The Mendacity of the MSM

Here’s the quote to start off this blog (hat tip to Virginia Virtucon and Hugh Hewitt):

 

I was having dinner a night ago with a friend of mine who is a statistician for a well-regarded private polling company. They do some work for Republicans in California, but most of the work they do is for Democrats or Democrat-leaning operations (Unions, etc.). Anyway, her shop was retained to do a few Presidential polls for targetted states on behalf of a union so the union could decide where to spend their ad dollars for the last week. They did Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Missouri. After mocking the hell out of the voter id spreads used by Rassmussen, Zogby, etc. (and this is coming from a committed Dem who will be voting for Barry O) she said the results of their polling lead her to believe that McCain will definitely win FL, OH, NC, MO and NV. She says Obama definitely wins New Mexico. She said that Colorado and New Hampshire were absolute dead heats. She said she thinks there is a 55% chance Obama holds on in Pennsylvania and a 75% chance McCain wins Virginia. She absolutely laughed at the public polls showing Obama leading Virginia–and pointed out that all of those polls rely on Dem turnout being +4 and as much as +7, when in 2006, Republicans actually had the advantage by +3. She also pointed out that the numbers for Obama in SWVA look absolutely awful and that McCain is running 10 points better then Allen did in NoVa.

 

Anyway, her companies conclusion is that the election will come down to Colorado, New Hampshire and the Republican leaning district in Maine, which in her opinion might very well decide the Presidency (apparently the district in Nebraska that Obama thought he might be able to get is now off the table). She said she has very little doubt that the public polling is part of a “concerted voter suppression effort” by the MSM. She said IBD/TIPP was the only outfit doing public polling that was “worth a bucket of warm piss”.

 

 

Now, we can make sense of what is really happening in the volitility and variability of the polling data for the 2008 election cycle; as remarked upon by Jay Cost at RCP. Variability that doesn’t show the data lining up in any sort of bell curve.  Standard deviations that are double those of the 2004 election cycle.

The key passage is “concerted voter suppression effort by the MSM.” Without getting into any conspiracy theory, the beyond blatant MSM bias more than makes the case for an almost monolithic support for Obama. Moreover, despite the resources and time, it has made little to dig into Obama’s past. A past that, given a different ideological paradigm, would have been more than apparent. Bloggers for small publications have managed to dig up Obama’s socialist past. And these same said individuals have tied Ayers around Obama’s neck. Large organizations would, if they really wanted to, could have, with their in-house resources and expertise, could have done all of that in about twelve hours; back in January 2008. And, the two local Chicago MSM giants the Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune, with their local contacts and experience, could have done it in two hours. And, if the late Mike Royko, perhaps the dean of the anti-Chicago Machine muckrakers, were still alive, Obama would have been laid bare in about two minutes.

But, none of this was ever done. It was far more important to smear Palin’s 17 year old daughter than to question “the One.” 

Which brings us back to the polls. We have to realize that many of these polling firms have as clients, the MSM and other fellow-traveller organizations. So, we have to ask what are these clients really buying? I’m sure it’s accurate information for internal use. But, are they also issuing doctored information for public consumption? Would these polling firms be getting the business they have if they were reporting, say, McCain kicking Obama’s butt? Or, is what is being reported a lie?

If, indeed, someone is cooking the books, then we have a very logical explanation for this poll variability. The liars aren’t getting their story straight. 

 

 

Market Wisdom and the Discounting of the Democrats

The Market slide continues.  The MSM has successfully hidden a lot of the truth of Obama and his socialist, that is, Democratic Party fellow travelers.  But, the markets don’t lie and the truth is slowly leaking out.  Unfortunately, while a lie will travel half way around the world while the truth is just saddling up.  And, one week till the election is just too short a time for the truth to truly resonate.

What is being discounted?  Foremost is the slow accretion of policies that have diverged from the simple message of Reagan of low taxes and low regulation. 

First, the markets are discounting the fundamental deceit of socialism.  The whole premise of socialism is using the coercive power of government to take from what are deemed less deserving groups and giving what is taken to what are deemed more deserving groups.  What is deemed more or less deserving is entirely left to the whim of the self-made philosopher kings of Obama and his party stalwarts.  

But, in making those distinctions, some how a lot of cash manages to remain in the pockets of those philosopher kings.  Like Franklin Raines recent multi-million dollar condo purchase.  Like Obama’s 1.5 million dollar mansion with some discounting courtesy Rezko and a sweet heart mortgage.  Like Michele’s job promotion and a doubling her salary to $300,000 per annum.  Like the hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign cash to each of the Democrat congressional leaders from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Or, the special loans to Dodd, Senator from the great state of Countrywide.  This is no different than the Communist Party leaders of the old USSR being whisked to work in their Zil limousines or spending their weekends in their country dachas. 

This is crony capitalism.  Or, for a party hacks like Obama, this is Chicago Machine party graft and favors.  Obama mastered that system and is being richly rewarded.

Restraint in taxing and spending is dictated by maintaining a delicate symbiosis between the host that is the private sector and the parasite that is the government.  It about fleecing your sheep to within an inch of their lives; yet keep your sheep alive to so as to have something to continue to fleece.

There was a very successful economic paradigm established by Reagan that the Democrats managed to destroy by their corruption.  Now they are on the verge of seizing power trying to sell the proposition that the current economic crisis is a failure of free market economics.  Only, the markets are not buying that the what has worked so well for the last thirty years is now suddenly decrepit and will be replace by a socialist economic paradigm that will, in spite of its abysmal record over the last century, all of a sudden perform in a manner that will completely belie its past performance.

The next issue is energy.  This is tightly tied to the conceit of environmentalism and it current bandwagon of global warming.  And, this will be one of the principal vehicles to burden our economy with regulations that will allow  economic micro-management right down to the carbon footprint of the weed whacker in your garage.  It will also create vast opportunities for graft and favors as business, large and small, will need to pay tribute to the cap-and-trade commissars that will stand astride all business and economic aspirations of all of our Joe-the-Plumbers.

Attempt after attempt has been made to come up with a rational energy policy that have been stymied by the very forces that now threaten to control the White House and both houses of Congress.  In fact, if it weren’t political suicide, you’d have European style gas taxes and five, six, seven dollar per gallon gas years ago.  In fact, for many of these same Democrats, the four-dollar per gallon gas of last summer was a dream come true.

All of this mess concerning energy comes down to down the line opposition to domestic offshore drilling; we couldn’t have oil derricks spoiling the view from all of the multi-million Malibu mansions of Barack’s Hollywood donors.  No ANWR, oil shale or nuclear power.  Detroit’s big three auto manufacturers were actually in the process of recovery until this latest energy crunch and four-dollar gas totally upended those plans.  And, even before the mortgage crisis really hit, high priced energy, due to this purposeful inaction, was already starting to drag down our economy.

Third factor that the market is discounting is that the Democratic leadership about to take control is economically ignorant.  As in rank ignorance.  Both Obama and Biden never worked out side of a career that involved spending other people’s money. Obama’s career has been organizing vote fraud through his connections at ACORN.  Or, working with his pal Ayers on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge to distribute $100 million in graft.

Biden graduated from law school in 1969 and was elected to the Senate in 1972; a man who has spent his entire adult life as a Senator.  For the last 36 years, for essentially all his life, Biden has drawn a paycheck from the Senate; his only job. A community organizer with the honorific of “Senator.”

McCain has been in government employ for all of his life–Naval officer, congressman, senator.  But, he has the decency to at least not presume to tell others how to live their lives or earn their livings.  He has the decency, in private economic affairs, to keep his mouth shut and his hands to himself.

