McCain campaign has been getting a lot of gratuitous advice from the left lately. A lot of his enemies are saying that the reason he is losing is because his focus on Bill Ayers while the economy collapses makes him look ridiculous. Or desperate. So (they helpfully suggest), John McCain should focus on the economy, and ignore Ayers.
Putting aside an issue of whether offers of "help" from political enemies ought to be treated with skepticism (something I've addressed before), I noticed that Victor Davis Hanson -- no political enemy of McCain -- takes a different view:
The Ayers controversy is cited by the in-the-tank media as signs of McCain's desperation. Perhaps. But amid the tsk-tsking, there are also certain deer-in-the-headlights moments among Obama's handlers.
Why? There are simply too many ACORNs, Ayers, Khalidis, Pflegers, Wrights, et al. not to suggest a pattern unbecoming of a future President of the United States. Obama's past statements about his relationship with Ayers (and others) simply cannot be reconciled with the factual circumstances of their long association. McCain must focus on Ayers between 2001-2005. Then in the climate of national worry following 9/11, Ayers was on recent record as lamenting that he had not set off enough bombs, and yet until 2005 still in contact with Obama -- about what and why, voters might wish to know.
As to the economy, while I hate to be the bearer of bad news, it might not be the disaster the Democrats want it to be.
No, really. Here's University of Chicago Economics professor Casey Mulligan writing in today's New York Times:
It's important to keep in mind, too, that the financial sector has had a long history of fluctuating without any correlated fluctuations in the rest of the economy. The stock market crashed in 1987 -- in 1929 proportions -- but there was no decade-long Depression that followed. Economic research has repeatedly demonstrated that financial-sector gyrations like these are hardly connected to non-financial sector performance. Studies have shown that economic growth cannot be forecast by the expected rates of return on government bonds, stocks or savings deposits.
It turns out that John McCain, who was widely mocked for saying that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," was actually right. We're in a financial crisis, not an economic crisis. We're not entering a second Great Depression.
How do we know? Well, the economy outside the financial sector is healthier than it seems.
One important indicator is the profitability of non-financial capital, what economists call the marginal product of capital. It's a measure of how much profit that each dollar of capital invested in the economy is producing during, say, a year. Some investments earn more than others, of course, but the marginal product of capital is a composite of all of them -- a macroeconomic version of the price-to-earnings ratio followed in the financial markets.
When the profit per dollar of capital invested in the economy is higher than average, future rates of economic growth also tend to be above average. The same cannot be said about rates of return on the S.& P. 500, or any another measurement that commands attention on Wall Street. (Emphasis added.)
Read it all.
Stock prices go up, and they go down. I'm fascinated by the idea that because they've gone down, that this is a reason to vote for Obama.
However, if we follow that theory out, it would have to mean if stock prices were to go back up, that would be a reason to vote for McCain. (I wish there were some way to test this theory.)
I guess the rule is that low stock prices are worse than Bill Ayers.
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Comments
I remember when the Rev. Wright fiasco started there was a perfectly reasonable explanation--before Obama was a half-black candidate in a mostly white country, he was a half-white candidate in a mostly black district. He needed Wright to shore up his racial bona fides. Fair enough, I gave him a pass. But as the bodies pile up, only someone truly suspending their judgment could continue to dismiss this stuff. The list of names is too long to ignore. Even if that's just the way it is for politicians coming out of Chicago and Obama is no worse than any of the others, it should still disqualify him. And every other Chicago politician should be disqualified right along with him.
On the economy, I might agree except for two things--first, most Americans have a stock portfolio of some sort and they are unhappy about it going down. Also, most people's houses are worth less than they were a year ago. I agree that McCain was more or less right when he said the economy is fundamentally sound, but the fact is most poeple are taking a short-term hit and are a little nervous. They want to punish somebody and McCain is the obvious choice.
tim maguire · October 10, 2008 05:39 PM
I doubt most people have a stock portfolio or even a house. I have neither, and few even of my acquaintances do. This so-called crisis hasn't affected me in the slightest.
Look, this Ayers topic works for me because I was a gosh darned dirty hippie around that time. I was standing up with my brothers and sisters against that war! If truth be told, more often than not we were sitting around smoking weed, giving the peace sign and screwing some stranger that night...all in the name of "free love". We honestly had NO CLUE, but we shared some of those high ideals that all kids seem to share about a better world we would help to forge.
Frankly, among my crowd...the Weather Underground, got more of our attention than the latest offensive in Vietnam. Back in that day, what they were doing was more like 9/11, only smaller. No less shocking, however, given its historical place for that time.
That is my camera taking a picture of those days, and being totally blown away to find out in 2008 that Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadette are in any kind of leadership positions at all! I assumed they would be in jail. Professors? On the speaking engagement tour? Hosting fundraisers for Barack Obama who might become the next president of my country?
