Change we can believe in

One of Obama’s speechwriters had some photos of himself acting like a drunken frat boy posted on facebook for a few hours (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/12/04/one_more_question.html).

There’s nothing illegal or immoral about any of it, but I have to wonder, what kind of nitwits is this guy hiring into his administration?  If you’re still in the stupid frat boy stage of life, should you really be writing speeches for the president?

I also bet a lot of Obama worshippers are scratching their heads and wondering why their Messiah actually has a speechwriter, but that’s for another day.

The unholy trinity

First of all, I think the Liberal/NPD/Bloc coalition is all legal.  This isn’t a coup d’etat, it isn’t treasonous, it isn’t even anti-democratic.  It’s amusing to talk about it in those terms, but these are serious times so let’s acknowledge there is nothing unconstitutional about what is being proposed.

Of the many issues that come to mind, the first is, “what will the GG do?”  I think this crisis points out why Jean was a bad choice.  She is too controversial a figure given her separatist leanings.  I feel as if Canada needs something like the US’s 14th amendment, which would preclude those who would advocate dissolution of the country from holding federal office.  In any event, she is not likely to call an election if the government falls, rather, she will probably accede to the coalition; that gives her friends in the Bloc a seat at the table, even though their part of the coalition formally deals with budgetary matters only.  I hope future PMs consider the importance of uncontroversial stability when choosing Governor Generals.

Moving right along, I suspect Stephane Dion has had this plan in the works for much longer than we are being lead to believe.  His “resignation” or more precisely his “intent to resign” was unlike any previous party leader.  All of them have stepped down immediately and the party has had an interim leader to steward things while a race is run for the replacement.  I think Dion saw the winds blowing after his disastrous defeat, announced he would eventually resign in order to get his rivals to put the knives away, yet stayed on, hoping that coalition plans would coalesce and that he would actually become PM after all.  If this is the case, I admire his tactical genius here.  He’s not to be underestimated in the future.

That the Bloc and the NDP have been exposed to be in discussions about this for a while is really no surprise.  Their socialist agendas are almost identical, word for word.  Only the accents and language of choice differ.  The NDP wasn’t going to make significant inroads in Quebec, and the Bloc is a regional party only; it stands to reason that on the federal scene, they would work together.

The winner in all this, in my opinion, is going to be Steven Harper.  He should not suspend parliament, he should let them have the vote and take down his government.  In the unlikely event Jean calls an election, he probably wins.  If not, this coalition will have to govern in worsening economic conditions with a strong internal divisions and with intellectually deficient socialist ideals.  They’ll make a mess of things, not too severe since they won’t last long, and then Harper will have the opportunity to run again and win a comfortable majority.  It will be instructive for the population to be reminded of the evils of socialism in a relatively safe setting as an unstable, short-lived government.

"They should all burn."

Many years ago, when I was car shopping, I made an appointment with Jerry, a local Audi salesman.  I didn’t wind up buying the car from him, but he was a really nice guy and I did send some referrals his way nonetheless.  I was late for my appointment with him because there was a Ford Taurus on fire in the highway median, and the ensuing traffic delayed me.  It didn’t appear that anyone was hurt, as there were no ambulances on scene, just 2 fire trucks and a few civilians milling about.

I told Jerry about the fire and he said to me, “…you know, I used to sell Fords when I got started in sales.  Lasted two weeks before I quit.  Believe me when I tell you, they should all burn.”

I think Jerry’s words apply to Ford, GM and Chrysler themselves at this point.  The US auto industry is doing just fine, people are building cars here, and within the context of an economic slowdown and higher fuel (yet lately dropping) fuel prices, they are still selling cars.  There’s some interesting innovation going on, my personal favourite being the Tesla.  Detroit, in the midst of this, may be doing poorly, but they have only themselves to blame.  Bad product designs, poor quality, and unions with excessive demands.  Let them fail.  Let them burn.  That’s the free market.  A bailout is a very, very, bad idea.

Nancy and Michelle

It takes a real class act to take a pot shot at an old lady.  At an old lady in failing health who did her best to serve her country years ago.  You may not like Nancy Reagan, you may not like her husband, but by virtue of her 8 years in the White House, I believe she should be afforded a measure of respect in her retirement.  And she never held seances anyway, she might have been a fan of astrology, but a lot of people are, and it doesn’t seem to hurt them.

Imagine if someone had taken similar cheap shots at Michelle.  We’d have cries of racism and of being sore losers.  It’s good that Obama apologized, but I find his attitude towards women, and that of his campaign, somewhat troubling.  Look at the treatment of Hillary and Palin if the example of Nancy isn’t enough.

My questions for the Democratic candidates

It seems like there’s a bit of controversy over an interview with Joe Biden.  Malkin’s story is here.  I actually think Biden answered the questions adequately, and the interviewer missed a few followup opportunities.  What struck me most about this interview, however, was how it seemed appropriate.  And that’s when I remembered that we don’t see Biden or Obama being asked pointed questions like this, which is why this interview sticks out so much.