And, Palin; probably one of the few politicians on the Washington scene who isn’t a millionaire.  Probably one of the few politicians who’s net worth is comfortably this side of $500,000.  A politician, who with her husband, actually ran a business.

We have a whole Democratic hierarchy who simply has no clue as to what Joe-the-plumbers go through on a day to day basis to juggle business demands, payrolls, rent, taxes, and the like.  Obama’s proposal to grant a $3000 tax credit two years running for every new job created amply demonstrates this vast void of economic understanding. 

From my point of view, as a small businessman, a new employee will cost my business $50,000 to $70,000 per year.  For my practice to hire a nurse will cost about $25 per hour.  That works out to $1000 per week; or $50,000 per year.  Then you add in medical benefits, Social Security, safe-harbor 401K contributions and you’re easily adding another $20,000.  Barack’s proposed $3000 chickens–t check is not going to sway a single business to add a single job.

Or, again the ridicule heaped on Joe-the-Plumber, by Biden, for the temerity to have aspirations in excess of $250,000 again reflects a complete ignorance as to what it takes to run a business.  Even in “small” business, $250,000 is not a lot of money.  Between trucks, tools, inventory, shop facilities, employee wages and warehousing $250,000 gets eaten up very rapidly.  Remember, business expenses have to be paid up front; you don’t maintain inventory on consignment.

Economic knowledge for the likes of Obama and Biden was having supply and demand concepts learned in Econ 101 deconstructed by some Marxist professor.  For much of the claque that seems poised to run the White House and both Houses of Congress, intellectual discourse is the college dorm room bull sessions now continued in the Hamptons over white wine and brie.  Indeed, what passes for profound intellectual insight, is really abject fear over getting knocked off the social A-list for uttering the truth that Adam Smith economics still matters.  That, what Joe-the-Plumber says actually reflects the real truth about basic economic concepts so derided by many an ivory-towered intellectoid professor.

Then, we get into the intrusion of the outside world.  After Russia’s invasion of Georgia this summer, we have two rogue powers–Russia and Iran–that have control of significant portions of known oil production from the Artic Circle to the Straits of Hormuz.  One of those powers is already nuclear.  The other, in the grips of an Islamic death cult, is perhaps only a year away. 

What if Iran detonates a nuclear weapon over an American carrier task force in the Persian Gulf?  What will Obama’s reaction be?  Will he be prepared to mitigate the sudden rise in energy prices?  Will he be willing to acknowledge an act of war as such?  Will he be willing to then act in a manner appropriate to an act of war?  The markets know, just as does the MSM, what the real response will be; except the market are not hiding the answer.

William F. Buckley, Jr. once remarked, to the effect, that he rather be ruled by the first one hundred names out of the Cambridge phone directory that by the Harvard faculty.  In that vein, the markets are saying the same; that they rather be ruled by the likes of Sarah Palin and Joe-the-Plumber than by the Georgetown cocktail circuit.

In the end, the only way out of this crisis is the promotion of economic growth.  You know, the boring mantra a low taxes, low regulation and free trade.  It just hasn’t the sparkle to get you into the Getty digs like Barack last spring. This is one of those situation where the more you do, the worse it gets.  In some respect, you get a perverse pleasure in the prospect that the guilty parties will have the full responsibility of this economic mess thrust upon them.  And, Obama will have the unique opportunity to create a legacy that will double up on Carter and Hoover.

 

 

 

The Obama Foreign Policy Crisis

You have to look back into the 1930’s to understand the cost of blinking at the small tests until we faced WW II, Patrick Buchanan’s “Unnecessary War.” That war, WW II, was in fact an accretion of small decisions that taken by themselves may have been minor, but taken as a whole created the largest and bloodiest conflict ever seen in the history of mankind.

As a counterpoint, we are perhaps very fortunate, to a degree will we may never realize, that Reagan was able to avert the calamity of the Cold War from turning into a full scale shooting war. 

The US Navy looked at the causes of major mishaps and found, on average, there were six “switches” that represented decision points that led to that mishap. If one was switched off, the entire mishap would have been averted. As an aside, it’s interesting reading Into Thin Air with that perspective.

Obama’s going to blink and blink. Switch after switch will remain “on.” He will be specifically tested by our adversaries to an extent that Reagan (or McCain) will not. If our electorate doesn’t realize it, our adversaries realize that political hothouse environment, in which Obama grew up, does not prepare one for decision making such as war. The environment of the Chicago political machine that anointed its candidates and in doing so, made their election a foregone conclusion. An environment where opposition could be easily be slapped down; sometimes with persuasion from thugs from the local union hall.

This is an environment that populates the Democratic hierarchy with lightweights that keep getting re-elected from safe seats, but does little to prepare them of adversity. Their re-elections largely hinge on their ability to bring home pork. Free government checks, abortion, gay marriage. Unfortunately, this will do little to deter the aggression of say, Islamic imperialism.

The real crisis is that these accretion of foreign policy blinks that Biden alluded to last Sunday will eventually bring on a very large crisis. The old USSR pulled their punches on the matter of nuclear weapons because much of its leadership lived through WW II; and were lucky to have lived through it at all. With Islamic imperialism, we have a death cult not seen since the Aztecs that will not have such inhibitions with regards to nuclear weapon use. 

Right now, we are holding Islamic imperialism at bay with an essentially a peace time army. We are able to do so because we are intervening early in this conflict. It is easy to see how self-inflicted defeats by the US, engineered by the likes of Obama can embolden our enemies to ramp up this war to a scale not seen since WW II. 

And, once such a calamity comes to pass, what more will Obama blink at. In WW II, the draft was re-instated and ten percent of the American population was place in uniform and under arms. This was a conflict of national survival that no longer respected the distinction of civilian populations. As, the tempo of American casualties mounted in the Pacific War, there arose a systematic bombing offensive that firebombed Japanese city after Japanese city. One could argue that despite the “inevitability” of victory, that after the carnage of Okinawa, Truman chose atomic bombs over an invasion of the Japanese Islands. Even with victory “at hand,” Truman realized that he had to make a choice. A choice as to whether this victory would come with the price of more American or Japanese causalities. As Commander-in-Chief of the American military; he had to choose in favor of American lives.

Will citizen-of-the-World Obama make such a choice. What will it be; President Obama or UN Secretary General Obama. With each blink, the next choice will only get harder. 

Biden; A Reminder of the Past

Biden’s gaffe about Obama’s being tested by a foreign policy crisis once again reflects on how long it’s been since the days of Carter. It may or may not resonate with the electorate for the simple fact that truly execrable foreign policy has not been seen in literally a generation. Not since the culmination of the Carter presidency and its handling of the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and 1980.

Once again, demographics. Using the age of 18 as the age of political coming of age, we first focus on the high school class of 1972. This was the last class that faced the draft. Though they had to live through a doubling of Carter’s “misery index” (all on Carter’s watch), they did so on the sidelines since many of these individuals were in college, grad school and the like. Since, they were only starting you, things like double digit prime interest rates didn’t come into play since they weren’t ready to buy a home. Bracket creep wasn’t much of a factor either, just out of school. BTW, remember those terms?

And, once Reagan took office, these individuals were on their way riding what would be 30 years of economic growth. Those that turned 18 in 1980 only knew of a world of economic growth. Under Reagan’s helm, some of the greatest threats to peace were eliminated by Reagan. So, here’s an entire demographic of Americans, 54 years of age and younger, who have no concept of what war or privation really are.

