THE DALY SHOW

Mumbai Implications And Age of American Survivalist

This is a posting that looks at the attacks in India and what it means for us here in America. Prepare for the American Age of the Survivalist.

LAS VEGAS, NV (November 27, 2008) – Just this week I wrote this about President-elect Obama and the economic crisis we all face.

Besides the domestic details, we also don’t know what effect foreign affairs will have on the budget. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are still a drag and we’re not pulling out anytime soon. And who knows what else will happen.

What else might have just happened.

It’s not a coincidence that the attacks occurred as Americans celebrated a holiday; most of us are still watching on TV as I write this. That’s what I’m doing this Thanksgiving Weekend.

It’s also no coincidence that the attacks happened during our transition of presidential power.

And when you consider that Americans and Brits were targeted by the terrorists, you understand that the terrorists – whether they’re al Qaeda or some splinter group – that the best time to attack is during a financial crisis. Dictators like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini came to power during the Depression.

But there is far more to think about – like nuclear war.

Remember that India and Pakistan are nuclear powers on each other’s borders and they hate each other. Reports say the terrorists who were captured appeared to be Pakistani.

Stratfor offers a sobering look ahead. If it appears that Pakistan, some of its terrorist citizens, or its secret police are involved (and it does appear that way), then it will force India’s government to react with force to reassure the masses in India. That means these two could be on the brink of war.

That will mean more troops from America and NATO. In addition to Obama’s goal to send more troops to Afghanistan, you have to wonder where will the money come from when you consider the hundreds of billions (really trillions) created for the financial crisis.

Don’t think this will be the economic equivalent of World War II. Yes, some argue that the Second World War was the real economic stimulus that pulled us out of The Great Depression. Do we want that? Not in the nuclear age.

What does the attack on Mumbai mean for all of us here?

This kind of attack – more coordinated than 9/11 and the British and Spain train attacks — could always happen here. So, our guard will be up. That’s more American money spent on security – not mortgages and car loans.

I think these attacks and the impending and enduring financial crisis will lead to a new era. No, it’s not the era of liberal government. It will be the era of the American Survivalist.

I don’t think the end of this financial crisis is near. The new $800 billion stimulus yesterday for car and home loans will only cover a small portion of people who have equity in their homes and a solid job. For so many more who are upside down on their homes and without jobs, that money will never reach them. As a result, the American consumer cannot jump-start the American and the worldwide economy. That will lead to even more bankruptcies and further job losses.

Add to that, the terrorist guerilla groups know their efforts also cause economic havoc. The World Trade Center was not only a military target but a symbolic target for Osama bin Laden. The 9/11 attacks helped force us away from an age of economic stability and budget surpluses into an era of deficit spending on the sporadic war on terror. I used to stand in long lines at the airport and here people curse bin Laden. Now we’re paying for it directly out of our pockets and out of our homes.

As more people here in America become more pessimistic about the future, they will begin fortifying their homes with food, guns, and cash. That mentality is already the foundation of many folks – God-fearing and law abiding folks, I might add – out here in the Western U.S. We will not only fear our enemies outside the U.S., but our neighbors who will be so desperate for food and shelter.

Let me pile on the gloom even more. My good friend, John Alexander PhD, an expert on non-lethal warfare and a strategist on world affairs, told me at lunch this week that the next new hot spot will be The Sudan – on the border of Darfur. It’s simple, he says. There’s plenty of oil there. And there will be fights between northern Sudanese who are Muslim who want the oil in South Sudan which is occupied by African Christians.

We are truly connected to the rest of the world more than ever. For many of us, we might have a tendency to retract within ourselves.

As I re-read this, I am amazed at my pessimism and fear for our country. Why am I seeing these facts and events in this dark light?

There are a few reasons. My parents lived through the Depression. It had a monumental effect on my Dad. He died in 1984, but his recollections still speak to me. My grandfather was a prominent doctor. Yet during the Depression, my Dad told me, Grandpa would have a day of patient visits and have only a head of cabbage to show for it.

Maybe I’m looking back romantically and nostalgically. Maybe I think this is our time to show our strength like that generation – the Greatest Generation during World War II as Tom Brokaw writes. It toughened those folks.

Maybe I’ve watched too much of the now-cancelled HBO series Carnivale or I’ve read and remembered too much of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.

