The Invisible and Irrelevant George Bush

As we enter the final days of the 2008 campaign, I'm struck by the almost comical lack of presence of the incumbent President. There have been unpopular Presidents before, think Nixon and LBJ at the end. But I have never seen a President as marginalized and irrelevant as George Bush is today. Remember, we're fighting two wars abroad and grappling with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. George Bush has simply vanished. I assume he still goes to the office but what he does in there is unknown. McCain doesn't even mention his name and Obama uses his presidency as a punch line. All of it is well deserved. It's too bad the new President can't be sworn in next Wednesday.

It's Almost Over

Don’t look now but in a few days all those bloviating politicians and their incredibly annoying ads will disappear from your television and radio. Within days the sights and sounds of the 2008 campaign will be replaced by Christmas music and pitches from desperate retailers. Then again, I’ll take Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney over Kirsten Gillibrand and Sandy Treadwell any day.
No more incumbents telling you what a fabulous job they’ve been doing cutting taxes, helping seniors and improving education. The obvious question there is if these folks are kicking tail and taking names in D.C. and Albany, why do my taxes go up every year, test scores for kids continue to decline and more and more seniors are forced to sell their homes because property and school taxes are killing them.
Then there are the challengers. In every race the incumbent is characterized as an ineffective idiot who has voted 10,000 times to raise our taxes. The challengers portray themselves as altruistic citizen candidates who spend every waking moment worrying about our future. Additionally only they have figured out how to solve all the problems in Washington and New York.
The solutions break along party and ideological lines. Republicans preach lower taxes arguing you are a better judge of your priorities than the government. Democrats espouse middle class tax cuts which is code for taxing the productive and redistributing the wealth. Given the latter is essentially free money for poor people; it usually attracts a crowd on Election Day.
Now I’m going to go way out on a limb here and predict November 4th is going to be a pretty good day if you’re a democrat. There’s no question in my mind that Barack Obama is going to smoke John McCain. Obama has run a superb campaign and McCain has been unable to escape the shadow of George Bush and his failed presidency.
The only real drama is just how long Obama’s coattails are. My guess is there’re going to be plenty long particularly in some of the national races. My personal barometer is the apparent looming victory of the insufferable Al Franken for Senator in Minnesota. Talk about a joke!
Locally the most contentious race is for the 102nd Assembly seat. Challenger Jonathon Smith is opposing republican incumbent Joel Miller in one of the nastiest campaigns in memory. Miller has portrayed Smith as a political dilettante and carpetbagger while Smith has parsed Miller’s record to the point the only thing I think I know for certain is Miller was not in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Smith is reportedly outspending Miller by a 4-1 margin and is running more ads than Macys. It will be interesting to see if the democratic tide and a lot of money can upset the entrenched Miller.
Another nasty race is in the 99th Assembly district with incumbent Republican Greg Ball being hotly opposed by former Brewster Mayor John Degnan. Ball beat Degnan in the primary but Degnan is back on the democratic line. Charges of sexual harassment and stalking have been leveled by Degnan and denied by Ball. Whoever wins this one might want to have someone start their car the morning after the election.
So hang in there. It’s almost over and these people will now leave you alone…until the next time they need your vote or your money. Enjoy.

Completing the Radical circle

Have heard President-to-be Barack Obama is preparing an election night extravaganza in Chicago's Grant Park. How symbolic. Forty years ago long haired radicals and anti-war protesters rioted in Grant Park as democrats held their national convention. Many of those who railed against America will be back again, this time as the new establishment. Twenty year-old hippies will soon find themselves 60 year-old members of the Obama administration. I suspect those who wish us harm are paying close attention. I'm guessing they're not too afraid of aging hippies and peaceniks.

Where's Michelle Obama?

