did he seriously ask the congress to pass a $700 Billion bailout bill in like 48 hours. That is more money that has been spent on the Iraq war cumulatively.....and we need to make a decision immediately. The largest single expansion of government in U.S. history should not be taken lightly and done on a night's rest. The other thing that irks me, as the politicians panic and cause additional market turmoil, is that we have regulations that are already in place that are meant to protect citizens and business' in situations like these. These regulations may need to be modified (i.e. - raising the FDIC limit), but what is actually being restored by this bailout? I will at least give W. the benefit of the doubt that his reasoning for this bailout is based on issues that have arisen due to poor regulations that forced banking institutions to give poorly underwritten loans to those that didn't have any business getting them. He is not claiming that this is a result of the failure of the free market. If we allow the free market to play itself out, those that played risky hands will get that hand slapped and lessons will be learned.

Yes, these are crazy times and certain measures may be necessary to fix this problem we find ourselves in, but I get a real sense that there is a subtle, yet intentional message that is being sent to the general public in this crises that is saying "free market capitalism is flawed and the government is the only hope". If this is the case, we should all be scared, but maybe at least we get a new cool salute.

For additional thoughts:

1. Read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand

2. See thoughts from Hugo Chavez articulating why he thinks America needs a new constitution....great, let's listen to him.

3. Great article articulating some of these thoughts

4. This one talks about the Socialism of America via the bailout....short and good

A Prolific Reader

Seen moments ago on Lou Dobbs Tonight:

Barack Obama on the Bailout: "If I am President, I will review the entire plan on the day I take office to make sure it is working to save our economy and that you get your money back."

Back on September 22, 2008, Senator Obama renewed a pledge to, once elected, "go through the entire federal budget, page by page, line by line" and "eliminate the programs that don't work and aren't needed."

Unfortunately, he didn't pledge to review either document PRIOR to the election. We have to elect him first, then he'll read them and let us know what he thinks. Until then, we just have to trust him.

I was thinking, since he has some time before his inauguration, perhaps he should get going on a Book It application - I mean, if he's going to do so much reading, he might as well get a free Pizza Hut pizza out of it...

Who's word do we Trust?

How do we react to things like this? What can we believe is truth?

What Went Wrong?

Interestingly, according to attendees, Obama was thoughtful, McCain said nothing.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5895827

"Do you worry that neither of them is up to it?"

Why do I sometimes feel like Noonan can write exactly what I am thinking? This is her WSJ column from last week - and it is dead on.

The economic crisis brings a new question, unarticulated so far but there, and I know because when I mention it to people they go off like rockets. It is: Do you worry that neither of them is up to it? Up to the job in general? Is either Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama actually up to getting us through this and other challenges? I haven't heard a single person say, "Yes, my guy is the answer." A lot of shrugging is going on out there. This is a read not only on the men but on the moment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122176556077753375.html#printMode

Morning Reading 09.26.08 - Bailout, Shmailout

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."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/opinion/26brooks.html?th&emc=th

Peggy Noonan piles on:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122237691191376341.html

Going green is never easy - (YOJ, notice the rec on shower length):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122238422541876879.html?mod=todays_us_weekend_journal

Best movie reviewer out there - every Friday - Joe Morgenstern:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122238344981876805.html

Another sign of the Apocalypse - McGangsta:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hnRDS41TT3Iy0z4ISL2-0fOVA8pQD93DOTSG2

This just sounds like a really bad idea:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/us/politics/26preach.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

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."

Morning Reading 09.25.08

Mike Allen - money quote - SCOOP 1 -- FORBES.com’s Brian Wingfield and Josh Zumbrun , on how Treasury got the $700 billion: “It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

I don't know about you, but now I feel much better - http://www.politico.com/playbook/

Well, maybe I actually do feel better. We could make money on this thing:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122230704116773989.html

Bush and Candidates to Meet on Bailout:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/business/economy/25bush.html?hp

From CHANGE to CONVENTIONAL:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13892.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/us/politics/25assess.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Cue Obama - "I thank the Clintons for their support...wait...what support?":

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/bill-clinton-do.html

Ham, Shem and Japheth take a walk down memory lane...yes, this really exists:

http://www.pbase.com/paulthedane/noahs_ark

Politico.com Playback:

Raising the Stakes

McCain Seeks to Delay First Debate Amid Financial Crisis