Advice on Responding to a Presidential Address

This is the only advice to Republicans that will appear in this blog. I post it here because I can not stand any longer the useless drivel that passes for a response.

If you want to be successful, here's what you must do: Make your response a genuine response, not just a canned recitation of red meat your already committed base wants to hear. The American people don't care about your base. The American people want to hear what you think of the President's initiatives in health care, energy, education? Where do you differ with him on job creation, bailing out automakers, bailing out banks, tax cuts, tax increases?

The stock market has lost half its value, unemployment is soaring, automakers are on the brink of bankruptcy, foreclosures are at record highs -- and you, Governor Jindal, are complaining about a $140 million item to monitor volcanoes? And you, Senator John McCain are complaining about the cost of a Presidential helicopter (which Bush 43 approved)? The house is completely engulfed in flames and you guys want to dash inside to save a couple of salt and pepper shakers!

The minority response has become a non-response, nothing more than a lathered salve to the wounded left in the minority. If you want to become the majority again, you have to create a genuine response. Here's how:

Take at least one good speech writer, put him in front of a computer with a draft -- a substantive draft -- of your proposed response, and while the President speaks, allow the speech writer to re-draft your response with aggressive editing -- adding, subtracting, re-wording -- your material, as appropriate. This is what a debater learns to do in high school. This is what the Presidential candidates are expected to do on the campaign trail. It is not hard to do, and the result will be an engaging response that contributes to the debate on the issues in a substantive and productive way. I guarantee you, it can be done in real time and ready to go in less than 10 minutes after the President concludes his remarks.

You're welcome.
I'll send you a bill in the morning.

Advice to Democrats on Twittering

DON'T! What is this all about? What have we come to that a member of the US Congress feels it necessary to announce he has arrived in Bagdad on a secret mission to all the world via "140 characters or less." You think our enemies won't read your message?! Why does a member of a state legislature announce via Twitter that a member of the other party is about to switch parties, thus dooming even the most remote possibility that he will do so?! Politicians are astoundingly careless in what they say in e-mails sent from their Blackberry's.

Sitting in the middle of the President's address to the Congress, members of both parties had their fingers flying and they weren't commenting on the substance of the speech, at least not in a rational way.

My advice: if you are thinking of twittering...or tweeting...and you have a position of responsibility in government at any level, DON"T. If you have already found yourself guilty of twittering...or tweeting, STOP. Your political future depends on it. You are going to say something inappropriate or self-incriminating or possibly, career ending, in a very short time.

The Best Laid Plans

Political analyst, Greg Sargent, is coming out with a new book, titled, 40 More Years: How Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation.

There will be some re-hashing of the 2008 campaign in it, but I understand the bulk of the book will address electoral trends, and how the rise of the youth vote and the decline of the white vote will favor Democrats.

I’m looking forward to reading it, but to my Democratic friends, I say, “Let’s not get too excited.” I had lunch in the early days of the Reagan Administration with a friend who had recently gone over to the other side. He invited me to join him, because, he said, “The country is turning conservative and if you want to enjoy the ride, you better join us.”

“In fact,” he said, “It is clear from recent trends that the Republicans will dominate American politics and occupy the White House, uninterrupted, for at least another generation.” The year was 1981. The restaurant was The Monocle on Capitol Hill. My friend went on to serve in the Reagan White House, the Bush 41 State Department, and the Bush 43 Defense Department.

In the 27 year period between 1981 and 2008, Republican Presidents controlled the agenda for all but the eight years of the Clinton Administration. Now you know why they hate Clinton so. Not only was he an effective President, he spoiled their plans for total domination of an entire generation. Boy, do they hate Clinton.

But I digress. My point is this: the best laid plans often go astray, especially when the fickle winds of political discourse are blowing across the land. In my view there should be no talk of “how Democrats will rule the next generation.” It is not likely to happen, and certainly not if they follow the Republican example. Obama seems to have learned the lesson of the past 27 years well and is reaching across the aisle with an eagerness to clasp the hand of anyone who wants to work to make America better.