I’m beginning to get worried about Michelle Obama. Lately she’s been harder to find than a profit in the stock market. She surfaced briefly at the debates but was long gone by the morning chat shows. It’s not that she isn’t an attractive, charismatic person in her own right. She’s got every bit the academic resume her husband has and is a double minority as a woman. Early on she was at Barack’s side at every turn. They were the black Jack and Jackie. Then poof, she was gone from America’s living room.
The poof did happen to coincide with a few statements which were construed as being less than proud of America and indicating something of a racial chip on her shoulder. The conservative publication National Review went as far as putting a very annoyed looking Mrs. Obama on its cover with the tag line “The First Lady of Grievance.” The right wing blogs also ran with her quote about her husband’s success as the first time she had ever been proud to be an American.
All of a sudden we had an angry resentful black woman on our hands. Whether there is any basis in fact in those observations is irrelevant politically. Appearance is everything in politics and if people think Michelle Obama has issues, it’s time to get her off the stage and they have. Because in my opinion, one of the explanations for Sen. Obama’s meteoric political ascendancy has been the fact he is not seen as threatening by most white people.
If he harbors any resentment or has suffered any indignities as a black man in America, it doesn’t come across. Most reasonable people I know see him as a cerebral young liberal with an engaging manner. As someone who came of age long after the ugly days of segregation and strife, Obama is unencumbered by the anger and resentment personified by race baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
As we approach the end of the 2008 campaign, it is increasingly clear the only person capable of beating Barack Obama is Barack Obama. John McCain has devolved into a Yosemite Sam like caricature saddled with the almost comical Sarah Palin riding shotgun on the road to nowhere. As evidenced by the repeated attempts by both McCain and his surrogates to flog the remains of Rev. Wright and convicted terrorist Bill Ayres, Republicans think painting Obama as an angry black man who hangs out with terrorists is their last real hope of halting the electoral avalanche coming their way.
While I find it troubling Mr. and Mrs. Obama could sit through the hateful, irrational tirades of Rev. Wright or socialize with a lefty nut job like Bill Ayres and his terrorist wife, it doesn’t an election make. McCain has been an inconsistent, almost incoherent candidate and looks like the old guy who used to chase me off his lawn if I hit a baseball on it. Like Bob Dole in ’96, McCain looks like he’s lost his fastball and will shortly be joining Dole as an elder statesman and political footnote.
Meanwhile, Michelle Obama will continue her tour of the hinterlands, far away from the prying eyes and ears of the national media. But I’ll bet we see and hear lots from her after November 4th.

Nothing's Changed

I've been fairly quiet this week in spite of the torrent of economic and political news. Barack Obama continues to glide toward a substantial presidential victory in a few weeks while MCCain looks and sounds more like Yosemite Sam than a serious presidential contender. Issues like Rev. Wright and terrorist Bill Ayres bounce off Obama because no one is listening to McCain. It reminds me of Bob Dole in1996 against dirt bag Bill Clinton. For some God forsaken reason Dole couldn't bring himself to go after Clinton on his character and associations. McCain is falling into the same mode. There's no point in running if you don't truly oppose the other guy.
The economy is in shambles and no amount of government intervention is going to change anything. If you've been lucky enough to be out of the stock market, stay out. Remember, the federal government is your investment partner now. Enough said?

Pricing Cruelty

By now I suspect we’ve all heard the horrific story of Sally the dog. Sally was abandoned and left to die in a Salvation Army clothing bin at the Hyde Park Stop and Shop last month. By all accounts Sally was in the bin for at least a week enduring high daytime temperatures and cold nights. When found, Sally was severely dehydrated and skeletal. A few more hours in that bin and Sally would have died. The good news is Sally is recovering nicely and the Dutchess SPCA has been deluged with offers to adopt her.
The other good news was a massive law enforcement effort led by Dutchess County Sheriff Butch Anderson actually found and arrested the low life allegedly responsible for this despicable act of cruelty. The suspect is 28 year-old Gary Lee Rhodes of Poughkeepsie. He has been charged with one count each of torturing/not feeding an animal, abandonment of a disabled animal and neglect of an impounded animal, all misdemeanors. Not surprisingly, Rhodes pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Hyde Park court last week.
What was surprising, however, was what transpired at the arraignment. The Assistant District Attorney revealed that Mr. Rhodes had two previous DWI’s and two prior failures to appear in court on his record. Bench warrants were necessary in both cases to get him in a courtroom. At the time of his arrest in the Sally case he was still on probation from his last DWI. You don’t have to be an FBI profiler to see this is a guy who doesn’t think the law applies to him.
So it would stand to reason the judge here would at least set a decent bail for this proven scofflaw. Well, you would be wrong. When Judge John Kennedy was asked by the prosecutor to post bail at $1,000, the judge said he can’t predict the future and let Rhodes go on his own recognizance. Here’s an idea, Judge. Forget the future; take a look at this guy’s past. He didn’t show up the last two times he was due in court. How about requiring this criminal to have a financial stake in honoring his obligation to appear?
It gets better. Prior to letting Rhodes walk, his public defender waxed on about the positive changes Rhodes had been making in his life like working at a community center. (Most people call that having a job). Then the Judge himself chimed in with “He appears to be in an upward trend of getting his life together.” Really? What part of two drunk driving convictions and stuffing a helpless animal in a clothing bin constitutes “an upward trend?” Did this guy have to set the dog on fire to get you to post bail, Judge?
Then there’s the message this sends to the community. Now I know bail shouldn’t be used as a form of punishment but it should reflect the severity of the charge. By refusing to post bond here, the Judge is putting a zero dollar value on the treatment and life of an animal. It’s said a society is best reflected by the manner in which it protects the most vulnerable. If this is the value we place on an innocent animal, what does that say about us as a community? A good start would be toughening the laws on animal cruelty. Maybe some of these folks running for Assembly could get something done.