My advice: be on alert; and protect yourself and those you love. It’s going to be tough. But let me add this that was at the end of an email signature I received this week. It reads:

Obama So Far

Daly Economic Stimulus Package III

This is a posting considering what the Swedes did to solve their banking crisis. Can Swedish thinking solve the world’s economic crisis?

LAS VEGAS, (November 24, 2008) – I’ve proposed an infusion of government money to the nation’s homeowners in a previous post. Sure, it’s fraught with problems. What plan isn’t? Doing nothing would be criminal. Doing something too small, it seems, is worthless.

Barton Biggs is a big-time investor who now has a company called Traxis Partners. He was just on CNBC’s Squawk Box. He doesn’t know about my plan, but he seems to think the same big thinking I have. (Maybe not as big as mine, but still big.)

He thinks the current TARP is a “half-way measure.” He believes banks won’t start lending until those bad loans – CDOs and CDSs included – are off the banks’ balance sheets. The only way is for the government to buy those bad loans and infuse the banks with more capital.

He looks at Sweden’s banking crisis in the early 1990s – which survived and thrived. The Swedes infused money which was equivalent to 20% of GDP.

That means we would have to infuse more than $2 trillion – far less than my $7.5 trillion – but far higher than what we’ve done so far which is about 4%.

Again, I’m no economist, just an observer. So, take my plan with a grain of salt. But you need to look at what is happening out there – and what is not happening. Primarily, we’re doing too little as a nation to solve this problem.

But there is a silver lining to doing something big.

We’ve been hearing all the talk about America’s falling power and prominence in the world. I think those assessments are over-exaggerated. Are other emerging market countries rising? Yes. But they’re not about to overtake us politically, economically, or militarily.

If anything, this economic crisis shows American strength and our control over the world. When we sneeze, the world gets a cold. In this case, it’s the flu. If our economy went into the tank and the rest of the world thrived, then, yes, I’d agree that we’re on the decline. But the world needs us desperately for some specific reasons.

First, our government and banking system, though causing these problems, has to be the leader to solve them.

Second, once we get our economy moving again, the rest of the world will begin to recover. The American consumer is the basis for the world’s economy.

Third, even though we’re suffering here and the suffering will get worse over the next year, there is no talk of riots or a government coup here. The foundations of our government and our economy are in place. Those foundations do not exist in China, Russia, or Iran.

Those governments are worried. China has infused money into their financial system just to quell any protests from the many workers who are no longer working – since Americans aren’t buying.

Russia is losing revenues due to the fall in oil prices. Their stock market is in the tank. The Kremlin worries about food lines and unemployment.

Iran is the same way. Their oil revenues are dropping while they have failed to upgrade their refining capabilities and they continue to subsidize citizens’ gasoline use. They’re bleeding money over there. In fact, Iran’s lack of revenues might have led to the U.S. agreement on troops in Iraq.

This economic unrest is scary. Massive economic downturns lead to totalitarianism, as we saw in the 1930s.

To avoid further dictatorships, America needs to step forward and get our economy and the world’s economy flowing again. The APEC meeting this weekend seemed to understand that free-trade – not tariffs – is needed. That’s a good sign. But the real catalyst will be a massive infusion into the U.S. economy now.

Go Sweden.

It’s Time For Bunker Mentality

This is a posting about the impending dangers from the economic crisis that has yet to be unleashed. Get prepared. The worst is not here yet. Stockpile money and food. And brace yourself to help those you care about.

LAS VEGAS, NV (November 23, 2008) – In many neighborhoods you see signs that warn criminals “This street is patrolled by Neighborhood Watch.”

Neighborhood Watch was a policy in the 1980s and 1990s that local police used to help reduce crime by engaging citizens. I remember writing a newspaper article in 1982 that read, “Nosy neighbors make safe neighborhoods.”

However, most of us think the Neighborhood Watch signs are window dressing. Who really gets together to discuss crime? We got together to party in the roaring 90s. In most neighborhoods during our economic boom, we really didn’t have to worry – except for the petty crook, the drug-craved addict needing money for a fix, or the wayward vandalizing teen.

Those days may be over – even in the best of neighborhoods. In other words, you might want to start enacting a real neighborhood watch with the folks who live near you.

I’ve recently spent time talking to local government officials and business executives here in Las Vegas. They’re frightened beyond what they’re saying publicly in the media.

Domestic violence is up. Murder is up. Arson is up. The number of families now congregating where the homeless go has grown considerably. And that is just the beginning. A respected real estate executive told me this week that foreclosures will skyrocket in March to June of next year, well beyond what we’re seeing now. This executive, sitting in a nice office building, told me, “I may stop paying my mortgage and my leases very soon.”