Now, Biden warns us of what we will get under Obama, or Carter II. Biden should know because he’s one of the few who sat at the levers of power during the Carter administration. He’s the institutional memory as to just how pernicious the liberal/Democratic world view truly is when it come to foreign policy. He should know since, back then he was considered one of the Democratic up and comers. And, there in the 70’s, Biden had a front row seat to Carter blinking at every foreign policy challenge that came his way. The Iranian hostage crisis, because it involved the storming the American embassy, involved an attack on American soil–an act of war. And, this by an Iran that was decades away from nuclear weapons. Will pass over how “shocked, shocked” Carter said he was when the Russians invaded Afghanistan.

Iran, perhaps less than a year away from a functioning nuke, has already turned down Obama’s offer for an unconditional chit-chat. And, Iran is now already setting pre-conditions for such a set of talks. You can practically bet the farm where that Obama’s first crisis is coming from Iran. Is Obama ready for a preemptive strike? Will he let the Israelis overfly Iraq to attack Iran? Biden just gave us the answer. Because he’s seen it before. He’ll blink.

Powell and the Seduction of DC

The Powell endorsement of Obama is another disgusting example of the seduction of the culture of power. He’s another example of yet another power player who’s “gone native.” 

Here’s a man who’s a “transformative” figure by working up the brutal hierarchy of the US Army to become the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. Arguably, as the ranking officer of the US military, if you want to get into the race thing, the most powerful black man in human history. Further, it was the US military, despite many painful fits and starts that actually has become the closest thing to a color-blind meritocracy. As if an Obama presidency is going to be such a novelty.

We have a man, in Powell, who was secretary of state, courtesy a GOP administration. We have a man who was considered a strong presidential contender back in the 90’s. A presidential contender who could have easily reached out to “bitter” America; and, who by his service in uniform would have been eagerly embraced by those very “bitter” Americans. Instead, Powell defers to an empty suit, a Chicago political machine hack, as the transformative figure. It’s unbelievable that a man like Powell would stoop to a man who hasn’t placed one toe on the first rung of the ladder that Powell has already climbed. 

Then, we have a man, who by his rank in the US Army, as Secratary of State, is intimately privy to the leadership challenges are going to face the new president. And, he, like his comrade-in-arms McCain, had similar formative experiences as junior officers in the same conflict in Vietnam. Both, knew from firsthand experiences that the enemy they fought weren’t agrarian reformers as portrayed by Obama mentor Ayers, but ideological monsters who would unleash genocide in the name of their ideology. He saw the effects of defeat when he had to revitalize our “hollow military.”

Powell saw the suffering in Southeast Asia when America left; the genocide know as the Killing Fields, the Vietnam re-education camps and the Boat People. But, Powell has “grown” in Washington. Apparently, such concerns as the suffering of these peasants in Southeast Asia pale in comparison to the “One.” The suffering and death that will ensue, when we abandon allies in the Middle East to the cruel mercies of Islamic Imperialism, are simply unimportant to the coming of Barack, the Messiah.

Then, maybe there’s a more venial reason. A favor. Like Admiral Crowe who got an ambassadorship to England for endorsing Clinton, maybe Obama has a similar favor in store for Powell. Chicago style.

Destroying the “Radicalism” of Reagan

It is capitalism that is the truly radical ideology. It is the system that allows any idea to complete in the free market. And, allow that idea, if good enough, to flourish. Flourish to the point of breaking down an old order or ordering that currently prevails. 

Socialism is the ideology that seeks to stifle social mobility. It seeks, through taxes and regulation to control the reach of a new idea. And, since those who regulate and tax, always represent an old guard, an established special interest, there is always a bias to stifle new ideas to maintain the privilege and control of the old guard. Socialism is just the an old idea, Royalism, dressed up in modern clothing.

There, in fact, is a very particular flavor to capitalism in the American Experience. Every fortune accumulated in the history of our Republic comes from inventions or ideas that brought things to the “common” man that were heretofore reserved for the wealthy and powerful. It is what Lincoln once stood for; policies that would give any individual the means and ability to work for himself. This is a little know aspect of Lincoln since his greatest accomplishment, one that overshadowed all others, was his shooting a lot a Democrats who were busy trying to defend the Royalist vogue of the time, slavery.

But, what is the difference today. Instead of overseers with whips, we have IRS agents with 1040’s to confiscate our hard earned wealth. Union card check thugs to “organize” our labor to the benefit of union bosses and their agenda. A cap-and-trade regime that will scrutinize every economic move by any individual. For entrenched interests with armies of lawyers and bags of campaign cash, the cap-and-trade commissars will be easily bought off. But, for the Joe-the-plumbers, what money will they have left for bribes when that has all been taxed away. 

What this election is really about, is the joining together of sundry elites to slap down the baleful, in their eyes, effects of individual initiative unleashed by the Reagan Revolution. The enormous amount of cash Obama raised came from a coming together of a lot of powerful interests that have an interest in using governmental power to protect their privilege and keep entrants that don’t meet their criteria from ever entering their country club. The “country club” Republican isn’t dead; they’ve all become Democrats.

Let’s illustrate the radicalism of capitalism. It’s a common lament, among the enviromentalists to lament the overcrowding of our national parks. Overcrowded, of course, with the hoi polloi; overcrowded with too much of you and not me. But, until the Ford Model T, the national parks were the exclusive playground of the rich. Yes, railroads greatly reduced the cost of transportation. But, only the rich could afford a railroad excursion to see our national parks since personal transportation was still a very expensive commodity. Then came the Model T. What Henry Ford invented was affordable personal transportation. And, thus, he entered the American pantheon of the very wealthy by making personal transportation affordable to the masses. Up to then, only the rich could horses, carriages and livery. And, the scum of the earth, with their global-warming internal combustion engines, horned in on the heretofore exclusive domains of the wealth; our national parks.

Were the personal automobile to disappear, the masses would be entirely dependent on transportation provided by the government. Public transportation in the form of intra-city busses and light rail. Amtrak. The airlines (with all the subsidies, they might as well be owned by the government). Of course, in their jihad against the internal combustion engine, such thought never crossed the minds of our elites.

Though it’s ironic that the now self-made elites that drove the innovations of silicone valley have forgotten their roots, their innovations, particularly with the internet, have destroyed the monopoly of the MSM to control information. I mean, what was Steve Jobs thinking to have Albert Gore on the board of directors at Apple. No, Steve, Al didn’t invent the internet.

Ray Kroc didn’t invent fast food; he invented the reasonably priced restaurant. Though, in the name of trans-fat, the folks in LA who can afford $30 plus entrees of free-range chicken are zoning out “fast food” restaurants. Rockefeller didn’t invent the oil industry; rather he rationalized it and brought forth cheap kerosene which, as a replacement to whale oil and candles, gave the average American access to cheap, safe indoor light. 

William Levitt didn’t invent the house, he made home ownership affordable, again to the masses. That is affordable housing based on what 20 percent down and a 30 year fixed rate mortgage could buy. And, note that homes in secluded suburbs with lawns are the subject of derision from the elite as “surburbia.” Yet, the elite have such living accommodations for the better part of a century; check out the Main Line in Philadelphia, or Lake Forest north of Chicago. 

Only the willfully blind ignore that free markets have done so much better for more people than any other system to date. Even if free markets haven’t performed to everyone’s expectations; they by comparison still outstripped anything that the socialist paradigm could have ever or did produce. Yet these elites poured 150 million dollars into Obama’s campaign for this September. Elites who greatly enriched themselves on Reagan’s economic ideas over the last 30 years. Clearly, these elites see a need to entrench their gains and to block challenges to their economic predominance. 

