PAST AND PRESENT : Second bananas Palin receives higher marks in a race between the VPs
Posted on Saturday, October 4, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/69763/
As promised before the political
conventions, I waited until they
were well over, and analyzed by Washington’s myriad of pundits, before making my own evaluation. It is not that I expected to learn anything; quite the contrary, in fact. I expected to hear the blarney from both parties, but mainly from the far left Democrats. They treat the truth as casually as though it did not exist.
In review, the Democratic convention was like a Roman circus, and with all the trappings of one. Obama’s writers had done their work well. The gave him a speech rich with flowery rhetoric and almost devoid of substance. In the main, if one cared to read between the lines, there was the same socialistic junk we have heard since the 1930 s. Namely — though not in so many words — that we will raid the coffers of the rich, which, in turn, will make us all rich. No more worrying about good jobs, higher education for the children, and comfortable retirements for us all. In short, a heaven on earth for every citizen of the United States.
Let me remind you that since he 1930 s we have had the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the War on Poverty and hosts of lesser programs, all of which were supposed to cure the economic ills of the country. They have not done it, nor will it every be done. Just remember the old economic adage of Economics 101: “ There are not enough resources in the world for all of us to have everything we want. ” And both good times and bad times will continue for us all.
The Republican convention was much more low key until Sarah Palin was announced as the candidate for vice president. Gone were the fine old politicians, such as Joe Lieberman, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and others. Out of the north came a lady who, frankly, I had only heard of briefly. After her speech, however, I and many others heard her with great interest and will continue to do so.
Is she ready for such a monumental task ? One would think that after conquering Alaska that she just may be ready for wider fields. And what is possibly more important, can she stand the heat of the criticism which will come from all liberal newspapers, liberal bloggers, three (four if you count CNN ) major TV networks and hosts of paid pundits of the liberal stripe ? Well, if it is discovered that she can’t, she has no business in such a high office. However, if she can stand up to that, she could possibly make a good vice president.
I was particularly interested to see how Charlie Gibson handled her. People in the business say he is a great newsman. I watched him for years on ABC’s “ Good Morning America, ” and quickly learned that with all of his attributes he is still an unabashed liberal. So when he switched to the anchor’s job I wondered how he would handle his liberalism and objective news. He hasn’t handled it very well, so I was concerned as to how he would handle Sarah Palin. If you have watched Charlie very long, as I have, you recognize that condescending look he has, almost flaunting his supposed superiority. He used that profusely on Mrs. Palin, but she was not cowed by it. She has a sort of “ bring ‘ em on” attitude that I like.
She is going to run against a senator of 35 years (one of those who should have been sent home years ago ), Delaware’s Joe Biden. Joe is a caustic liberal to say the least. If you will bother to check his record, he has done very little of a positive nature as a senator in those 35 years. Of course, he has taken time out to run for the presidency (twice ) and was rudely rejected both times. He is one of those sad politicians — which one can find on both sides of the aisle — who clog up the system and prevent us from having the true representative government we were meant to have.
If it were a one-on-one race, Palin would take him easily. The country, quite frankly, is sick and tired of these do-nothing professional politicians. But Palin and Biden are second bananas in this race. However, I do think Palin will do much more good for McCain than Biden will do for Obama. I think I was not the only one shocked when Obama chose Biden for a running mate. While he did this ostensibly for his knowledge of foreign affairs, Biden’s record in that field leaves much to be desired. And if I know Joe Biden, when the race gets really hot, he will lose his cool and do much more harm for the Democrats than he will do good. The race will become less civil as it goes along, but doesn’t it always ?
John McCain is not a fluent speaker, but few of our presidents have been. Obama is one of the most fluent speakers in politics today; the problem is, he has little to talk about that is new.
His message is the New Deal warmed over. Although FDR had practiced Keynesian economics without knowing it (simplistically, government intervention in the market system ), he became enamored with it and had Keynes over to the United States in the 1930 s. This resulted in more government programs, some of which are still with us today. The Keynesian approach to economic problems were not all wrong; government intervention is sometimes needed when the market fails to solve a problem quickly. However, the problem with this intervention is that once begins, there seems to be no place to stop until socialism results.
This is Obama’s problem, and one on which McCain must attack him. The Republican platform, by and large, rejects more government intervention in the form of higher taxes (to finance government programs ), strenuous regulations on private enterprise, and any tax or program which hinders small business from prospering.
Republicans have, and always have had, the best platform of encouraging private enterprise and the total market system. In recent years, however, they have been tempted to discard this in favor of public opinion which has grown more socialistic over the past 60 years. McCain and Palin must keep this alive.
In addition to this, Republicans must continue their opposition to loosening social values. We must remain pro-life, anti-homosexual marriage and the current stupidity of trying to limit the use of the name of God from everything but Sunday morning church. History is replete with the histories of nations which have forgotten God, only to find out that God had forgotten them.
John Terry of Siloam Springs is an economist, minister and veteran.