And what has he found? He is finding the loyal opposition dusting off the strategic playbook of Newt Gingrich, written more than two decades ago. Old Newt had three themes: “Unite against Democrats’ economic policy, block and counter health care reform, and tar them with spending scandals." This is indeed what you do if you are a party with no ideas. Remember that day in early 1995 when, after taking control of the House of Representatives, Republicans gathered on the West steps of the Capitol and Newt told them, “This is our Contract with America….and on these provisions we will not compromise.” Those words stuck in my head because they were so wrong. Politics is nothing if not the art of compromise. It is how our country moves forward. It is how both parties governed until the era of Newt.

Obama understands the lessons of the past 27 years and is offering a sincere bipartisan hand to the other side but so far, with few exceptions in the Senate, his hand has been slapped away. Hopefully, that will change. America deserves better.

The View from the OS (Other Side) is Bleak -- and they like it that way.

“On Jan. 21, after the inauguration, Jim Cramer, the mad-cap analyst of financial markets, created the "Obama Accountability Index," a group of six stocks designed to gauge how well the new president was handling the tough economic problems. That index, which started at 100, has now fallen 35% to just 65.”

That’s the report we all saw the other day. My question is this: How can Cramer rationally hold Obama accountable for the fall of stocks since January 21, barely ONE month ago?????????

Come back in six months and let's talk.

Why won't the OS (Other Side) give his stimulus plan a chance to have some impact before they throw Obama overboard? There is a lot in the bill that most of them do not know about and/or do not understand. They prefer to sit on the sidelines, firing potshots at will, hoping they can damage Obama in the process.

Look, this government has committed $7.8 to $8.8 trillion (by my rough count) in loans, investments and guarantees since the beginning of 2008 (when Bush was still in power, by the way).

Your government has been shoring up money market funds, lending to the mortgage markets, lending to the credit markets, and making loans to financial firms. And we have more to do. The FDIC is working hard to prevent bank failures from all but the most insolvent banks. The Treasury is working to prevent the auto industry from a total free fall, putting cash in AIG, lending to credit markets and overseeing the rest of the TARP funds. There are also programs to guarantee the assets of Bank of America and Citigroup. And there is another $1.57 trillion in tax breaks, HOPE for homeowners, state jobs programs, infrastructure programs. I'm sure I've left something out.

I guess there is no way to prevent the OS from complaining (it seems to be what they do best). If they don’t want to help this President – and the rest of their fellow Americans – they should get out of the way and let responsible people bring the economy back.

So far, I believe the WH is handling its critics well. White House Press Secretary Bob Gibbs jumped all over reporter Rick Santelli of CNBC last week when he criticized the WH for setting up a program to bail out homebuyers who applied for home loans when they knew they could not afford them. Gibbs said "Santelli doesn't know what he is talking about." Santelli said the program was designed to reward "bad behavior" and "to bail out losers' mortgages." And that is not true. The plan, Gibbs explained, is to put about $275 billion to work helping about 9 million taxpayers who are NOT behind on their mortgages.

But this is the fight the Obama Administration is in every day. So far, they are countering the misinformation out there pretty well, and I hope they can keep it up. The conservative talk shows on radio and the loud mouths on the financial news TV networks are trying to blow holes in Obama’s program when they ought to be helping to build confidence and explaining the provisions of the program in terms the people can understand and more importantly, put to good use. Misinformation has no place in the national conversation.

Good for a Laugh

Republicans are good for a laugh, if nothing else. I just read a piece in the Georgia newspapers about a proposal the R’s have offered in the General Assembly this year which they say will be the answer to Georgia’s economic recovery. It focuses on helping small businesses and here’s the way it would work:

One of their bills would provide tax credits to businesses that hire unemployed workers and temporarily waive the fee businesses file with the state to register their corporate names.

Q. HOW DOES A BUSINESS HIRE UNEMPLOYED WORKERS IF THE BUSINESS HAS NO DEMAND FOR ITS PRODUCTS OR SERVICES?

Q. AS TO THE SECOND PROVISION, HOW MUCH DOES WAIVING THE FEE FOR CORPORATE NAME REGISTRATION GET YOU? $30 PER BUSINESS? LET’S SEE, IF 90 THOUSAND BUSINESSES ESCAPE PAYING AN ANNUAL REGISTRATION FEE OF $30, THE TOTAL BENEFIT FOR ALL OF THEM IS A WHOPPING $2.7 MILLION. WOW! THAT’LL DO IT, YESSEREE!

