Master Rebaters

It is a damn shame that the Bush-Cheney administration has fucked up so many things that it’s hard to get voters to focus adequately on any of them. Fuck-up Fatigue. Moreover, the problems they’ve created are often so bad that the solutions cause problems of their own. It’s like if you’re morbidly obese, and you do the right thing and start exercising, but then have a heart attack. Start taking troops out of Iraq, you might well cause more violence and instability than there is now. Start ending the tax cuts for the wealthy, you might undermine the chances for economic recovery. If the Fed keeps cutting interest rates, the Chinese won’t want to invest here anymore. The classic metaphor is that on Iraq or the economy, President Bush grabbed a tiger by the tail. It’s pretty hard to figure out the best way of letting the tiger go, or even if that is the best idea. The challenge for Democrats is to at least convince voters that grabbing that tiger’s tail to begin with was a pretty stupid idea.

There’s all this talk about tax rebates. Give the Americans who most need it a few hundred bucks, and the idea is they’ll spend it and stimulate the economy, paying bills or whatever. Or they’ll go to Vegas or Atlantic City. Frankly, the government can keep my rebate, and go fix a bridge in Minnesota or something. It’s richly ironic that the near-term solution for addressing a Republican recession involves a government handout, extending unemployment benefits, and more food stamps.

Getting away from Iraq and on to economic issues must certainly help John Edwards, as he has had a consistent and compelling message about poverty in American and the plight of the middle class over this and his previous campaign. Hillary Clinton lately has also been doing well by urging voters to actually vote their economic interests.

HRC keeps talking about all the things she’s going to be ready to do on “Day One” when she becomes president. This is unrealistic. Day One is all parties. Day Two is a little hangover, maybe organizing the desk drawers. Days Three and Four are a Thursday and Friday and you’re still unpacking boxes and finding your way around. Then it’s the weekend. It’s really not until the following Monday that anything is going to happen, right? Get real, Hillary.