We are, it seems, on the verge of what will look like a Depression. Economists might not call it a Depression, but it will feel like one. And all of us will be under siege.

Could I be overreacting? Yes. We may see the confidence of the new president wash over us and give us hope. But I’m preparing just in case this optimism fails to materialize. I’m hedging my bets. Sure I’m looking at some potential investment deals that look spectacular – if consumers begin spending again. So, I’m ready for economic stabilization, but I’m not ignoring what seems so obvious. This financial mess took years to happen; it will take years to clean it out. Preparing for what could be an economic version of a nuclear winter, even in the short term, is prudent.

That means you should be stockpiling some cash and non-perishable food. You might also be called on to help friends who need food, money or shelter. I’m hoping in a year from now anyone who reads this will laugh at me and call me an unabashed alarmist. However, right now I don’t think I’m yelling fire in a crowded in theater … loud enough.

Besides my discussions with local leaders, I’m reading a lot of respected writers. In his column today, Tom Friedman says that certain stock prices are at Depression levels. He writes:

The stock and credit markets haven’t been fooled. They have started to price financial stocks at Great Depression levels, not just recession levels. With $5, you can now buy one share of Citigroup and have enough left over for a bite at McDonalds.

The problem is our national leaders, Freidman explains.

Right now there is something deeply dysfunctional, bordering on scandalously irresponsible, in the fractious way our political elite are behaving — with business as usual in the most unusual economic moment of our lifetimes. They don’t seem to understand: Our financial system is imperiled.

“The unity seems to be gone. The emergency looks to be a little less pressing,” Bill Frenzel, the former 10-term Republican congressman who is now with the Brookings Institution, was quoted by CNBC.com on Friday.

David Ignatius cites a similar failure of our federal leaders to the impending remake of the 1930s.

“I’m angry, too, and I don’t want to pay for this mess,” says Eugene Ludwig, a former comptroller of the currency who has accurately predicted each stage of this unfolding crisis. “But we’ve got to keep this country together and help people who are losing their jobs and their homes. Otherwise, we’re going to have bread lines.”

David Smick, whose book “The World Is Curved” provided an eerily accurate forecast of the economic disaster we’re now experiencing, was reviewing some numbers last week that help clarify the crisis. He noted that banks’ excess cash reserves, which normally total less than $7 billion, have recently approached $400 billion. A lot of that is taxpayer money that the banks aren’t putting to use.

Why? “You’d have to be crazy to lend in this environment,” says Smick. “They aren’t lending because it’s going to be a terrible 2009″ and the banks don’t want to get caught.

Let’s hope they’re wrong.  Be balanced: look for the optimism of the future, but prepare for the worst.  — since the economic stimulus is not coming soon enough.

Another WMD (Weapons of Mass Distortion)

I haven’t brought you a good goofy email in a long time. So, here’s the latest untruthful missive circulating around cyber space.

LAS VEGAS, NV (November 21, 2008) – A friend sent this one to me this morning. This is a good laugh. It reads:

ABC NEWS BANS FLAG LAPEL PINS

Actually this is true. ABC banned its on-air people from wearing the flag pins. But they did it 2001 — right after 9/11. This WMD makes you think ABC did this in 2008.

YESTERDAY THE BRASS AT ABC NEWS ISSUED ORDERS FORBIDDING REPORTERS TO WEAR LAPEL PIN AMERICAN FLAGS OR OTHER PATRIOTIC INSIGNIA.

The knucklehead shows off his skills of analysis:

THEIR REASONING WAS THAT ABC SHOULD REMAIN NEUTRAL ABOUT ‘CAUSES’. SINCE WHEN IS SUPPORT FOR PREVENTING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION SOME SORT OF A ‘CAUSE’? SINCE WHEN IS PATRIOTISM TO BE DISCOURAGED?

Actually, ABC wanted to make sure their reporters maintained journalistic impartiality at a time of heightened emotions. That’s a journalist’s job.

Furthermore, this fictional writer has stolen the trick of recent WMDs. They say their claims are confirmed by Snopes – a website that examines urban legends and whacko emails. While Snopes says the directive by ABC is true, the email fails to mention the context offered in the Snopes research. Snopes explains that ABC was also trying to protect foreign correspondents who might be looked at by foreigners as agents of the U.S. government.

So, when an email says it is backed-up by Snopes, go check it out for yourself.

