Uh, Wow, We Guess, Sorta
Back in earlier years, a presidential campaign was in total disarray. Complete and total confusion. Such that two arch members of what later would become the VRWC were able to take charge of an event of a major city, organize the motorcade (who got priority in what cars) and stage the major photographic event of the campaign in that city. We even ensured the risers were set up properly for the television (local coverage over national for the primary) and where print got to sit (towards the back) and where photographers got to sit.
For our efforts we were put in a 5 star hotel of national fame, room service, the works. We even invited other fellow future members of the VRWC to come visit the generosity (the suite was not actually paid for by the campaign for technical reasons).
When the candidate (whom we liked personally a great deal — and no, not from Arkansas) was on the plane, the candidate directly asked if me my VRWC friend would join the campaign full time. Right then there, sit on the plane and follow them as staff. We even got enthusiastic support from others around the candidate. It was surreal.
It was also, to this day, we believe an honest effort. We gave our best professional assistance which was directly appreciated by the candidate and staff. We could not, however, in good faith continue because it would require dishonesty and calculation unwarranted in a presidential campaign. How we helped and set up this event remains one our most pleasant and positive memories of participatory, open (as opposed the Warlord’s loyalty tests) democracy. As it should be and was, to an extent, before the recent Darkness.
So why the preamble? The tiresome Huffpo (has she had work done? Just an aside question based on a tv appearance. Sometimes the makeup staff either deliberately or in haste do not do justice to the natural appearance of those on a show) blows up that the Crown Prince is drawing large crowds. So what.
Recall the size of the crowds Bill Clinton was able to summon for Kerry after his surgery. Meant squat. They dwarfed the Crown Prince’s in certain cities. And back to the earlier candidate. Even before the final vote tally, he too was able to summon large and enthusiastic crowds. Again, squat.
Call us impressed. Even at the coronation. We’ll see where he is in November. That’s all that matters.
The Glass Jaw
Will some one please tell the Crown Prince to STFU about a statement made in Israel that did not implicate him *until* he opened his yap. If this is what the next four years will be like, we are inclined to shift our position to ANYONE BUT THAT FOOL.
I’m Not A Second Rate Power Getting Kicks With A Crown . . .
The scene: on one those bloated vacation cruise boats (often cursed with some debilitating gastro-intestinal event). One can vividly imagine one the throngs of really swinging crowd of post 50 years old trying to do the ‘mambo’. [See reader Perusio’s correction below — for ‘mambo’ read ‘limbo’. Our bad, as the kids say]. The rope sinks lower and lower. Until either his or her lower back collapses, the pants rip, or balance fails and the whole stunt ends in adrunken embarrassment.
So now to Bernancke and the Fed. The Fed Open Market Committee’s 5.25% rate has fallen to the brink of free money: 2.0%. Still, nothing. As we have seen with every other rate cut, banks refuse to extend credit to the general market. The U.S. credit crisis continues. Despite Bernake’s efforts including the Fed’s dramatic rescue of Bear Stearns. Even arrangements to allow banks and quasi banks to treat locked and illiquid assets as liquid guaranteed by the U.S. government? Nada. Zip.
Inflationary pressures continue to spiral. Most observers (and we mean beyond the eye candy-Erin Burnett-figurettes) argue that 2% is as low as Bernancke can go in his mambo ‘limbo’. The risk of massive inflation is too great, they say. We disagree with those who argue that Bernancke already has been successful and may actually seek inflation. From what we see, he has acted primarily to save the U.S. and international financial system by injecting capital. Even Asia has caught the U.S. flu.
Commodity hoarding is not too fantastic imagine but is not yet here. It was a hallmark of the Weimar inflation (driven in part by the government of pay off the ridiculous Versailles reparations with junk money). What we see at Costco is merely media driven frenzy. Yet the Stiftung hears more and more talk about it among the chattering classes with soft, unmarked hands. Inflation is taking a toll. I.e., among people whose idea of honest labor is to mark up a document and give it to a secretary (male or female). These are the people who are supposed to take a tax rebate check and put a down payment on a BMW lease. We doubt it. Consumers are cutting back, IRS cheques or not.
All this is not to say 1923 is around the corner. Yet Bernancke really can’t do much more. If he dropped the rate to 0% as the Japanese did in the Lost Decade it is unlikely to change current conditions. Our political leadership have done nothing to prepare the American people for the ‘creative destruction’ ahead. And its impact on consumer lifestyles. There is a curious willful ignoring of the problem, waving it aside as a mere re-enactment of the S&L crisis.
Aside from the effete Crown Prince or the other candidates, one does wonder what real American populism would look like circa 2010. One doubts it would be limited to “crosses of gold” and end with an epic and civilized trial about evolution.
Color Us Puzzled
We are strangely out of touch and tune with the recent zeitgeist, that is obvious to you, Dear Reader. Recent posts do not address the pressing issues on cable news or other blogs, let alone frothing on talk radio.
It is perhaps an internal failure. But we just can’t give a frak (and no, we are not really fans of BSG). Did Wright say anything we did not know about him before? Not really. Some of the quasi eugenics aspects might be called new, but in the main it was an old story. And we are, as you know, no big fan of the Crown Prince.
That this is the fifth anniversary of “Mission Accomplished”? Does anyone really care this day or tomorrow? After all, Olbermann annoyingly ends his show with a daily countdown from that speech.
No surprise here that the Pentagon tried to spin analysts. What do the media think they were doing when they were “embedded”? The whole thing is almost pathetic beyond the telling of it.
We miss Firing Line, Tomorrow or any show that did not feature whether a Disney starlet posed inappropriately for a magazine shoot.
Perhaps it is just being grumpy tonight. We’ll try to write about something else tomorrow with a bit more substance. But we still are puzzled at it all.
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