Rev. Jeremiah Wright: During ObamaFest 2008 (otherwise known as the 2008 presidential election) then Senator Obama could do no wrong. Hanging out with former terrorists? No big deal. Spreading the wealth around? He didn’t really mean it. Attending a radical church? Nothing to see here, move on… The Daily Caller has some more JournoList revelations. This time, members of the group were trying to figure out how to spin the Jeremiah Wright story:
In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”
This is how these people think. It’s okay to slander people as long as the progressive agenda moves forward. Is it really that surprising then that Obama received the greatest media coverage in modern history? From the beginning I didn’t think it was possible for someone with such a lack of experience and ties to shady characters to get elected. I underestimated the members of the liberal media. It’s beyond me how any liberal can complain about the Right’s paranoia when it comes to mainstream news coverage.
Saint FDR: Historians are frothing at the mouth defending Franklin D. Roosevelt’s record during the Great Depression. Over the decades there’s been some kind of deification of Roosevelt’s policies during the Depression. The problem is that upon analysis the story doesn’t add up. Amity Shlaes has a point by point take on Conrad Black’s assertion that FDR’s policies saved the economy. I love Shlaes and I’m happy to learn she’s writing a biography about Calvin Coolidge. If she would only write one about Lindsay Lohan, then I’d really be stoked.
About Massachusetts: As a followup to yesterday’s post about the electoral college, I am so sad to learn that the popular vote legislation being kicked around in Massachusetts wouldn’t take effect until enough states have passed identical legislation. In other words, I won’t hold my breath waiting for this trend to sweep the nation. As an interesting side note, the Constitution actually calls for the election of electors, who would then cast votes for the President. The founders envisioned a true republic in which the only popular election was for the House. True wisdom.
Top Ten Most Left-Biased American Journalists: Big Journalism is doing a series on biased leftist journalists. One of my favorites, the indelible Paul Krugman is #3. The cartoon character Krugman is a hypocrite at best and at worst an ugly partisan hiding behind a Nobel Prize. “But he writes for the New York Times!?!” So what? Who cares?
That’s all I got today. It’s only Tuesday. Tuesday nights mean Hell’s Kitchen on FOX and endless Google searches for the latest on Lindsay Lohan. Now that’s my kind of entertainment.
“Please! Remain in your seats, I beg you! We are not children here, we are scientists! I assure you there is nothing to fear!”
-Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein
Back in April 2002, David Levy proclaimed that the Unted States was in “the Frankenstein recovery.” If 2002 was the Frankenstein Recovery, then this is the Young Frankenstein Recovery. It’s so bad that it’s a parody of a stitched-together, made-up recovery. Charged with finding what we need to reanimate our economy, the geniuses on Capitol Hill, a.k.a., Igor, bring us the Abby Normal brain of “stimulus” spending. Unfortunately, after inserting the abnormal brain and pumping megagigawatts of electricity into his creature, Dr. Frankenstein didn’t have a plan after it came to life.
Likewise, our own Dr. Frankenstein, Obama, and his foolish sidekick, Igor, have created a monstrosity that threatens to force a double-dip recession. Sure, I suppose there’s a smattering of “shovel-ready” jobs, but that doesn’t exactly save the economy. To see another version of how Obama and Congress explained all the pointless spending to the American taxpayer, please check out the video clip below (the part of Obama/Congress is played by Marty Feldman; the part of the American taxpayer by Gene Wilder):
Liberals continue to believe the Great Depression myth that Franklin D. Roosevelt’s massive growth of the federal government somehow saved the economy and will always save it. All it really did was create a 7-foot-tall, 54-inch-wide gorilla that lumbered around terrorizing the villagers for an entire freaking decade. Now the monster’s twice as large and the angry racists villagers are fresh out of torches and pitchforks. Oh well. At least it can sing Puttin’ on the Ritz…
A couple of weeks ago Time magazine asked, “What can Barack Obama learn from FDR?” That got me thinking about the Great Depression. It’s an event I’ve studied a lot over the past three years. There’s one major problem with the Obama as FDR idea though; it doesn’t fit. This idea obviously fits the left’s romantic idea of FDR and Obama, but from a historic perspective it’s a little puzzling. A better question would be, “What can Barack Obama learn from Hoover?” When Roosevelt was sworn into office on March 4, 1933, the depression had been going on for three and half years. Hoover had been president for just seven months when the stock market crashed in October 1929.