The Obama economic policies will have little effect on these elites. Socialism ossifies the social strata. Obama will have the presidential limousine just as the old USSR elites had their Zil limousines. It’s a classic example of “I’ve got mine, now close the door behind me.” To the elite and well connected there will always be all the accoutrements of a huge carbon footprint lifestyle. Large homes, expansive lawns, large automobiles, convenient personal transportation. No cap-and-trade bureaucracy will ever impede their business plans; they’re already on the inside. Rather, these bureaucracies will only serve to block out the competition of new people who don’t “belong.” And, these elites will have the tools of governmental regulation to determine who should “belong” to keep their club exclusive.

The ACORN Democrats

To go back to the Hayek basics, socialism is nothing more than an arbitrary group of people deciding that one group of people, including themselves, are more deserving of some “good” than some other group of people. Then use the coercive power of government to transfer that “good” from the less deserving to the more deserving. Like transferring wealth to the blond, blue-eyed Aryans. Transferring land from the despicable kulaks to the deserving proletariat. Or, free homes as reparations from the racist banks and money lenders. As an aside, it just occurred to me, with Jessie Jackson bravely blazing the trail, it will soon be politically correct to utter the word “Zionist” and the words “money lender” in direct juxtaposition. 

Ultimately, socialism is prostitution. It is selling your birthright of freedom, dignity and principles for the mess of pottage by joining the group that will take, for themselves, what they never really earned. Oh, yes, such takings will be rationalized by all sorts of imagined grievances. In fact, we have whole universities devoted to just that theorizing; by studying the holy scriptures of Karl Marx.

Socialism is the perfect ideology for the Walter Mitty-types; inconsequential twits, who wouldn’t get the time of day, now have the ability to exert influence grossly out of proportion to any real work or contribution to truly deserve such influence. This is why we have academia; these are sheltered workshops for the psycho-socially handicapped.

In the spirit of Lenin, where any action that further socialism is good, we have ACORN systematically destroying the concept of the secret ballot. They, in their minds, are in the pursuit of such holiness that systematic cheating is their perogrative. And, so they register, and will try to vote, illegal aliens, Mickey Mouse and the Dallas Cowboys offensive line.

And, as they unburden the less deserving of their purported ill-gotten wealth, some how a whole bunch of the money somehow winds up in their pockets. Carrying cost, don’t you know. Everyone in the Democratic party doesn’t come to Washington rich, but everyone seems to leave quite well off. By doing good for the unwashed proletariat, the Democratic elite seem to do well. Not bad for the party of the “working man.” Obama’s barely been a Senator for two years and he’s got a 1.5 million dollar mansion. pretty good for a ward heeler, er, community organizer.

Except, the working man just doesn’t seem to get it. Joe the plumber was supposed to fulfill his role in Plato’s Republic as the foil to his philosopher king; to the great compassion of the “One” as he graced his working class neighborhood with the luminescence of his understanding for the plight of the “common” man. Joe the plumber was supposed to realize he was to serve as a prop in the Potemkin village of Obama’s socialist narrative as he ascended to the White House. But, Joe had the unbelievable temerity to open his mouth and blaspheme the holiness that is Obama.

Remember those old Charles Atlas don’t-let-the-bullies-kick-sand-in-your-face? You know Obama would make a great model for the before picture. And, Joe or Todd (Palin) would be perfect for the after picture. Frankly, Obama’s just the dweeb that the likes of Joe or Todd worked over in the alley behind the bar. Obama, just walked into the wrong bar and opened his mouth. Joe took him out back and taught him some manners.

Joe Six-Pack and $250,000

Talkin’ Joe Biden weighted in by expressing doubts that a mere plumber could ever make $250,000 a year. (ht from Powerline).

Speaking as a small business man myself, $250,000 is not a particularly high threshold to reach. In fact, it doesn’t take a whole lot for a “mom and pop” business to easily capitalize into seven figures. There’s lots of business over in the unglamorous side of town that don’t even enter into the consciousness of the latte sipping metro-sexual until they decide that they need a granite countertop for their gourmet kitchen. Plumbing services. Heating and air conditioning shops. Car repair. The tire shop. The tile guy. All sorts of “icky” big-carbon-foot-print business run by “bitter” American ignoramuses that keep our home warm or cool. Fix our flats. Stop our leaks. Replace broken glass. Walk into the shop section of your tire shop. Start toting up the value of the tools, hydraulic lifts, tire inventory; it ain’t chicken feed.

And, even with a modicum of success these little business can morph into big affairs requiring all sorts of capital improvements. 

Joe the plumber, just by himself will need a truck. And, I mean a full size pick up truck since he won’t be able to carry his tools and your new Toto designer low flow toilet in a Prius. He’ll need a shop. Inventory. Computers for bookkeeping and inventory control. (Yes, its not just Obama’s Blackberry carrying fellow travelers that know what an Apple looks like.) 

The business grows, if so allowed by the local cap and trade solons. Now you need a bookkeeper and someone to answer the phone. You have plumbers working for you–the one’s who can still show up despite despite being beaten by the card-check union thugs. You now have a fleet of trucks. You now have a warehouse. And, now you have a lot of inventory. Go to Home Depot and check out the prices for a new kitchen faucet. Basic models can go for $250. Now how about a whole warehouse of faucets and fittings. To paraphrase the late Senator Everett Dirksen, peace be to him,  “$250 here, $250 there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money.” Yes, once upon a time, even Illinois elected Republicans; and, oh, did I mention Lincoln?

Perhaps, it’s a sick sense of the times that we can dish out $700 billion bailouts like so much pocket change. But, $250,000, for the small businessman, is not that much money.

I Feel My Lifetime Piling Up

So, goes the line from the Talking Heads. As in Obama’s lifetime. 

It is still mystifying as to why Obama, in the midst of this financial meltdown still fails to close the deal and utterly pull away. There’s no doubt this is a Democratic year. Polls for the House and Senate paint some very scary scenarios for the GOP, including a filibuster proof Democratic majority. Yet, Obama in a number of polls is only barely out of the statistical margin of error.  Was it McCain by staying even that actually won the last debate?

Probably the biggest reason, despite the mighty efforts of the MSM to conceal, is that Obama’s past is finally starting to leak out and a vetting process is only starting to begin. Suddenly, in the last three weeks the underbelly of Obama past is starting to pile up.

The sub-prime crisis is still a big millstone around the GOP’s neck. But, the corruption, facilitated by the Democratic party, is finally beginning to register. One of the biggest players in setting the stage for the sub-prime crisis, ACORN, is also being implicated in systematic voter fraud. This is the same organization the Obama’s campaign funneled $800,000 to for voter registration. There may be a lot of scared folks who want to “throw the bums out.” But their actions are checked by the fact that many are 401K owners who display a good deal of sophistication with regards to things of Wall Street. 

Then, there’s the situation when Obama’s mask really slipped, when we told Joe the plumber he wanted to spread the wealth around.

Responsible vetting would have tossed Obama on the trash heap sometime last February. But, Obama and his MSM enablers managed to try to keep his true bona fides hidden till almost the election. Yet, with the game clock under two minutes, the past starts to leak out. The truth of a very ordinary and very venial Chicago Machine politician starts to come to the fore.

So, where do we stand. First, we are driving with the windows painted over. With the MSM so in the tank for Obama, we frankly have no way of gauging Obama’s and McCain’s relative standings. Even the polls are suspect since many of them have MSM sources for clients. You think that the NYT is going to commission a poll that says that McCain is kicking Obama’s butt?

