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I had a conversation with my favorite Republican yesterday and I had to laugh when I asked about the fiscal crisis gripping the country. The response I got was that it is Barney Frank's fault, he was in charge of regulation. It is also the Democrats fault, Pelosi's fault.
I just had to laugh. When George W is brought into the conversation he isn't even considered a strong enough leader to be used in the argument. "Oh, that ass" is about all I get. Nothing about the fact that he was in charge for 8 years and the Republicans put him there. It is intriguing because now that he has royally screwed up the country and is about to take his golden parachute and retreat to Texas, nobody wants to take responsibility for old George.
I am interested in the fact that George is not someone that Republicans even wish to discuss. It's as if the act of voting the man into office twice is an embarrassment they'd rather not think about. It's as if the people under his watch who allowed the stock market to run wild and come close to wrecking the Union were separate from the President or that he was separate from them.
It is totally unjustifiable of course to remove the decision-making of George W from the election discussion. Even George W would rather that the debate about who is to blame over all of this mess be delayed until after the election. To affix blame would be to make even Republicans question their own judgment. How can one say they have good judgment in selecting a president when they've selected the current president, twice?
Republicans must be sincerely questioning their own judgment at this point in the election process. How can they know with any certainty that John McCain - who they all detested until now by the way will be any better than George W? He certainly wouldn't be much different.
Now as judgment comes into question one must also question the judgment of McCain himself who selected former Texas Senator Phil Gramm to advise him on economic policy (mental recession, nation of whiners). I mean let's get serious folks, the Phil Gramm who was knee deep in the Enron debacle is the person that McCain selected? (Gramm's wife was on the Board and he wote a law called the "Enron Loophole" that enabled the Enron disaster to happen) .
This is the same Phil Gramm who sponsored, authored and passed the Gramm-Leach-Bailey Act of 1999. This is the law that deregulated the banking industry and thereby reduced regulation that had separated the banking, insurance and brokerage activities and had been in effect since the Great Depression. This deregulation is now blamed in part for the current crisis. McCain selected Gramm to advise him on economics until Gramm said what he really thinks out loud.
Does anyone think that Gramm hadn't said this to McCain in private over a glass of whiskey? What condescension, what crass upper-class crap. The good old boys aren't such heroes when their real thinking is revealed. If a person can be judged by the company they keep, then I'd say McCain has some pretty seriously flawed views of the economy, unless you're rich.
In terms of selecting leaders, Republicans must certainly be asking themselves if they are choosing well this time. At no time in recent memory has the need to select a president wisely been more important. Judgment in choosing the right person this time and in choosing the right representatives the next time they are up election to Congress or the Senate is equally important. We need to examine our choice very carefully because it is apparent our vote does count.
Perhaps the speed of our lives has outstripped the speed of our ability to process information and make informed and intelligent judgments. Why on earth would so many people be over their head in debt and giving up on their responsibilities to pay their mortgages?
We need to all slow down and think about our judgment. We need to pay more attention. We need look at the results of making poor judgments. Our country teetered on the brink of insolvency last week if what I am hearing from the politicians is correct. I'd say that the collective Republican and American (whoever voted for George W) judgment in terms of choosing a leader is seriously questionable. I'd say that all those who chose to go into debt and into sub-prime mortgages must also have seriously impaired judgment.
Perhaps our departure from irrational exuberance is long overdue. Perhaps our snap back to reality came in the nick of time. Perhaps the lack of judgment can be overcome in the 11 th hour. But we all need to ask us how our judgment failed us the last eight years and whether the current choices offer us a wiser choice.
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