January 25, 2008--Wrestling A Pig

If Senators Clinton and Obama are as concerned about the current state of the economy, especially its effects on the middle class and poor, since they both have detailed plans about what to do now to stimulate the economy and help those they profess to care about the most, what are they both doing in South Carolina that’s more important than being at their day jobs?

They are senators who were elected by the very same constituents who are now worried and hurting. They were elected to work hard in Congress. In fact, they were more than elected to do so—they are also paid salaries, from taxpayer dollars, to do that job.

But we find them both on, in effect, self-approved paid leaves of absence pursuing their ambitions to become president. Anyone else who just walked away from their job would either not be paid or, more likely, fired.

Of course I know I’m being naïve to be complaining about this—for time immemorial governors and congressmen and mayors have effectively abandoned their jobs to run for a different, usually higher office.

Less naïve, perhaps, is the thought that one or both of them should return to work in Washington, right now, since both parties are working together with the Bush administration on a bipartisan economic stimulus package. If Clinton’s stimulus plan is as good as she claims it to be and if she has “35 years of experience” of getting things done, and if Obama’s plan is as sound as he says it is and he claims that he can bring about change because he has the “judgment” to do so, what better opportunity and venue than the Senate to put these plans to the test?

Back at their offices, so to speak, since one of them is likely to be the democratic nominee, they might have the clout to actually do something useful. And thereby demonstrate in action that they are up to the task of exerting leadership and getting things done. But don’t hold your breath.

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Then what’s all this about how the other Republican candidates hate Mitt Romney? John McCain says that competing with him is like "wrestling with a pig"; and Ed Rollins, Mike Huckabee’s campaign chairman, who is an experienced and smooth operator, not too long ago said, “What I have to do is make sure that my anger with a guy like Romney, whose teeth I want to knock out, doesn’t get in the way of my thought process.” (See NY Times article linked below.)

Mitt does have great teeth (and hair) so I can understand why some people might feel jealous about that. And he’s also worth about $200 million (before spending whatever it is he’s spent on his campaign and how hard he’s been hit the past couple of weeks on Wall Street—I suspect, though, that he’s still “comfortable”), which might be a problem for others.

But shouldn’t all of these things actually make him attractive to Republicans? Democrat John Edwards got in trouble spending 400 bucks on his hair—but a Republican? Hey, whatever he spends on his hair, teeth, and clothes helps the economy, no? By trickling down. Remember that?

Thus, Romney’s economic stimulus plan is already being implemented. And it’s working. By now he’s probably put at least $50 million of his own money directly into other people’s pockets. I hesitate to utter yet another cliché—but isn’t that putting his money where his mouth is?