Aw, c'mon, Jeb...give us a break!

Alrighty then...I have been way too busy to sit and blog for the past several weeks. Now that the election's over and I'm no longer spending hours on following politics, I have gotten back to my normal routine and am running around like a crazy person, dealing with my kid's school and social schedules, getting ready for Christmas, and all that good stuff.

I had to stop in and mention something though. As I was surfing the net this evening, I came across this article from Marc Ambinder's blog on The Atlantic website. It says that Jeb Bush, the brother of George W. and the former governor of my home state of Florida, is thinking of running for Senate, following the announcement that incumbent Mel Martinez will retire.

Folks, do I even have to tell you that this disturbs me, on many levels? I swear, if he does run, I will lose a good percentage of the happy mojo I've had goin' for me since Obama won the general election. Seriously, what a buzzkill - here I was, all excited that the days of Dubya were numbered, and then this news rears its ugly head. We just can't seem to get rid of these Bush wingnuts!

Florida loved this guy when he was governor, for the most part, though I don't really understand why. As you may have guessed, I was never a member of his fan club, but I was in the minority at the time. However, I do wonder if the place has shifted a bit since then. We were the only state in the Southeast to go blue for Obama. Maybe the grip of the conservative voter has loosened just a bit, and maybe we're entering the 21st century at last. But I wouldn't bet on it, and I can just see Jeb riding a wave of GOP love right into the Senate. All those white men who freaked out when McCain lost are frantically looking for a way to edge the Republican party back into the sphere of governmental influence, and they would weep tears of joy if they had a chance to restore Jeb to an elected office.

And so, with a sense of deja vu mixed with creeping dread, I wait to hear the pronouncement from on high, when and if it comes. I'm sure it will, because Jeb always wanted to get back into the fray and this opportunity is one he just wouldn't pass up. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that something comes up and prevents him from going through with it. Who knows? Maybe now that he's gonna have all kinds of time on his hands, Dubya will call him up, and offer to take his bro on an extended fishing trip. For 5 or 6 years. Off the Somali coast, where the pirates will hijack their vessel and we won't have to hear from either one of 'em ever again. *sigh* A girl can dream, can't she?

Aw, c'mon, Jeb...give us a break!

Reality check

This has been a dizzying couple of weeks. The ups and downs of the financial crisis and of the attempts to repair it are coming fast and furious. Congressional bickering and finger-pointing has left us no closer to a solution than we were when this whole mess started. And during this turmoil, the candidates have been struggling to find the right angle to take. I've seen a lot of criticism directed at both McCain and Obama, although McCain is getting the lion's share of it. It didn't help him to make such a big stink about how he has been "stepping in to solve problems for the American people", when the bill he was trying to lay claim to got defeated later the same day, causing a massive plunge on Wall Street.

I think the media, and most voters, are truly missing the point here. The candidates are both correct when they try to stress the urgency of the situation, and the need for some feasible agreement to be reached as soon as possible. For each day that the issue remains unresolved, the money crunch worsens and the effects are being felt in businesses and households all over the nation. But the problem comes when we expect the candidates to come up with the answer. Reality check - neither McCain nor Obama has been sworn in as president yet. In case you forgot, there is still a guy named George W. Bush residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and he's got a lease there until January of next year. This is HIS problem right now, and it is HIS job to rally the administration and Congress to work out a deal. His failure to do so is the problem here, so laying the blame for the bailout's defeat on either candidate is a bogus move.

What, exactly, do people expect McCain and Obama to do right now? They are senators - no more and no less, and both have been removed from the day-to-day business of Capitol Hill for months now as they campaign for the presidency. How, exactly, are they responsible for leading Congress to the answer for all our nation's economic woes? After a crash that was years in the making, it is unrealistic to look to either one of them to solve it all in a week or two. They have both voiced their belief that an agreement on a plan is urgently needed, and they have tried to encourage their colleagues to find some common ground. But for either of them to interject themselves into the process in a greater way would be inappropriate right now, and probably none too helpful, if the events of the past several days are any indication.

The McCain campaign has alleged that Obama has been "watching from the sidelines" during this crisis, and has not done enough to rally support for the president's bailout proposal. Reality check - during yesterday's vote on the bailout plan, 60% of House Democrats voted in favor of the bill, while only 37% of Republicans did so - despite the McCain camp's insistence that "It's really Senator McCain who got all parties around a table to hammer out a deal". The truth is that Congress is not focusing on the needs of the presidential candidates right now - many of them have their own election bids to worry about, and pissing off their constituents is not on their agenda. They do not answer to McCain, or Obama, and to add the presidential race into the mix is a distraction from the task at hand.

It's time for the media and the public to recognize that the leadership on this particular issue needs to come from the White House. Admittedly, this is easier said than done. Bush and his cohorts, after years of alienating and disappointing everyone around them, have fallen into the lame duck zone, where their powers of influence are virtually nil. Still, we cannot lay the responsibility for a solution to the bailout issue on the presidential candidates. Not yet, anyway. When one of them is elected, he will need to get his shit together pretty fast and take action to clean up this mess on a long-term basis. But for now, the immediate concern is the short-term needs of the market and of Americans who are scared and strapped for resources. Reality check -the president and the leaders in Congress must be the ones to step up and make something happen. It's time for everyone to get off the partisan blame train and admit that, even if it's tough to do, a plan is needed and the time to pass one is now.

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Reality check