During this election cycle, the conservatives may have alienated their most prized possession: the elite that run their own party. Today, the Chicago Tribune endorsed Obama. "But that's just the elite mainstream media," you'll yell. Not so fast:
This endorsement makes some history for the Chicago Tribune. This is the first time the newspaper has endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for president.
[10-20-08 ChiTrib]. Add to it the Weekly standard's call for Palin to step down, etc. etc. etc., and, my friends, one might argue that the elite - the successful and the educated, democrat and republican - have been turned off my a hard-charging, all-too-folksy attempt at populism.
* and now to throw some cold water on that. I am a staunch Democrat, but I would seriously encourage Obama to take a tough stance with Congress when he gets into power. POUTS + 60 votes in the Senate is a recipe for excess and scandal. It could, if marshalled responsibly, be a ticket to faster recovery.
* And my final pitch: I hope the infrastructure stays the name of the game for a long time after the election. Let's create government-funded jobs rebuilding roads, water-handling facilities, power structure, communications lines, and so on for the coming 10 years. That is money we'd actually be investing in America. This project is not sexy, so the charge will have to come from an exciting man like Barack.
1 comment:
Infrastructure would be a reasonable stimulus project - WPA style (i.e. fund a zillion small relatively fast things). It is certainly a better idea than this half-baked bailout we've now had foisted upon us...
I don't know too much about the Chicago Tribune, but isn't Sen. Obama FROM Chicago? When was the last time the Democratic party's nominee was from there?
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