And lastly, the midget mind behind the email has a call to action:

…even though I will have little effect on ABC News revenue I do plan on being careful to not view any program that is on ABC and boycott, if at all possible, the sponsors of ABC. …This should make your blood boil…it DOES mine!

Your blood should boil at the person who sent this garbabe in your email box.  I think you should boycott this email. If you get it, destroy it, and send a note back to the person who sent it to you with the link to this column.

The media has its biases and its lapses in judgement.  But when a news organization is trying to remain professional, trying to denigrate them is ridiculous.

Daly Economic Stimulus Package II

This is an update on the previous post about my proposal to jump-start the economy. In this posting, I offer some clarification on the stats I used.

LAS VEGAS, NV (November 21, 2008) – Thank you to everyone who posted comments on the proposal. Please feel free to send them around.

I received some more information from the Mortgage Bankers Association. This alters my plan a bit.  It also offers some amazing stats on many frugal Americans.

The MBA says there are 75.5 million owner occupied homes in the U.S. If they’re owner occupied, then that means there are far more homes. So, here’s my alteration: Offer the $100,000 payment to only those who occupy their homes – excluding folks who rent out their homes as investments.

Sixty-eight percent of those homeowners have mortgages. I said 60-percent. So that confirms that more people over the past few years have leveraged their homes.

What is still amazing to me is the amount of people who have no mortgages on their homes – nearly 1 out of 3.

Daly Economic Stimulus Package

Here’s my plan to jump start the economy. It involves payments to all home owners. The price tag, though, is not cheap.

LAS VEGAS, NV (November 20, 2008) – After weeks of reading publications and blogs and watching news and business shows, and some lengthy discussions with my trusted CPA Matt Swan, I have come up with a plan.

This plan is also designed to spark conversation. Please comment below.

The plan is simple. Give each homeowner or household $100,000.

The money is theirs; no strings attached. Sixty percent of the people will use it to reduce their mortgage payments to either stay in their house or sell it. It will be a windfall for the 40% who own their home free and clear.

Why might this work?

One, it gets the money into the hands of the people who are the catalyst for the U.S. and the world economy – the U.S. consumer. Once money starts moving in America, the rest of the world will begin to unclog. Like it or not, we are still the world’s super power and everything revolves around us. That gives us great advantage and great responsibility.

Two, it puts the onus on the American people – not just American industry. The American people will decide if it’s worth refinancing or buying that new car. They may want to use it for education to get re-trained for the new economy, so they can compete for future jobs.

Three, it also relieves the government of bailing out and micro-managing the U.S. auto and financial industries. Let the consumer bail out the auto industry by buying cars. And, let’s have the financial institutions, especially the ones who said they didn’t need the TARP money, give it back and the government will return the 5% ownership in the companies.

Four, it will keep people in their homes. Neighborhoods, the backbone of our culture, will not be at-risk.

Five, home prices will stabilize. Since there is more money for folks to spend on a new home, inventories of homes for sale might start dropping.

Six, the government is getting money into the hands of the most responsible consumers. Granted, many homeowners made some bad choices in over-leveraging their homes. But most of these people were trying to invest in the American Dream; we can’t discourage that. And furthermore, do we really think we’ll see mortgage offers like the kind we had in 2002 to 2005? I doubt it.

Plus, the majority of homeowners are baby-boomers and older. Most of us boomers-and-up have parents or grandparents, now in their 70s and 80s, who lived or experienced The Great Depression. This past six months has transported us back to that very frightening time. Trust me, my Dad has been gone since 1984, but he still reminds me each day when I leave a light or TV on, “It’s seven cents a kilowatt hour.” I think many of us are now for the first time counting or scrutinizing things like kilowatt hours.

Seven, I would give money to the person who rents out their home. Why should we exclude these entrepreneurs? Anyway, the ones who were wild speculators are gone from the market by now. And it would be too difficult and costly to determine who lives in a house they own. Can you imagine the evictions? It’s not worth it. Make the transaction easy for the government; they credit the person or persons paying the mortgage.

Eight, my plan frees the Obama Administration to concentrate on long-term financial reform. The new team needs to be working with the world’s markets to create transparency and simplicity in the financial instruments, so we don’t get into this trouble again.

Are there problems with this plan? Yes, there’s one big one. It will cost $7.5 trillion.