If I could ask each of the Democratic candidates one question, it would be as follows.

“Senator Obama, do you believe wealth can be created?  You have stated that you want to spread the wealth around, do you believe it is a zero sum game?”

“Senator Biden, when you stated back in 2001 that we should consider giving Iran 200 million dollars, no questions asked, were you just throwing out ideas in a fit of brainstorming, or was this a serious suggestion?  Does your foreign policy instinct tend to this sort of pre-emptive appeasement?”

I wonder what their answers would be?

Powell’s endorsement

I knew Powell was going to endorse Obama on Meet The (De)Press(ed) from news leaks earlier in the week, so I made a point of tuning to watch how he was going to do it.  In talking to several people who also saw parts or all of it, we all had the impression that Powell seemed a bit ill at ease.  He may have been a bit under the weather, as his coughing indicated, although he did look healthy enough.

I found his reasons for supporting Obama to be rather weak.  He described Obama as eloquent, willing to talk to people, a “transformational” figure and as having a curious intellect.  These are all good qualities in a person, but they hardly qualify one to be president.  I did not hear any specific policy he could cite which formed the basis of his endorsement.  I can’t take him seriously as a result; he sounds little different that the legions of Obamabots.

The comment about intellectual curiosity reminds me of the oft repeated insults levied at Bush.  Bush may not be a philosopher king in the mold of Marcus Aurelius, but I think it’s foolhardy to dismiss him as an idiot who is not curious about anything.  He has accomplished most of his objectives as president, whether one agrees with them is irrelevant.  Powell was sounding all too much like the MSM about Obama.

Why was he twitchy?  I don’t know.  Either he realized what kind of flak he would get from fellow Republicans, or he was scared of the flak he was going to get from the left.  The left is left in a curious place now; they condemned Powell for his role in the Iraq war (especially since he is believed to have opposed it) now they have to put that aside and cite his endorsement of Obama as a testament to Obama’s credentials.

I don’t believe those who claim Powell did this because Obama is black.  He did at one point say that “if it were ONLY about race” he would have endorsed Obama earlier.  I think there’s a danger in reading too much into this.  I suspect that Powell is both bitter at his treatment by the Bush administration, and he’s being a bit of a political opportunist here.  He didn’t close the door to an appointment in the Obama government when Brokaw pressed him on it.

Had he come out a few months ago when the polls were closer, then this would mean a lot more (although it takes the news media away from McCain for the moment, which isn’t good with less than 3 weeks to go).  I think Powell just looked at the latest polls and is trying to get on the bandwagon.

Get rid of the handlers

I recall Bush Sr.’s concession speech to Bill Clinton back in 1992.  He was very eloquent, gracious, patrician.  He reminded the young that the election was about their future and they should be involved in politics.  He called on all of us to be our best.  He was no longer the stilted campaigner who seemed confused and out of touch.  I always thought that had we seen that George HW Bush during the election campaign, Clinton would never have had a chance.  Alas, Bush gave way to his handlers and the rest is history.

Tonight, both McCain and Obama appeared at a charity dinner in New York.  McCain’s 13 minute speech was delightful.  He was funny, charming, warm and genuine.  Not the somewhat cranky and overly rehearsed candidate at last night’s debate (although I think he did much better than before and clearly had the upper hand).  He wasn’t an angry man losing an election.  I know that a sense of humour isn’t a prerequisite to be a president, but it certainly adds to one’s appeal on the campaign trail.

I hope we see more of this McCain in the coming two and half weeks.  It was too late for Bush, by the time he broke free of his handlers, the only thing left was the concession speech.  McCain is bouncing a little bit back in the polls, this is his last chance to show us his good side.  You can still be tough and call BS on Obama, but show us more of the guy in these two videos and you might just win it.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Phone Book vs. Faculty Directory

While reading about Christopher Buckley’s endorsement of Obama, I was reminded of this quote of William’s:  I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.

Given the near universal approval of Obama among the educati and intelligentsia, I think there is a lot of wisdom in this pithy wisecrack.  This is not to attack education or intelligence, I’m not pushing some sort of Pol Pot cleansing of the educated classes, I simply suggest education today far too often instills a leftist slant and all but eliminates common sense.

Let me tell the story of sitting on a jury duty while I was a graduate student at Cornell in Ithaca, NY.  This was in the fall of 1996, and NY state had recently enacted legislation to eliminate many of the typical exemptions from jury duty.  As a student, I don’t think I was exempt anyway, but it was amusing having a law professor who taught evidence rejected in the voir dire.  I was selected for the jury and actually look forward to the experience; I was curious whether they were all as bogus as the OJ acquittal suggested.

This case involved a 17 year old who was, one evening, walking in the Ithaca commons area and was spat upon by another teenager perched on a 3rd floor balcony overlooking the commons.  They did not know each other, but a verbal altercation ensued, and soon enough the guy upstairs (Bob) came down to confront the guy he had just spat upon (Mark).  Mark had a concealed knife on him, and held it discreetly at his side.  Once Bob got close to him, Mark took a swing, with the blade forward, and left a several inch long gash on Bob’s face.  He ran away, only to be caught by the police shortly thereafter.  He confessed to his actions.