Herbert Hoover was an extremely popular guy. It was the reason he elected president. Hoover’s exploits as a mining engineer and a humanitarian had made him an obvious choice for president when Coolidge refused to run for another term. To be sure, no reasonable person would blame Hoover for the stock market crash seven months into his term. This is the same problem Obama faces.
When the crash happened Hoover used every tool at his disposal to mitigate the effects of the downturn. Hoover didn’t have a “hands off” reaction; in fact, many of his policies were later copied by FDR. It is my belief (and I’m not alone) that Hoover’s policies after the crash (followed by FDR) turned a great recession into the Great Depression. This is the lesson Obama must learn. Unprecedented government intervention could make the economy much worse. After three years of meddling Hoover was unable to turn things around and paid the price at the polls. If the economy doesn’t turn around Obama will be viewed as Hoover, not FDR.
Amity Shlaes’ The Forgotten Man is easily the most fascinating look back at the Great Depression I have ever read. The book is a breeze to read and serves as a refreshing look at the well intentioned policies that help prolong and strengthen the severity of the depression. The book starts in the twenties and reevaluates the myth of the “reckless twenties” that became the embodiment of the thirties propaganda. The center of the economic policy of that period was Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon who served the post for three presidents. The twenties were a boom period for business, much like this decade and the nineties.
President Coolidge’s pro-business policies fueled the economic growth of that period. The immensely popular Coolidge decided not to seek a third term and was replaced by Herbert Hoover. Hoover’s idea of economics were at odds with Mellon and the previous administration and when the stock market finally corrected in 1929 after inflated growth the President did everything wrong. Hoover raised taxes, tariffs, interest rates and turned a normal recession into the Great Depression.
Political change was inevitable in 1932 and once Roosevelt became President the poor economic policies continued. It’s easy to point the blame on Roosevelt, but I’m not sure there was any rational alternative. The Republicans at the time didn’t have any better ideas. They were far too prone to support the kind of isolationist policies that were helping compound the problem. The only decent candidate to run against Roosevelt was Wendell Willkie who ran in 1940. By that time the war was the number one issue and there’s no doubt that Roosevelt was a tremendous leader.
President Roosevelt’s administration also spent a great deal of time going after businesses and Wall Street. This war against the private sector ultimately made the Depression worse as well, eventually leading to Black Tuesday in 1938. The administration’s overzealous attack on Wall Street quelled investment and stopped growth. One example of the cluelessness of the administration was the price of Gold. When FDR was asked why he had sat the price of gold to twenty-one cents he replied “it’s a lucky number, because it’s three times seven.” This kind of daily meddling wasn’t uncommon and is an amazing insight into why the Depression is the greatest government blunder in our nation’s history.
Despite the gloom of the period the book is an inspirational look at the truly “forgotten men and women” of the depression. These heroes overcame one of the most difficult periods in our history despite the incompetence of government intervention. For too long people have debated why the Great Depression happened and ignored why it lasted so long. The answer to the last question is the answer to both. The differences between Hoover and Roosevelt were slight; however, Roosevelt helped calm the public. Ultimately the start of World War II ended the Depression and the anti-business and anti-trade policies of the thirties faded after 1940. It’s important for Americans to remember the mistakes made by the government during that period because they’re too easy to make again. On the Right, Isolationism in trade and in immigration policy is damaging. On the Left anti-big business and class warfare are equally disturbing. The Forgotten Man is a stark reminder of how both out dated ideologies got it wrong.
Recent Comments