Where have all our leaders gone? (abcnews.com)
“We got trouble, right here in River City!”
All the chatter, tweating (2 million in first 2 minutes) and talking-head pronouncements don’t come close to addressing the real problem America saw on its TV screens last night. What America does not need is a choice between a theoretical professor and a technocratic problem solver. But that’s what we’re getting.
Muhammad Ali and Joe Fraser never smiled like this. And these two are no Ali or Fraser. (abcnews.com)
The lesser of two evils
Everyone is yakking about “who won?” but the real question should be: Which of these two men is the lesser of two evils? We know the American people are losing and as the song from The Music Man says, “We got trouble, right here in River City” – and every Springfield, Dallas, Dodge City and Podunk Hollow in the country. And no president can solve our problems. He can help, lead in the right direction, but he can’t do much else. And his political ideology doesn’t have much to do with it. In fact, it encumbers him.
Technocratic, number crunching MBA problem solvers can’t do this job – ever! (kam.getty)
Mitt Romney
What we don’t need is a “problem solver.” This may be counter intuitive and difficult to consider when we’re up to our ass in problems but it has a lot of validity. Romney is a problem solver, a numbers guy, a get-it-done guy, a show-me-a-problem-and-I’ll start fixing-it manager. And this sounds like it’s just what the doctor order. But it’s not what we need. If it was that easy, we’d have solved most of the problems by now. Hell, there are thousands of problem solvers in America, they’re everywhere. And they’re good, That’s why they get hired in every company and every government agency in the country. Some of them fix the problems, some of them don’t – many more of the latter: Larry Summers, Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, Rahm Emanuel, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, John Sculley (Apple circa 1990), Angelo Mozilo (Countrywide), Gerald Levin (Time Warner), Richard Fuld Jr. (Lehman Brothers), etc. etc. All of them have been problem solvers – and major screw ups. And Romney is cut from the same cloth (Bain Capital). That ain’t the kind of person we need running the most powerful nation in the world. Because it’s in the DNA of problem solvers to come up with answers without first making sure they are dealing with the right questions. They “don’t know what they don’t know” and yet, they charge ahead as if they know the answers. They don’t deliberate, they do. That’s not only dangerous, it compounds the problem. History is full of examples.
Who is the real Mitt? No one knows, not even Mitt. (mcbride, SFchronical/corbis)
Problem solvers are not leaders and Romney is not a leader. Why? Because he doesn’t know who he is. Never has. He’s always been what others want him to be. His father wanted him to be a big executive. He did it. His mother wanted him to fit into high society. He did it. He’s never been the real Mitt. That’s why he never seems “authentic.” He isn’t. And that’s one problem he can’t fix. We know that when a person is not himself, not in touch with his own self worth (despite the financial net worth) or has his own values, he can’t be trusted to do what is right. There is no balancing core so he always reverts to doing what he thinks someone else thinks he should do (father, mother, wife, advisers, bankers, big donors, lobbyists). And his values come from someone else. We see it all the time. He says and does what it takes to win the day (forget the long-term good), whether flip-flopping through the GOP primary debates or telling it like it is at a private fund raising dinner (“47% ” of Americans are on the mooch). With Mitt, “What you see is not what you get,” never has been. Can’t be. Nice guy but … And that’s a serious problem if he ends up in the Oval Office.
C’mon man … (abcnews.com)
Barack Obama
“C’mon man …” Wake up and smell the napalm in the air. You were clobbered last night. Stop being the calm, cool professor, as if you can ignore the bully student throwing spitballs across the room. This ain’t gonna cut it. What America does not need is another policy wonk-wonk. What we need is leadership, not some damn professor crawling around in the weeds trying to figure out how to drain the swamp. We need someone to lead us out of the swamp to higher ground and you can’t do that by swatting at every damn mosquito. And stop going on about the alligators that were already in the swamp when you waded in in 2008. We know it. Just tell us how the hell you’re gonna get us out of the swamp. That’s all we need to know. What direction should we go? What are you going to do to lead us? What do we have to do? What will it take? How far is it? Be specific, we can handle it. And if the alligator hunter from Massachusetts keeps firing his pellet gun, fire back with a couple of rounds from your 12 gauge shotgun (every president has one), and then keep leading. Or not. If you just keep preaching and spewing micro-facts and factoids, well … maybe we will sink into the swamp that used to be a shining beacon on the hill.
Is that the Everglades down there, full of people drowning in the economic swamp? (fraza.ua)
Mr. President, this is no time to be saying, “Look, I’ll get back to you on that.” You may be able to climb aboard Air Force One and move forward, but the rest of us have a boat full of alligators snapping at our asses and were drowning in the gobbledygook of the political swamp. So give us something we can cling to, something tangible about what you’re going to do. How you’re going to lead. And if you’re lucky enough to get a second term, do something.
With interest I had occasion this week to listen to a speech by JFK given by him in 1962…the main focus of concern? Middle class growth. Education,deficit and of course MediCare problems facing the nation. Last night, wannabe Justin Truedeau addressed a group in Mississagua. When asked for his concerns? Middle class, deficit education and health care! The most recent debate? you guessed it. Middle class, education deficitn and health care!!! deja vu all over again as Yogi would say.!
The middle class has been hammered for decades. Wages and income of the average family has flat-lined since 1975 – 1975. Enough said. It’s an ongoing problem that hasn’t been solved in 50 years. Why? Because the middle class has lost its political power, even though it never had much anyway. Unions are as bad as political parties – self-interest agendas – and there continuing demise undermines any chance the middle class has at retaining any leverage with government. It’s despicable!
Yogi was right. And maybe his other gem, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over,” applies too (or was that Casey Stengel?). The middle class is the economic engine of every western society (in US consumer spending about 68% of GDP) and yet, they have little to no control of the major economic drivers. So those who do have control “skim off the top” what they want from what is produced, and by time they’re done there is little left to go around for the middle class. Comment above is correct: income and wages for middle class have been flat for almost 40 years while it has gone up exponentially for upper class.