"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."
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.
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.
Two long-ish pieces from the New York Times Magazine. Very interesting going into the home stretch. ("long-ish" shouldn't be scary...don't let 'Google make you stupid')
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.
“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.”
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.
"A pharmacy is a place you should go to get better, not to get cancer," said Nathan Ballard, spokesman for SF mayor Gavin Newsom.
And apparently San Francisco is a place where people are so dumb, they need special legislation to prevent them from walking into a pharmacy, purchasing cigarettes, and believing that the product they purchased is healthy because it was found in a pharmacy.
I believe we should also ban the sale of People magazine and Milk Duds in pharmacies, because you should go to pharmacies to get smarter and healthier....not to rot your brain and teeth...
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- A marketing research system that studies the emotions expressed by facial muscles has been used to analyze presidential campaign ads. The system is the subject of the new book, "Face Time," by Dan Hill. Mr. Hill heads Sensory Logic, a consulting firm that has been using "facial coding" methods to study second-by-second consumer reaction to TV commercials. Its clients are normally large marketing corporations. But during the primaries, the company began analyzing audience reactions to the major candidates' ads.
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...
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."
This just might very well be the beginning of a series of posts on how the Presidential candidates would answer silly ice breaker questions about their opposing nominees. Questions like, "If you were a food what would you be and why?", "If you could have 3 wishes, how would you use them (obviously you can't wish for more wishes)", or "If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why".
So today, we start with what John McCain might say about Barack Obama in answering the question.....
Q: "If Barack Obama were a food, what would he be and why?"
A: My friends, if Senator Obama were a food, he would be a Flatbread Pizza. To be more specific, a Wild Mushroom and Roasted Asparagus Flatbread Pizza. Why?
Flatbreads represent to me this ultra hip and exotic food.....but in reality it's just a downgrade on real pizza, right? Let me give you an anecdote.....It's Friday night, you young bucs put a little extra gel in the hair, slide into those designer jeans you overpaid for and go socialize over flatbreads and wine.....now that is a hot scene. So hot, in fact, after putting lipstick on them, farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs....a smokin' scene. Did I mention that I spent 5 years as a POW?.....I digress.
Senator Obama has this exterior about him that just feels really really good. His rhetoric even sounds sophisticated (i.e. - Wild Mushroom and Roasted Asparagus).....but my friends, you will eat that flatbread and you will feel really good about yourself......for about 30 minutes. But not too long after your body will tell you the truth and you will not be satisfied.....the substance is just not there. Like the infamous Wendy's commercial, you will be asking yourself the proverbial question of, "Where's the beef?".
My friends, Flatbreads may be fun for Friday nights and happy hours, but if you are looking for a steady diet that will carry you through the long hours of the night........look no further than John McCain and Sarah Palin....the real reformers for Washington in 2008. In closing, Senator Obama and his Flatbread Pizza, one might call it a "meal to nowhere".
Don't worry, McCain's food is in the kitchen and coming soon....
If you never watched The West Wing, I'm sorry, you just have no idea. It is/was and amazing show. Watching an episode of Season 3 last night, I was struck by a bit of dialogue (sorry for the length). But it highlighted a principle of life and faith, easily glossed over in Ephesians...and did it with humor. What does it mean for us to be subject to one another?
Bartlet - President of the United States
Abbey - First Lady
Charlie - Personal assistant to the President
(The doors to the presidential limo open. President Bartlet and Abbey walk inside.)
CHARLIE: Good afternoon.
ABBEY: Hi, Charlie.
CHARLIE: How was church?
BARTLET: [mumbles] It sucked.
ABBEY: It was fine. Stop it!
BARTLET: It sucked!
ABBEY: [sighs] You're talking about church.
BARTLET: Oh, like I'm not already going to hell.
CHARLIE: What was the problem?
ABBEY: He feels the homily lacked panache.
BARTLET: It did lack panache.
ABBEY: It was a perfectly lovely homily on Ephesians 5:21. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."
BARTLET: Yeah. She's skipping over the part that says, "Wives, be subject to your husbands as to the Lord, for a husband is the head of a wife as Christ is the head of the church."
ABBEY: I do skip over that part.
BARTLET: Why?
ABBEY: Because it's stupid!
(They walk in THE OVAL OFFICE)
BARTLET: Okay.
ABBEY: "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in...something.”
BARTLET: "In splendor." And I have no problem with Ephesians. And any time you want me to cleanse you with the washing of water, you know I'm up for it.
ABBEY: Then what is your problem?
BARTLET: Hackery! This guy was a hack! He had a captive audience! And the way I know that is that I tried to tunnel out of there several times. He had an audience and he didn't know what to do with it.
ABBEY: You want him to sing "Volare?"
BARTLET: Couldn't have hurt. Words...
ABBEY: Oh, God, no…
BARTLET: Words, when spoken out loud for the sake of performance, are music. They have rhythm, and pitch, and timbre, and volume. These are the properties of music, and music has the ability to find us and move us, and lift us up in ways that literal meanings can't. Do you see?
ABBEY: You are an oratorical snob.
BARTLET: Yes, I am. And God loves me for it.
ABBEY: You said he was sending you to hell.
BARTLET: For other stuff, not for this.
You can't just trod out Ephesians, which he blew, by the way, it has nothing to do with husbands and wives, it's all of us! Saint Paul begins the passage: "Be subject to one another out of reverence to Christ." [passionately] "Be subject to one another." In this day and age of 24-hour cable crap, devoted to feeding the voyeuristic gluttony of the American public, hooked on a bad soap opera that's passing itself off as important, don't you think you might be able to find some relevance in verse 21? How do end the cycle? Be subject to one another!
ABBEY: So...this is about you.
BARTLET: No, it's not about me! Well, yes, it is about me, but tomorrow it'll be about somebody else. We'll watch Larry King and see who. All hacks, off the stage, right now! That's a national security order.
ABBEY: I'm going to the Residence. I'm taking a bath; I'm turning on Sinatra.
BARTLET: How does Mrs. Sinatra feel about that?
ABBEY: Peace be with you.
And the following is posted in case you ever wondered why The West Wing was the best written/acted show on television. The president is questioning a man who has fled China due to religious persecution, but wants to test if he is legit - Shibboleth (might want to check Judges 12:5-6):
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.
Posts