Then, we have the pundits and the like. They judge the debates as professionals judging professionals. Even the folks at Power Line, whom I respect, are lawyers judging the performance of another lawyer. Mr. Katz of Urgent Agenda judges debate performances with the eye of a show business professional. And, I’d have to agree that Obama puts on a very smooth, professional performance. Show business and particularly law are peopled with self-selecting folks who first cut their teeth on the high school debate team. But, do others really look at this election as scoring points on the debate team for a technical knock out? 

But, as the seamy truth continues to leak out, when does smooth and professional become oily and slick? When does metro-sexual cool become cold and calculating? And, the fine line between smooth and professional and oily and slick became a chasm when Obama confronted Joe the plumber. We found that the emperor really had no clothes when Joe, of bitter America, showed up the One for the BS artist he really is.

Conventional wisdom tells you that the GOP should really get shellacked in this election. But, you have so much of America that’s been systematically dissed by Obama and his fellow travelers. The PUMA’s. Women who may not agree with Palin but are profoundly insulted by her treatment by the MSM. The “bitter” Americans. The Joe the plumbers who have no interest in European class warfare but have plans to be their own bosses. 

You talk to folks around you. You begin to sense a change and a shift. Its not statistics, just a feeling. Its going to be a cliff hanger right to the end. But, you sense McCain is going to pull this win out at the last minute. 

DJIA Presidential Poll and the Discounting of Obama

So much for that stock market rally last Monday. For the markets, the financial meltdown is all old news. And, unless McCain shows some real fireworks tonight, so is the election.

The stock market will have its ups and downs. The market had many a rally all during the Great Depression; in fact it rallied right after Black Thursday. But, what is really happening is that the market is now adjusting to the Obama/Ried/Pelosi troika that will likely rule the roost come next January. The market has settled to a new equilibrium between 8000 and 9000. I suspect it will slowly dwindle to 7000 over the next two years. I don’t know if it has already accounted for the possibility of a filibuster-proof Senate. If not, the markets will sink even lower.

What the markets have discounted is a high tax, high inflation, high regulation environment that will come with the new year. We can look forward to massive income transfers from the private sector to the public sector in the form of cap and trade and some sort of attempt at socialized medicine.

Economic policy for Obama and his fellow travelers is taking from your enemies and rewarding your friends. What is coming is a group of self-made philosopher kings that represent the Democratic party leadership who will, al la F. A. Hayek, be picking and choosing favored groups that deserve more of whatever “good” that a society may have and gives that “good” to that group; having taken it from those groups determined to be less “deserving.”

Or, to put it another way, we’re going to have Chicago Machine patronage style economic policy. That is, a parasitic economic policy that feeds off the productive elements of society to generate favors for favored constituent groups. Economic restraint in this circumstance is the maintenance of a symbiotic host/parasite relationship so as not to kill off the host. This is the state of affairs in such places as New York or California. States that lurch from one fiscal crisis to the next with each annual budget mark up. Places no longer known from economic dynamism or growth. Places like upstate New York that were the economic powerhouses of Westinghouse, Kodak, Corning and Xerox are a distant memory. In fact, states like California or New York no longer fall into the Red State/Blue State paradigm. Rather, they fall into the Black Hole State category where all economic “light” is sucked into a vortex of taxing and spending as these states lurch from fiscal year to fiscal year trying to scrape enough cash to support what has degenerated into a social services economy.  

People like the Ohio plumber who’s wealth Obama wanted to “spread around” are the true face of small business and very likely one of those  $250,000 plus plutocrats (probably kulak in Obama’s socialist lexicon) that need to be slapped down for being too successful. This seemingly “insignificant” small business can easily capitalize into over a million dollars per year. These mom-and-pop business may not look like much, but their appearance can greatly belie the extent of wealth creation and economic growth they truly represent. This plumber could eventually have all kinds of money tied up in tools, inventory, an office, shop and possibly a warehouse. But, instead of being on the forefront of creating new jobs, this guy is going to be cutting back on new hires and capital improvements. His money is going to be sucked away to pay for Obama’s new spending initiatives. He’s going to be contending with all sorts of new health care insurance mandates. And, unless he’s in cozy with the powers that be, under the new cap and trade mandates he not going to expand his business because his carbon footprint will be determined to be bigger than Hill’s thighs and Gore’s butt put together. He may even have to worry about the his safety, and that of his family, when union thugs come by to card check his workers. 

The Dow fell about 700 points today and the DJIA now sits at about 8600 points. This is the new equilibrium for an economy resigned to the Obama Chicago Machine patronage economic management. 

The Sociology of Socialized Medicine

Before we complete the deal, elect Obama, and turn heath care, lock, stock and barrel, to the government consider this. Socialized medicine is the ultimate government give away. And, the ultimate lie because it isn’t free.

Our GDP is about 13.8 trillion dollars for 2007. Medical care accounts for about 14 percent of the GDP. Or, about 1.9 trillion dollars. Medicare accounts for about 5 percent of the GDP; about 700 billion dollars. That means we have to account for about the 1.2 trillion dollar difference between what comes from the government, primarily in the form of Medicare, with what comes from the private sector.  These are rough figures that don’t account for other public medical programs.

But, these figures are here to make a point. And, the point is not to quibble over exact numbers. Rather, the proposed government takeover of medical care is going to cost, in 2007 dollars, on the order of one trillion dollars. Moreover, because the biggest deadbeat in the medical care system is the government, the legally mandated steeply discounted care that is Medicare is covered by cost shifting from the private sector. This is particularly acute in primary care where there is little in the way of procedures to bolster the poor reimbursements of Medicare.

You will not be able to place the entire health care system a Medicare-like system and think that you can extend the current payment system over the rest of the medical care system that will be nationalized. Any nationalized medical system is going to have to cough up something on the order of a trillion dollars above and beyond is spent in the public sector. 

But, this is not a transfer of money from one account to another. It’s not the issue of waking up one morning and finding you’re working for the government whereas you worked for yourself the day before. This is not limited to physicians. This will sweep in every health care worker; nurses, respiratory therapists and on and on. Even the folks in the hospital kitchen. It may be easy, in the court of public opinion, to stiff the physician. But, physician fees only account for twenty percent of the total health bill. You need that trillion dollars unless you think its okay to stiff our nurses and paramedics too. And, again, since the private sector is propping up the public sector you will need that entire trillion dollars.

Now, wither that trillion bucks? Is it simply an even exchange? Less personal expenditures in exchange for a higher tax bill? Of course! Remember, this is supposed to be free. Magically health care will appear and someone else is going to foot the bill. A trillion dollar honey pot. A trillion dollars to be wisely doled out by dispassionate government experts who will insure every dollar is now spent for the best possible care possible. Expenditures can now be rationally applied so that all of the shortcomings of our impossibly broken system can be corrected. And, ACORN hand in hand Freddie and Fannie was going to give everyone a free house.

Of course not. Expenditures will become hopelessly politicized. Every dollar of this trillion dollar transfer will be doled out for maximal political effect. A single payer Health Care System will devolve into a trillion dollar vote buying fraud. This doesn’t begin to start into the issues of funding abortion.

So, in addition to shouldering the taxes that this trillion dollar transfer will represent, those who want real medical care will be forced to develop a new parallel private system. Just like in England. Canada hasn’t developed such a parallel system since it had the US just to the south to prop up their faltering system.