This is hitting the news hard these days, but I noticed it when not many of us imagined that a potential Obama presidency could ever come to be. I noticed it back then because of what the Weather Underground symbolized TO ME! I was more upset in early 2008 about Ayers and his wife not being in jail...Now? I need to wonder about My Country Tis of Thee.
Sweet Land of Liberty.
Penny · October 10, 2008 09:55 PM
Sorry to jump back in here, but what the heck.
No house, no stocks, Dennis? Tell me more?
Do you live large off of credit cards in an upscale apartment with a leased car that has your friends thinking you are successful?
Maybe you are in the other half of our country which makes $35,000 a year or less who has student loans totalling three times that amount?
Starving artist or musician just following your dream?
Living in your parent's basement until they kick you out?
Twice married and paying child support for those bitches and ...done with that?
We all have our "stories". Not that we need them anymore. The government will be taking care of all of us, and so far? It appears a half black, half white man will be leading us.
I LOVE irony even more than I love a good story! Course I just might need to rethink reparations???
Don't you just LOVE a good loop when you are whirling in it!
Penny · October 10, 2008 10:43 PM
Eric, the essential problem is that oodles of Boomers have two sources of retirement assets: their house equity, and their 401ks. Both are tanking, and they are looking at a future on the Cat Food Diet, unless they find another way to get the rest of us to pay welfare. That's a LOT of "me first" votes for O!
SDN · October 11, 2008 08:14 AM
SDN
unless they find another way to get the rest of us to pay welfare. That's a LOT of "me first" votes for O
I keep reading that and I keep wondering how you walk upright.
The One is a hard leftist. He is for making your primary relationship in life with The State. The State (which he and his cronies will benevolently run) will provide you with food, shelter, a job, healthcare, etc. Just sign }here{... pay no attention to your liberty, you didn't really need it anyway.
Seriously, you think a united Dem government under Obama/Pelosi/Reid is going to give a flying fig about you? You're looking at a radical change in Federal government that may take until the end of the century to change. And radical changes that will make America much less America and more like Europe.
My girlfriend and I live comfortably in a 2-bedroom suburban apartment with room enough for our 2000+ books. We own our cars (just paid mine off in May), and have minimal debt even after graduate school.
The difference with us is that we don't live outside our means. We haven't fed into this speculation-based economy.
I don't know what your point is with Obama's parentage, but okay.
All I know is that the economy is still the same from my perspective because I haven't dabbled in so many straw houses as others have. In fact, now that my car is paid off and gas prices are falling I may just treat myself to some little luxury or other.
Dennis, congratulations. Surely you know how unusual you are. I am thinking that as you and your girlfriend continue on like this, soon enough you will begin to save some money for your future, maybe have some kids, maybe buy a house, maybe save for their education or for your own retirement. These are things that practical people do. So skip ahead 25 or 30 years in your life, and try to imagine how you would feel about today's financial debacle?
Today the practical people, perhaps many of them much older than you, are watching as the government is bailing out not only the impractical people, but the crooks who led them there as well. We have one presidential candidate who would have us believe that bigger government can take care of that problem, plus provide tax breaks to everyone, plus provide you with health care benefits, etc etc etc. His wife talks about the government "pie", and how when we have a bigger slice (maybe from working hard, living lean and saving?), we should want to give some of that up to others, (who maybe didn't work so hard, spent much and saved nothing?).
The more control that government assumes over our lives, the more freedoms we give up. The more we rely on the government for any reason at all, the more control they have over us. The larger the group that relies on their government for basics, the more we are ALL owned by that government. Is this a form of slavery? You tell me. I know my answer.
Penny · October 11, 2008 04:03 PM
I am guessing, Dennis, that you do not have a 401(k). Or that if you do you have no idea where that money goes you put into it.
Most workers in America do indeed have a stock portfolio, whether they realize it or not.
Steve Skubinna · October 11, 2008 05:06 PM
Penny, when you describe your actions in those days, it makes me wish I'd known you then. Sleeping with a stranger? I couldn't get my fiancee to sleep with me. All that free love stuff was reported in the newspapers but seemed like a fairy tale to me.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
I remember when the Rev. Wright fiasco started there was a perfectly reasonable explanation--before Obama was a half-black candidate in a mostly white country, he was a half-white candidate in a mostly black district. He needed Wright to shore up his racial bona fides. Fair enough, I gave him a pass. But as the bodies pile up, only someone truly suspending their judgment could continue to dismiss this stuff. The list of names is too long to ignore. Even if that's just the way it is for politicians coming out of Chicago and Obama is no worse than any of the others, it should still disqualify him. And every other Chicago politician should be disqualified right along with him.
On the economy, I might agree except for two things--first, most Americans have a stock portfolio of some sort and they are unhappy about it going down. Also, most people's houses are worth less than they were a year ago. I agree that McCain was more or less right when he said the economy is fundamentally sound, but the fact is most poeple are taking a short-term hit and are a little nervous. They want to punish somebody and McCain is the obvious choice.