There were 4 counts against him.  The first was possession of a concealed weapon.  I forget the particulars, but that type of knife, in the context of how he kept it and used it, was illegal.  On this count, we immediately reached a verdict of guilty.

The other 3 counts were where things got interesting.  They were 3 counts of assault, all with slightly different definitions, and as was later explained to me, this is in order to make sure they’ve covered the appropriate definition.

1)  Assault with a weapon.

2) Assault causing serious bodily harm (a visible scar counts as serious bodily harm).

3) Assault with intent to cause serious bodily harm.

On count 1 and 2, we also fairly quickly convicted the defendant.  He did use a weapon, and he did cause serious bodily harm.  We felt that while he was somewhat provoked, he was in no danger and could easily have extricated himself from the situation.  Indeed, he had at least 30 or so seconds waiting for Bob to come downstairs when reason could have prevailed.

The third count dealt with his intent.  We took a vote after some discussion, and were 11 to 1 in favour of conviction.  The lone holdout was the only professor in the room, a physicist from Cornell.  I, as most of the jurors, were of the opinion that Mark intended to cause serious bodily harm because he aimed the knife at Bob’s head.  Blade forward.  This wasn’t a shove, this wasn’t a kick in the groin or a punch in the stomach.  This was a knife at someone’s head.  Any head injury would constitute serious bodily harm.  It seems clear to all of us this was what the kid intended, in fact his comment of “I am going to fuck you up,” attested to by several witnesses, illustrated intent clearly.

Paul, this professor, stated that he thought the kid wasn’t very articulate and could not form that kind of intent.  I replied that being articulate isn’t relevant here.  I suggested that while the defendant would not survive 5 minutes in Paul’s physics class, or in my molecular biology classes, neither one of us would survive 5 seconds in the street with these 2 guys.  Others stated that a 17 year old without any mental defect ought to realize that a knife swung with serious force at someone’s head was potentially lethal.  Paul would not budge, for about 2 hours.

At this point, we sent a note to the judge, stating that we were deadlocked on one of the assault counts.  It turns out this did not matter, as they only needed a conviction on one of them.  The defendant was convicted and later sentenced to 9 months in prison.  I ran into his defense attorney at a hockey game several months later and we had an interesting discussion about the case.  It did not change my mind about the verdict in any way, but it was curious to get some of the back story about it.

I met Paul at a wedding almost a year later.  I remembered him, but he did not remember me.  I introduced myself and mentioned the jury, and he told me that he had thought about it a lot over the past year and concluded that we were indeed right and the defendant was guilty on all counts.  It took a physics PhD almost a year to figure out that a 17 year old attacking someone’s head with a knife was evidence of intent to cause serious bodily harm.  Common sense is all to uncommon I think.

Round 2

This was an uninspiring debate.  Perhaps, having grown up in a country with a parliamentary tradition where the leaders have to interact with the opposition on a regular basis (or look like fools when they avoid them), I expected snappier comebacks and oratory which did not feel so rehearsed and prepackaged.

On the economy, Obama sounded like he cared more.  But neither he nor McCain had any insight of interest.  McCain finally managed to get a weak shot in about how Democratic efforts to avoid regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are a large part of the current crisis, but then he himself devolved into socialism by proposing to buy up bad mortgages and renegotiating the terms.  It’s clear why the Republican party is at best lukewarm about him, and it’s not just about him being a maverick, he really has some left leaning positions that trouble most conservatives.

It’s a pity that neither one of them really took the opportunity to challenge Americans to sacrifice when that question came up.  McCain blew it off, Obama’s response about energy conservation was okay, but could still have gone further.  Neither one showed any leadership; Palin did the other night when she spoke about people living within their means, but in a “gimme, gimme” culture perhaps their pollsters and advisors advised against making similar statements.

On foreign affairs, I felt McCain had a stronger edge, and given that I find foreign affairs to be a more important criterion for choosing a president in this day and age, I think the debate goes to McCain.  But I suspect that too much of the populace is concerned about the economy and foreign affairs is going to fall by the wayside when people make their judgments.  Here, Obama seemed muddled, almost confused, as if he was having trouble remembering his talking points.  McCain genuinely connected with the naval officer; Obama’s “we thank you for your service” comment seemed especially phony in comparison.

I sense more humanity and warmth from McCain, more genuine passion about his country, but there doesn’t seem to be a raging fire in his belly.  Maybe he’s tired after this campaign, lord knows it’s a Herculean effort that they have all sustained for more than a year.  In the end though, I doubt this debate will change the minds of either set of decided voters, even the approximately 20% of each camp who claim in polls that they could still change their minds.

Given that McCain is down in the polls, this has to count as a loss overall.  One last chance Senator, are you up for it?  Maybe Palin should go in your place?

"A million pages of crap"

I wish all news conferences were like this one.  Enjoy.