The simple fact is that there will be employees that will have the bargaining power to negotiate better health benefits than the lowest common denominator health system that Obamacare will become. And, Obamacare, al la the Chicago political machine, will fulfill its role as primarily a distributor of graft and favors. Medical care was never the priority. If you want to see the future of medical care for lumpenproletariat just visit Cook County Hospital. 

Now we get to the subject of small business; which includes many medical practices. Obama’s tax proposal to give everyone a tax break under the $250,000 level of course more than implies that those taxes will be borne by those above that level. As has been noted elsewhere, those $250,000 plus kulaks are small business who file 1040’s as s-corporations or sole proprietors. Before we even deal with the nationalization of medical care, were going to, as small businesses, start shelling out a lot more in tax dollars. Physicians have to deal with the business of medicine. Good intentions and the Hippocratic oath don’t pay the rent, electricity and nurses salaries. Recovery out of this latest mess from the sub-prime mortgage mess will be in the hands of job creation of small businesses; including your local doc.    

But, going further, at the stroke Obama’s pen, a whole class of small businesses will be wiped out. Just at a time we’re going to need every penny of economic growth to get out of this economic downturn, we’re going to nationalize the other ten percent of the fourteen percent of the GDP spent on medical care. We can kiss all that entrepreneurial drive good by.  And, we’re going to get the New Deal II with all the bells and whistles we could ever want; including the Great Depression.

 

 

 

 

 

Weathering the Storm

There’s a scene, in the movie 300, in which the Spartans come under a massive arrow attack by the Persian archers; the “we’ll fight in the shade” scene. The Spartans have no choice but to dive under their shields to weather the attack.

So, it was with McCain when the sub-prime mortgage mess hit last September. In some respects, though staying engaged, this is all McCain could do. And, as execrable as cutting a deal with Pelosi was, McCain had to staunch the blood, go to Washington and move negotiations forward with regards to a “bail-out” package. Had he not, the Democrats would have put together the ultimate ACORN voter fraud bail-out and dragged the whole mess right up to November 4th.

Well, McCain can come out from under his shield.  If he’s going to win this election, he’s going to have to go front and center and name names.  Starting with Obama. He’s got one last crack on national TV without the filter of MSM bias with the last debate. At that debate he’s going to have to systematically place the corruption of this melt down squarely in the laps of the Democrats.

At that debate, and for the rest of this campaign, McCain needs to keep repeating the rogues gallery of democrats responsible for this mess by protecting their corruption honey pot at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Frank, Pelosi, Reid, Obama, ACORN and the Senator from Countrywide, Dodds.

In fact, at the next and last debate, no matter what the question, the answer is Obama-Democrats-Corruption-ACORN-Freddie-Fannie. Even if the question is “did the sun rise in the east this morning?”

And, McCain’s got to stop his moderate bi-partisanship. His own father once said that history was made by poker players and not analysts. He’s the leader of the GOP and he’s going to have to stand and fight for a very partisan world-view of less taxes and less government. 

Right now, we don’t need moderates like Admiral David Farragut who, at the battle of Mobile Bay, was famous for the line: “Torpedos? Oh, heavens! Please proceed slowly and cautiously.”

 

 

Party Like It’s 1979

What Ronald Reagan gave us in economic opportunity has now been beaten to a pulp by a slow and relentless assault from the Democratic Party. I’ll leave conspiracy theories to others, but, at every opportunity, what Reagan gave us by low taxes and regulation has been eaten away by new spending, higher taxes and more regulation. It has been a program to eliminate the prosperity of the private sector in order to force more and more people to depend on the government for their material well-being. Dostoevsky said that money is coined liberty; this concept the Democrats well appreciate and despise.

The first big issue was energy. In fact this issue was dragging on the economy even before the sub-prime mortgage crisis really hit. There has been a systematic policy to prevent bringing new domestic energy sources on line for the last 30 years. It just isn’t oil exploration. It’s nuclear power as well. And, while the GOP has pandered to the NIMBY’s and otherwise tried to pose as “green,” much of the high prices for energy are based on demand far outstripping supply. That, in turn, was due to  stopping the development of oil shale, off-shore drilling, ANWR, and nuclear power by the Democrats and their fellow travelers in the environmental movement.

Then we layer on the interlocking corruption of the Democrats, the Community Reinvestment Act, ACORN, Freddie and Fannie. The free market fundamentals were just fine. It was the enormous intrusion of governmental corruption that is tanking the economy.

Finally, we have the same corrupt players from the Democratic party now set to greatly expand their power by taking the White House and expanding their power on Capitol Hill. Such a power grab only points to a high tax, high spending and high regulation environment that the markets are now violently discounting.

These asinine economic and energy policies are layering on in ever quickening succession and have managed to destroy the last 30 years of economic growth in the last three weeks. 

We haven’t even started on a foreign policy that may very well give us a nuclear Iran and a nuclear arms race in the Persian Gulf. There to will be imposed a stiff price; this in treasure and in blood.

Welcome to 1979. Welcome to double digit inflation and unemployment. Welcome to stagflation. Say hello to bracket creep. The “hollow” military is just around the corner. I can only shake my head at the brave servicemen who will die in another Desert One debacle. I would hazard to guess that most people under the age of 50 probably would give you a blank stare at any of these terms.

So, since 1980, America has been trending from red to blue. The trend happened for a reason. Life got too good and too soft. A whole generation of Americans have literally grown up without knowing what war really is; like 22,000 soldiers dead in a single day at Anteitam. A whole generation has grown up knowing nothing but economic prosperity. So, prosperous if fact, we thought we could give away free houses courtesy Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

This bill for this corruption will have to be paid. All the bailout package did was start to give us a rough idea as to the true cost of this corruption. Obama, as the first UN Secretary General to occupy the Oval Office will have some choices. If he chooses to run this recession/depression as a Chicago-style patronage fiefdom, his legacy as the second black president (Clinton was first) will change to that of Barak Hoover.

If he’s as smart as he’s cracked up to be, Obama will realize that the only way out of this mess is to promote economic and fiscal policies that promote growth. That means he’s going to have to throw Reid, Pelosi, Ayers, Wright and Rezko out the door, dust off his ouija board and start channeling Ronald Reagan.

Ayers Ghosting for Obama?

A number of posts on other web sites are now commenting on Obama’s hidden past. There’s evidence that Obama was once a member of a socialist party, the New Party. (Power Line) Something never mentioned by Obama. Much like the Obama memory hole down which his Columbia years have disappeared. Ayers was just a guy living in the neighborhood back then, too.

More of a pile up of dirty laundry that Obama and his enablers in the MSM seem to be hiding. It begs the question; if socialism and folks like Ayers are such great things for this country, shouldn’t it would be readily apparent and be shouted from the roof tops? 

Now, another interesting commentary and allegation. No, this is not conclusive. But, worth investigation. Here’s a post on the American Thinker that thinks that Ayers ghosted Obama’s memoir, Dreams of My Father. If true, Obama’s in good company with his plagiarizing vice-presidential running mate. There’s nothing new about politicians having ghost writers. But a 34 year-old ward heeler? And, if so, it’s not that he had editorial help, but who that editorial help was. Read the post and decide.

But, if true, we really have a guy who’s never going to be ready for prime time. Dreams of My Father, came out in 1995. Obama was 34 then. Sorry, but what kind of insights does a community organizer and Chicago machine foot soldier have to offer to the world? Besides, at that point in Obama’s career, he should have written the darn book himself as demonstration of his credentials of his worth for further advancement. And, seriously, what in heaven’s name is a 33 year-old doing writing an autobiography. Usually, at that age, you’re in the process of building a career. Obama’s got a self-esteem problem on steroids. Besides, autobiographies are for old folks, who by a lifetime of experience, actually might have some wisdom to offer. 

