The Weekly Rewind

Good Day and welcome to our review of the weeks political events that we call The Weekly Rewind.

We await the results of today’s Democratic Primary in South Carolina. There has been a lot of speculation that all of the mudslinging back and forth between Senator Clinton and Senator Obama could in fact help the primary chances of Senator Edwards. I personally do not see much of a fall out effect from the debate and can see Senator Obama winning by a very commanding margin.

Okay, I am going to call the parties ticket for the November general election, Senator Obama for President and Edwards as the Vice-Presidential running mate.

Alright, enough of my own speculation, lets get to the rewind.

Heckle: to leaping onto the wagon when it’s moving at full speed. The Federal Reserve, confronted with a global stock sell-off fanned by increased fears of a recession, cut a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point on Tuesday. Funny thing is that it didn’t turn the markets around as they are looking for even more cuts.

Heckle: to waiting until it’s too late to take any action. President Bush’s attempt to revive the world’s biggest economy was greeted with heavy skepticism on Tuesday as markets tumbled across the globe. Markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney all fell farther in late trading Tuesday than they had all day on Monday. They continued an up and down pace for the week. Watch your 401k!

Applaud: to a little humor on the campaign trail. In this weeks CNN Democratic presidential candidate debate, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was asked about novelist Toni Morrison’s salute to Bill Clinton as “the first black President.” Obama replied: “I would have to investigate more Bill’s dancing abilities and some of this other stuff before I accurately judged whether he was, in fact, a brother.” I’m sure even the audience was glad for a more humerous moment.

Heckle: to not coming out publically with your opinion. In “private,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke “has expressed growing pessimism about the economy,” reportedly saying that “the first six months of this year will be “bad.” He also suggested that “there is better than a 50-50 chance for a recession” and believes the ensuing recovery will be “weak.”

Heckle: to holding justice and truth hostage. The House has postponed votes on “criminal contempt citations against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers” in order to foster “bipartisan unity” while working on an economic stimulus package. I’m sorry, is anyone surprised by this?

Heckle: to a statistic that is just plain sad. Many of the poorest people in the United States are still struggling to recover from the effects of a recession that ended six years ago, making them very vulnerable as the country stands on the brink of a new downturn. In 2006, 12.3 percent of Americans were living in poverty, compared with 11.7 percent in 2001, the year of the last recession. In this day and age there is no reason for a increase in the number of our citizens living in poverty.

Applaud: to standing up for what is right. “I am a Republican, and at times I’m embarrassed by the lack of cooperation that this president and his appointees have had with the legislative branch,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) in a hearing yesterday. “There is a seething resentment by members of Congress who are Republicans by the fact that this administration has not even cooperated with us.” Now if we can get more house members to stand with Congresswoman Rohrabacher!


Applaud: to keeping up the pressure. Americans United for Change plans to spend $8.5 million in an effort to make sure President Bush’s public approval doesn’t improve as his days in the White House come to an end. The bulk of the money will be spent on advertising that keeps the focus on the Bush administration’s failures. Although I think the administration does a nice job of airing their shortocmings and failures all by themselves!

Applaud: to an ever increasing base. A new Harris Poll finds that Americans are unhappy with the current state of the union, a few days before President Bush gives his own State of the Union address on Monday. Eighty-one percent of Americans believe “the current state of the country is fair or poor” and 66 percent say the Iraq war is “going poorly.” It’s nice to see more and more people coming around to realize the truth surrounding this administration.

Heckle: to once again being perceived as an Ostrich. A group of nearly 200 “climate experts, scientists, and mayors” delivered a “State of Climate” assessment this week , ahead of Bush’s State of the Union speech. In it they stated “[T]oday our nation stands virtually alone in the world community in refusing to accept the need for decisive action,” they report. “We regret to report that the state of the nation’s climate policy is poor.” But what do they know, they are only educated, learned experts ?

Heckle: to the Administration for 79 percent. Which is the percentage of Americans who believe that a recession is likely within the next year, according to a LA Times/Bloomberg poll. Ninety-two percent of people earning more than $100,000 a year “feel safe” financially, “while more than half of those bringing in less than $40,000 a year describe their finances as ’shaky.’” Count me among the 79 percent.

That’s it for now. Back to waiting for primary results.

Be good, stay informed….later.

SOTU

My cell phone rings, it's my good friend and colleague Scott

Me: "What's up?"

S: "Is he saying anything interesting?"

Me: "Mike Rowe? Yeah, he's making barrels... not very dirty, but still somewhat interesting"

S: "No, Bush is giving the SOTU, isn't he?"

Me: "Yeah. I watched the fist 20 minutes then I got this dull buzzing sound in my ears... then my ears started to bleed... then I had a brief spasm and drifted in and out of consciousness for a while. I thought it would be most beneficial to me to turn it off and watch something else. What are you up to?

S: "All I can say is it deals with a lot of crap..."

Me: "Oh, so you were watching the speech?"

Okay, so maybe it didn't happen exactly the way I describe it above, I did watch most of the speech, then drifted back and forth between the speech and "Dirty Jobs." I have to give "President" Bush props for hailing Madame Speaker Pelosi... but overall it was the same rhetoric we've heard from him six times before, only this time he was a little more nervous than in years past.

What was good was the Democratic response by Freshman Senator James Webb (D-Va), one of the best Democratic responses I have ever heard.

For those of you interested, I present links for each:

SOTU

Democratic Response

Enjoy.