The legislation also would gradually phase out Georgia’s corporate income tax, beginning in 2012.

Q. 2012? FOUR YEARS FROM NOW? IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO? UNLESS YOU DO SOMETHING TODAY, OR AT LEAST BEGIN THE BENEFIT THIS YEAR, HOW MANY BUSINESSES DO YOU THINK WILL BE AROUND IN 2012?

Another bill would eliminate the tax on business inventories but that would have to be put to a vote of the electorate. Yep, that’ll happen real soon.

They held a press conference to announce their proposal, taking care to draw geat distinctions between their approach and the approach of President Obama. No wonder no one is paying attention to these guys. They give conservatism a bad name. They give government in general a bad name.

Remember these names: Rick Perry, Sonny Perdue, Bobby Jindal, Haley Barbour and Mark Sanford

Those are the names of the five southern governors who have indicated they may not take money from the Obama stimulus package to help their states, particularly if it comes with "strings attached."


In other words, remaining ideologically pure in opposition to "anything Obama" is more important to them than actually meeting the needs of their constituents, serving the people who elected them.



They have 45 days from last Tuesday to certify their states will request and use the funds provided in the new law. That means they have until April 3, 2009 to help their states participate in a national effort to stimulate economic recovery.


So, don't forget those names: Rick Perry is Governor of Texas; Sonny Perdue is Governor of Georgia; Bobby Jindal is Governor of Louisiana; Haley Barbour is Governor of Mississippi and Mark Sanford is Governor of South Carolina.


Meanwhile, South Carolina's chairman of the Board of Economic Advisers is already complaining that the money is moving to slowly to the states. "We're on a trajectory to 14 percent unemployment" in South Carolina, and he pleads, "We need it now!" Are you listening Gov. Sanford?

Are any of you guys listening? It is a new day; the people of your state want none of your political posturing.


By the way, the Center for American Progress says some of the states that voted most heavily against the Obama candidacy will do the best in the stimulus package. Damn, this business of having a President who believes in actually being a President for all of the people is sure inconvenient for maintaining a Republican's narrow self serving ideology, isn't it?

General Motors: A day late and many dollars short

American automobile manufacturers ought to be the best in the world. At one time, they were. The Big Three gave us the first automatic transmissions, the first power brakes, the first power steering...and a long list of technological innovations the rest of the world's manufacturers were quick to copy.

But somewhere along the way, they lost their way.

A column in The Washington Post this morning by a former editor recounts the day when she actually abandoned her 1972 Chevy Vega at a service station, taking only the license plates as she made her escape. The Vega started reluctantly each morning, sometimes not at all, and overheated regularly when it did start.

I worked briefly for Ford Motor Company in the mid-1960s when the Mustang was king of the road. Fresh out of college, I was excited to be there. One day, I mistakenly told an office mate that I aspired to be head of the company...or at the very least, a regional manager. He looked at me in disbelief and said, "Unless you graduated from one of the ivy covered business colleges in the Northeast, forget it." I didn't understand. I loved cars, had an economics degree and a willingness to dedicate my best effort to a career with Ford. Later I learned the business philosophy of all the manufacturers was "make money, first and foremost." Funny, I always thought if you "made cars" the public wanted to buy, you would make money, too. But then, I didn't graduate from Wharton or Harvard or Yale or Brown. Silly me. If I had graduated from one of those schools, I would have known that Ford's Edsel and Pinto, Chevrolet's Vega and Corvair, and AMC's Pacer and Gremlin, to name a few, were beautifully designed cars that would just sell like hotcakes.

Meanwhile Toyota, Mercedes, VW, BMW, even Honda (after a rough start) and other foreign manufacturers were designing cars customers couldn't wait to put in their driveways.

Detroit finally started building cars that would operate reliably, but they did not keep pace with foreign designs or technological innovation. For example, now that Toyota and others are selling hybrid cars like crazy, GM says "We have one, too, AND it will be ready for the showroom in 2010! Sorry we're late, could we tide you over with an SUV or two?"

In recent decades they have been a day late and a dollar short regularly.

Bottom line: Detroit forgot its reason for being in business. When it needed car people in charge, it went out and hired money people. Money people are fine, of course, for what they know but most wouldn't know a Blue Flame Six from a six pack of beer, or an overhead cam from a overhead camera.