Bailout or Cop Out?

I was a college student in Boston in the late 60’s when I first heard the term red lining. It referred to the long standing banking practice of identifying certain neighborhoods with a proven history of loan and mortgage defaults. Not surprisingly these were areas with high concentrations of low income people, many of them minorities. Liberal democrats on Beacon Hill saw this as a political opportunity and began railing against this alleged discrimination.
The local bank presidents, who were summoned before various state panels investigating this “outrage”, meekly testified they were in the business of loaning money to people likely to pay them back…nothing personal, just sound business practice. You’d have thought these guys were testifying in 300 thread count Pratesi’s and pointy hats judging by the liberal’s reaction.
The critics of red lining were mostly black activists and rabble rousers along with liberal democrats like then State Representative Barney Frank. Along the way legislation eventually forced most banks to extend credit to less than credit worthy applicants. The creation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed the circle by allowing even more deadbeats into the mortgage pool.
Red lining eventually became a dirty word and the battle cry became “affordable housing” for all. Liberal democrats told the poor they were entitled to a house regardless of their ability to service a loan. More regulations made it tougher and tougher to foreclose on delinquent loans. Eventually many of these people simply walked away from these properties.
Now we have whole inner city neighborhoods looking like post war Dresden. Properties bought with funny money are now in foreclosure and taxpayers are being told they have to write out a check to clear up the tab. It turns out the bank presidents were right. If you can’t afford the mortgage, we shouldn’t be obliged to give it to you.
So here we are forty years later with the stock market around your ankles and the credit market seized up like a ’54 Chevy. The same genius’s (hello Barney) who brought you this debacle have now concluded a check for 700 billion will do the trick. The government buys the bad paper from the failing financial institutions thereby injecting much needed liquidity into the system. This is like putting a few towels on the floor as your bath tub overflows and going back downstairs to watch a football game. It’s probably not going to work. The days of the mighty United States waving its hand and making things go away are over.
Like our recent penchant for pain free wars and interventions, Americans refuse to accept any real pain or sacrifice as a consequence of their actions. Many, many Americans fed at the trough of easy money until the music stopped. Americans would still be at it if housing supply hadn’t overwhelmed demand so spare me the whining. In the financial world we will shortly be returning to, people and institutions will be going old school.
For all the demagoguery about Wall Street fat cats and golden parachutes, the real villains here were the predatory lenders emboldened by lax government regulation and the people who tried to game the system by taking out loans they knew they couldn’t afford. We will now enter a period of financial due diligence and red lining will be back…until the next time and there will be a next time. There always is.

Gwen Ifill's a Joke

The late revelation that PBS's Gwen Ifill and moderator of tomorrow's VP debate has written a book on "The Age of Obama" and plans to release it on Inauguration Day 2009staggers the mind. Does anyone really believe she is objective? Was there no one they could get who hadn't written a fawning tribute to Obama? Imagine Sean Hannity as moderator, a guy well known to worship McCain. The liberals would be out of their minds and rightly so. Her mere presence now colors the credibility of the debate. If it even appears Ifill favors Biden, Palin gets a pass. Appearance is everything in politics and this moderator appears biased. Get another one.