By contrast, George Washington was a Major in the Virginia militia at the age of 20. Between the ages of 22 and 26 was involved in the French and Indian War. At the age of 43, Washington was the commander-in-chief of the continental forces of the American Revolution. And, it was Washington that saw that conflict to a successful conclusion in 1783. That’s executive experience; somehow all done without a soul-searching autobiography.

Or, if we’re talking about publications, Jefferson, at the tender age of 33 was the principle author of the Declaration of Independence. And, JFK, in 1943, at the age of 26, was in command of PT 109.

 

Polish Comes from the City; Wisdom from the Desert

So wrote Frank Herbert in his science fiction masterpiece, Dune. Or, as Reba McEntire says, “don’t trust your soul to no backwoods, southern lawyer.” So, who won the debate last Tuesday? We’ll know on November 4th.

But, will the impressions from the debate hold? The one’s that gave the debate to Obama? Will the electorate, after spending the afternoon with the fast talking insurance salesman, think twice when they look at that contract on the kitchen table that evening?

Obama won in the eyes of the chattering classes, liberal and conservative. Because despite differences in political outlook, these commentators share a certain expectation of what a good performance is. Biases held from their days on the high school debate team. Lawyers evaluating the performance of another lawyer such as the writers of Power Line. Or, folks with a show business background like Mr. Katz of Urgent Agenda.

But, does such prized qualities as smooth delivery and a flawlessly cut Italian suit to match really impress? From my daily dealings with my patients, I would submit, perhaps not. I’ve found that in discussing treatment options to my patients that I must be careful not to fall into medical-ese or jargon. More importantly, I must bridge an educational gap and yet not violate the dignity and intelligence of my patient. I must speak simply and clearly but remember that I have absolutely no right to condescend or patronize. There’s a fine line between your patients expectation of professionalism and their expectation for the common touch. 

I remember, back in the summer of 1980, attending a summer picnic put on by my uncle’s local veteran’s post. What I remember were the continual jokes and ridicule directed at then President Carter. As my father pointed out, it was these comments that spoke more of the upcoming election than any poll or commentator; and why Reagan was going to win.

Therefore, what was on display, last Tuesday was one man, McCain, who has a genuine salt of the earth quality. A guy who could easily walk into the feed store to buy some Carhart overalls, put them on, then walk onto the shop floor without turning a head. 

Sitting next to him was the well turned out Obama. But, was that really well dressed and thoughtfully articulate. Or, was that slick and sharp? Could you really imagine this man other than in the setting of Starbucks? Could you imagine him operating my New Holland tractor? Uh, no, Obama’s welcome to drive the country off the cliff, but not with my toy.

I write this just as the Zobgy poll just came out. We’ll see.

Finally, don’t go on about Sarah Palin’s power suits. Because when she takes off the suit, she can bag a moose and field dress it. Just like she did to Biden.

Whither the Dow and the Polls

Obama’s ahead in the polls and the Dow closed down 189 at about 9250. The Dow is in the process of discounting the Obama presidency. It is discounting the high probability of a high tax, high inflation, high spending and high regulation environment that will greet the American economy this January. Further, the markets have a long memory. Like the Great Depression, the correct answer is gearing policy towards economic growth. See President Barack Hoover.

700 billion dollar bail out or no, the costs of Sallie and Freddie corruption comes with a price and will be paid. If not paid through economic growth, then in higher taxes, inflation or unemployment. The markets clearly see that the former will not be the preferred manner of dealing with this financial melt down.

People like to make comparisons with the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Two facts stand out. First, FDR did not inherit the depression until 1932. It was Hoover’s baby from 1929 to 1932. Herein lies the trap for Obama, since his potential ascendency to the presidency in January 2009 will be contemporaneous with this economic downturn. It will be his recession or depression. Even as we speak, Bush is a memory.

The second fact, more ominously for long term economic recovery, was FDR never solved the Great Depression. He and his socialist “social engineers” used the crisis to have a field day in implementing all sort of programs that spun off great PR and for the short term enhancement of Democratic political power. The New Deal was just a program of rationing privation.

But, when faced with a must-win war, FDR knew, for the long term viability of the Democratic Party, that he could not trust his egg-head intellectoids. War was a matter that could only be entrusted to the private sector. In doing so, he won the war and solved the Great Depression. Obviously, FDR could have done the same thing eight years earlier. But, he didn’t for political calculation.

What will Obama, Pelosi and Reid do? Or, should I say Pelosi and Reid since they’re going to be running Obama. Very likely, the want to run another New Deal for as long as they can. Which means instead of trying to get the economy up and running as fast as possible, we can expect them to milk this crisis for as much political gain as possible.

This economic crisis is their ticket for power in the legislative and executive branches of government. And, the ticket to expand the reach of government into more areas of what was once a matter of private choice. And, it probably makes no difference to the likes of Pelosi and her fellow travelers as to the long term implications  of any new spending and entitlement programs they may try to piggy back on to the current financial crisis.

 

 

What’s Flying Under the Radar

I missed the debate last night–again. I spent the evening going over math homework with my older daughter, reading with my younger daughter and then finished the night reading the fourth book of the Sisters Grimm to both of my daughters. Frankly, it beat watching Obama’s oleaginous delivery of platitudes that, if implemented, will further run our economy into the ground. 

Maybe it’s wishful thinking. And, maybe I’m falling prey to some conspiracy theory. But, I’m beginning to believe that the polls and the debates are just extensions of an MSM in the tank for Obama. Frankly, I wouldn’t put it past the MSM to have slipped the Obama camp some crib notes on the topics for the upcoming debates. He’s too smooth, too prepared. And, from To Kill a Mockingbird, you’ve got the comment that a lawyer never asks a question of the witness unless he know the answer. What answers does lawyer Obama know?

Then the polls. Who do these guys work for? Or, should I say that many of their polls are commissioned by any of a number of MSM outlets and are their results tailored for their clients? Are the polls reporting the news or there to create news; creating or continuing a narrative to create a specific outcome rather than just report on it.

The GOP is going to need to more systematically develop an alternate communication system. Talk radio and the internet are two key components. With all these papers tanking, maybe the GOP can pick a few of them up on the cheap. Said papers, could serve as summer internships budding conservative journalists.

And, the debates. With the possible exception of Ronald Reagan in October 1980, these affairs are at best break even for the GOP. The original Kennedy-Nixon debate turned out to be a campaign dirty trick; some one turned up the heat in the studio to make Nixon look sweaty, old and haggard. And, the GOP is not the party of fast-talking trial lawyers. If these dreadful affairs are going to continue, it time that the GOP insist that their people start moderating too. How about a prominent member of the media that draws 20 million listeners? How mainstream is that? If you’re going to call a tax-subsidized joke like PBS Lehrer mainstream, then Rush Limbaugh more than deserves to moderate.

But, where do we stand in this election? Frankly, only the GOP and Democratic internal polls know. I just know that I have a lot of casual conversations that have people casting doubt our Messiah, Obama. Yeah, I know that’s not statistically valid. But, neither is the MSM’s cooking the books.

The Discounting of Obama

Polls have Obama up. And, I’ve even beginning to doubt the polls for their accuracy. After all, many of these polling firms contract out to major MSM outlets. So, you wonder as to whether these polls are commissioned to report news or to create news. Like everything else in the MSM, you no longer have an accurate take on the news. In many respects this election is like driving your car with the windows painted over.

