July 8, 2008
As 4th of July weekend drew to a close on my home world Sunday night, I was harshly reminded of our nation’s true economic condition. I’ve seen Sunday nights in Chicago, when you could find more people walking around in 8-degree weather, with a good wind. As Independence Day weekend wound down, Michigan Avenue saw few pedestrians except for some street hustlers and that rare, lost tourist — the “meal ticket” for most street hustlers. In any previous year, there would have been a line in front of the Underground Wonderbar by now – people waiting to see authentic Chicago blues. It was midnight. Everyone wanted to get back to work. The tourists just wanted to make sure they got back on their sold-out flights, lest they face a re-booking penalty. These conditions, suitcase restrictions and new, invasive scanning technologies defined the summer travel experience for 2008. Those who could afford it, seemed more than ready to go home. Those who couldn’t were more than ready to get back to work.
Monday morning gave us some forced exuberance about the fate of the equities markets. I saw a guy on TV practically dancing, while being interviewed on an exchange floor in New York because the Dow Jones industrial average was up “almost 100 points”. (Those of us who could read the little numbers for ourselves saw an increase of 72 points.) We were supposed to believe the “bottom” had passed and we were to immediately contact our brokers with some “buy” orders. At my hotel’s check-out time, as I prepared for the return flight to my present-day existence, the Dow had crapped out to 120 points less than the previous close, only to regain 63 of those points by the close of Monday’s trading. Another would-be firework had fizzled out.
Those with jobs had all the more reason to get back to work. They were lucky to have jobs in this economy. Those working in the financial sector were damned lucky. Those with control over their retirement money seemed ready to give up and go back to the Acme Hopeless Crapshot Fund. Misleading information from prognosticators and market analysts had inflicted significant damage to their portfolios this past year. The best tip for investors seemed to be that old maxim from “The X-Files”: Trust No One.
The evening news gave us the anticipated campaign invective, although the Fox News failed to provide me with the conspiracy theory that thirsted for validation. As the Associated Press reported earlier in the day:
The airplane carrying Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made a precautionary landing in St. Louis on Monday after the crew had a problem keeping the nose up on takeoff from Chicago.
The plane, an MD-80 Midwest charter, struggled to keep the nose at the necessary angle, as it left for Charlotte, N.C., the pilot said. Later, Midwest Airlines said the problem developed because an emergency slide located in the tail cone of the plane deployed in flight and never threatened the safety of the flight. The National Transportation Safety Board said it planned to investigate the incident.
I was hoping that Fox News would tell us that the plane had been chartered from Vince Foster Memorial Airlines. I was hoping (and I continue to hope) for a tie to the Hillary Clinton campaign (or at least someone for whose antics the Clinton campaign is attempting to establish “plausible deniability”). What good are the Fox News people when you are counting on them to do what they do best and they come up empty?
I was reminded of the remark (or should I say: possible self-fulfilling prophecy) made by disgruntled Clinton supporter Carmella Lewis to Hillary herself, as quoted by Maureen Dowd in the June 29 New York Times: “You’re going to be the next President.” Ms. Lewis went on to tell the Times: “But I have a gut feeling,” … “that something’s going to happen so that she becomes the nominee.”
Fox had all the ingredients for a wonderful conspiracy story here but they completely dropped the ball on all of us conspiracy fans. Could it have been because Hillary Clinton’s recently-unemployed advisor, Howard Wolfson, found a job at Fox News?
Fun With Bill And Hill
I had always been one of the skeptics on the issue of what support Bill and Hillary Clinton would provide to Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign. The fight for their party’s nomination lasted longer than it should have. Hillary’s reluctance to concede defeat underscored longstanding doubts about whether she could ever support Obama as the inevitable Democratic Party nominee. The most outspoken skeptic on this subject has been Maureen Dowd. Her column in the New York Times on August 19 (just before the Democratic Convention) described a fictional meeting between John McCain and Hillary Clinton. The article, entitled Two Against The One, described the following imaginary, conspiratorial conversation between Hillary and McCain:
I had voiced my own doubts about whether the Clintons would support the Obama candidacy, back on June 5:
Whatever motivated her to continue on, ultimately resulted in the dissociative speech she gave on the night of Tuesday, June 3, 2008, when Barack Obama earned enough delegates to guarantee himself the Democratic Presidential nomination. She spoke to her relatively small audience of sycophants and losers, as though she had just assured the nomination for herself. On the following day, she was faced with conference calls from 28 House members and 8 Senators, both pledged delegates and superdelegates for Clinton. According to Howard Fineman of Newsweek, these people made it clear that they were beyond disappointment that she had not given a concession speech. They were outraged by her arrogance and gave her an ultimatum: Hillary must release them as her delegates, or they would endorse Obama, regardless of her consent. Hillary agreed to a concession event, to take place on Saturday, June 7, at which time she would formally endorse Obama.
My suspicions continued for another two months and on August 7, I wrote this about the upcoming convention:
Forget the OxyContin (at least for this weekend). Rush Limbaugh is going to be on a “natural high”, because his favorite fantasy might just become reality. The Clintons are in “full hostility” mode and the Hillarologists are planning a parade and more for the convention in Denver. Limbaugh has attempted to claim credit for the likely showdown in Denver, with his own label: “Operation Chaos”.
Nevertheless, by the time the Convention began, the Clintons were on board for Obama and both gave great speeches for the Obama – Biden ticket. On August 28, I felt humbled enough to say this about Senator Clinton’s performance at that event:
After hearing her speech, I felt motivated to apologize for publicly doubting her loyalty to the Democratic Party. She really did “deliver the goods” by giving what was, perhaps, her best speech on the campaign stump. Although many of us were surprised by the substance of her speech, I was particularly impressed by her delivery. Hillary had always addressed her audiences with Lieberman-esque stiffness. Imagine someone saying “let us go forward” with a groaning, insincere tone for the 10,000th time. That was the way Hillary used to speak. In defeat, she really did find her voice.
Since that time, both Hillary and Bill Clinton have been working hard along the campaign trail, proving themselves as essential compatriots in the Obama – Biden campaign. The best example of this took place on October 30, when Bill Clinton delivered his rousing speech in support of Obama, before a crowd of 35,000 in Kissimmee, Florida. His remarks urging supporters to “get out the vote” for Obama, made it clear that he had no shortage of enthusiasm for this former foe:
For a candid look at Hillary Clinton’s real attitude about the Obama campaign, the November 2 article by Carrie Budoff Brown and Glenn Thrush on the Politico website is essential reading. The following passage described what was really going on in Hillary’s mind during the days before her concession speech:
Both Bill and Hillary Clinton surprised many of us with their tireless efforts for the Obama – Biden campaign, despite the “bad blood” that had been spilled during the primary season. Their conduct will surely be viewed by history as an exemplary model for party unity.