But, with the Dow now below 10,000 you have one accurate poll on Obama’s performance. With real money on the line, the markets will always reflect the current state of the economy with unerring accuracy. 

What the markets detected was a governmental intrusion into the private sector that forced economically untenable mortgage assets into the free market by governmental fiat. This governmental intrusion was nothing but crony capitalism with the Democrats running interference for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And, the party that caused this mess stands to make large electoral gains with little to check their propensity to further intrude into the private sector.

It’s also interesting to see how international markets have tanked over the recent weeks. It seems that Obama may be Europe’s big rock star, but even Europe won’t bet a plug nickel on the Messiah.

The markets are expecting high taxes, high inflation and increased regulations come November fourth. I doubt we’ll see the Dow much above 9000, if we’re that lucky, for at least the next two years. Then, the Bush tax cuts will expire…

Obama, Lies and Ayers II

What did Barack Obama know, and when did he know it?  As in Bill Ayers. 

Again, I must emphasize that Obama and Ayers were the principal board members on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. This board disbursed on the order of 100 million dollars in its five or so years of existence. 

So, without doing the slightest digging there are two points that tie Obama most intimately to Ayers.

First, how did an obscure ward heeler, I mean community organizer, get plucked from obscurity to a role in overseeing 100 million dollars. When it comes to spreading graft in the Chicago Democratic political machine, none of this happens by chance. Someone had to know Obama and of his loyalty to the Chicago political machine. 

I would suggest that Ayers had a role in plucking Obama from obscurity. William Ayers had connections as the son of Thomas Ayers, president and CEO of Commonwealth Edison–the monopoly electrical supplier for Chicago and Northern Illinois. Who paid for the legal firepower that got son Billy off on a technicality? 

Secondly, by virtue of dispensing 100 million dollars, Obama and Ayers knew each other intimately. I submit that 100 million dollars is prime fasciae evidence of that fact. Bernard Ebbers of WorldCom fame couldn’t get away with he didn’t know what his CFO was doing. And, I’m not buying Ayers is, was or ever could be just a guy in the neighborhood.

The Temper Tantrum Election

Others made a similar comparison.

That is the comparison to the 1976 election between Ford and Carter. The electorate is sour. In 1976 the there were economic issues, principally inflation. In some respect, the electorate had more justification to be sour, coming off the Watergate scandal.

But, interestingly, it wasn’t that the Democrats were innocent, since many of the shenanigans that Nixon pulled were done by the Democrats as well. Kennedy taped conversations in the Oval Office. Nor, was Kennedy’s election clean; a certain Irish Catholic mayor of Chicago, stole the election for him. Johnson’s rise to power never came from his luster of Mr. Clean. In fact, of the entire crowd of Democratic presidential candidates in 1976, Carter was the only plausible candidate that could actually beat Ford. 

In fact, Ford was the really clean candidate. But, he pardoned Nixon. He did the country a favor, in the long run, by ending Watergate. But, in placing the long term good of the country ahead of his personal ambitions, he cost himself the election. The pardon prevented the criminalization of your opponents acts in office. Yes, Nixon violated laws; such as obstruction of justice. But, the prosecution, had it been allow to proceed, would have hijacked by his enemies for the sole purpose of settling scores with old “tricky Dick” over policy. It could very well have set a precedent of show trials for your political rivals, banana republic style. 

So, along came Carter. Like Obama, his true very leftist roots were masked by a compliant MSM as a Southern-conservative-born-again-Democrat.

What we got was a dangerously naive, but arrogant, mean-spirited man that just about drove the country off the cliff. And, with comfortable majorities in both Houses of Congress for 1977 and 1978, we were launched into the era of double digit inflation. Employment that approached double digits as well. This was the era of “bracket creep.” Remember? The hollow military. The debacle of Desert One. Carter’s “misery” index doubled under his watch. 

And, we got two things that haunt us to today. First, was the overthrow of the Shah; aided and abetted by the blame-America-first crowd that filled the Carter administration. The second was the Community Reinvestment Act. The former gave us the mad mullahs of Iran who are now on the verge of nuclear weapons and a will to use them against Israel. The latter served, with the corrupt lack of oversight by the Democrats, to give us the financial meltdown that may very well lead us into a severe recession, the first since Carter’s administration.

We’ve come a full revolution and now we have Obama, another arrogant and corrupt politician. A man who’s true bona fides are being actively hidden by the MSM. A man who may very well be elected by a financial crisis that had its origins in the Carter era. A man, who when he arrives in the Oval Office, is ready to accept a nuclear Iran as “reparation” for the “evil” of American “imperialism.”

And, unlike Nixon, the GOP’s troubles stem, not from presidential corruption, but Bush’s insistence to stay a course against the existential threat of Islamic imperialism. A staying of that course in the face of adverse opinion polls–aided by just this side of treasonously biased MSM reporting. Knowing that our failure to act now will only result in a bigger and bloodier war to come. A staying of the course based on historical presidents from the 1930’s; had Hitler been stopped at any one of multiple times prior to Chamberlain’s appeasement in 1938 in Munich WW II could have been prevented.

But, the Obama presidency will only be transitional in nature. FDR only inherited the Great Depression after Hoover failed to come to grips with that depression from 1929 to 1932. Obama will have his name associated with this economic downturn, recession or otherwise, because it will contemporaneous with his occupancy of the Oval Office.

Nor can the loyal foot soldier of the Chicago Democratic political machine can be likened to Truman. Truman was a product of the Pendergast machine from Kansas City, but he never personally partook of machine graft. Compare that to Obama’s 1.5 million house, a sweetheart mortgage deal and Michelle’s “promotion” and the doubling of her salary at the University of Chicago to $300,000 per year.  And, long before he rose to the presidency, Truman made himself a respected Senator from Kansas, not Pendergast, by such activities as the “Truman Committee.” And, it was Truman that made the decision to use the atomic bomb. Obama’s no Truman.

So, here we are today. The GOP getting tagged with a war and a financial mess for reasons that are really the GOP’s fault. The electoral loss by the GOP by both Houses of Congress were deservedly due to the GOP’s straying from their small government roots. The war has been portrayed as another Vietnam “quagmire.” The MSM narrative was another America exploiting another “morally superior” non-European, non-Christian culture. Never mind that what we extol as individual liberty, freedom of worship and liberation of women from the status of chattel are completely alien concepts in large swaths of the Muslim world.

Then, we have the financial crisis, all directly related to governmental involvement in the private sector (the Community Redevelopment Act) and then supercharged with the corruption of Fannie and Freddie. The only solace from this crisis is that Obama will have his options and legislative testosterone greatly constrained by the fact that he got his tax hike, all 700 billion, and his buddies at ACORN already spent it.

And, then we have Obama, walking into the presidency by virtue of being the last man standing. Again, like 1976, he’s the only Democratic candidate that can realistically win. His competition was Hill, whose political career was only possible by a name acquired in marriage. And, who is as corrupt as her husband. 

Then, we’ve got Edwards, our ambulance chasing friend from North Carolina. Thanks to the MSM, his love child peccadillo was hidden for something like a year. And, of course there was Senator Dodds from the great state of Countrywide.

Attributed to Mark Twain, profanity provides relief denied even in prayer. But, while in the heat of the moment, ventilating anger feels incredibly good, you generally regret the outburst for having said or done things you wished you hadn’t. A lot of people are going to vote for Obama for “change.” For the feel good opportunity to “stick it” to Washington and “throw out the bums.” But, with Obama in the White House, there’s going to be one heck of a hangover on January 21st.