I arrive at that figure by multiplying 75 million homes in the U.S by $100,000. Our national debt is over $10 trillion right now. I’m adding significantly to it. Instead of every person in debt of $34,000, it will be something like $55,000. That means we’re placing even more burden on our kids and grandkids.

I’m banking on a couple of things in the future. My hope is we will find new and less expensive energy sources within the next few years to jump start the world economy again. My other hope is world cooperation. The gathering of the G-20 was inconsequential in the short-run. But I believe with a more conciliatory U.S. Administration in office, we should see governments working together. Yes, I’m cringing at my Pollyanna self too. However, I think we’ve seen some of the petro-dictators realize how much they need us.

Another problem with my plan: it discriminates against non home-owners. My hope is this plan will have a trickle down effect to them, lowering rents and the staples of living.

There have been plenty of other plans put forth over the Internet. One of them suggests we give every American $1 million to spend. On the surface that sounds good, but when you work the numbers it makes no sense. That would cost $305 trillion or $305,000,000,000,000 which is 30 times the current national debt.

Even though I don’t like the person’s math, I like the out-of-the-box thinking.

Give me yours.

Obama, Reagan, and Me. Three African Americans?

This is a posting about the self-congratulating media coverage of the Obama presidency and race. It’s time to remember who President Obama really is: he’s black, but he’s also white. It’s also time to realize that the majority of voters – especially the younger generation – are not as hung-up as those over 40.

LAS VEGAS, NV (November 5, 2008) – JT is a former heavyweight boxer turned personal trainer. I arrived at his gym in shorts and a tank top. JT, who is black, smiles and says, “You got some black blood in you.”

It was a compliment. To deflect embarrassment, I used sexual humor. “Not from the waist down.”

The Irish scourge is always handy for a good laugh. JT laughed and was cool.

JT comes to mind as I watched the pre and post election coverage as the media – as well as the pundits on the left and the right – continue to drive home the theme of our first black president.

Don’t get me wrong, this is historic. Being raised in the 1960s from the liberal northeast and who eventually covered racial stories in The South, I was nearly moved to tears during Obama’s acceptance speech. This is why folks fought during that tumultuous decade 40 years ago.

And I think the celebrations are appropriate. But let’s not continue to dwell on this. The media will, however, continue to ride this story. Why? It’s easy.

The problem: it’s unconscious racism. We call Barack Obama the first black president – but he’s also white. Why don’t we call him the first mixed-race president? Technically, he’s mulatto.

As the media continues to roll out story after story about Obama’s race, the underlying theme to me is this: see how good we white folk are; we accepted someone who is not pure white.

This underlying bias plays to older white Americans. I don’t just mean the guy – who I know — who’s in his 50s and proudly proclaimed he voted for the first time yesterday just to “vote against the nigger.” No, I also mean the folks over 40 who strictly see Obama as a black guy. I also want to wake up folks like Spike Lee who need to realize Barack isn’t just your blood; he belongs to white folk too, which makes him all of ours.

I’m proud to say I don’t see Obama as a black man. I see him as an American just as I see Jessica, the young girl who accompanied me at the First Tee of Southern Nevada golf event on Monday. Jessica is 12 and she could be Hispanic or Asian. I never asked her or her mom. I didn’t really care. She was a great kid who loved golf and had a loving family with her. They were the American Dream realized.

As I look around at various public places in Las Vegas, I see more and more mixed race kids. And they’re all playing or gathering with their friends who are mixed race also. But it’s not a big deal to them. And I don’t think it’s a big deal to the many young voters who came out in droves yesterday.

So, will the news media please join the majority of us – spend no more time on the first black president — and move onto the issues?

For those of you who can’t move on, who are too racist and myopic in your views — let me open your white eyes.

Ronald Reagan was probably our first black president. How so? Well, Ronny was black Irish. Black Irish are folks of Irish descent who have Mediterranean blood lines. History tells us that the Celtic line mixed with this southern European strain either in 1066 through William the Conqueror or, mostly likely, in 1588 when the British Navy sunk the Spanish Armada off the coast of Ireland.

Those Spanish sailors swam to shore and mated with those fine milky skinned, strawberry hair lasses thus changing the Gaelic gene pool. Just look at a photo of Ronny Reagan or my headshot and you will see a classic dark hair and blue eye Black Irish.

Here’s where I go further in my genealogical theory. I explain to folks that the Spanish blood was also mixed with Moor blood, which is African blood. Yes, there was plenty of mating between Spain and the northern tip of Africa. So, that makes Ronald Reagan – and me — African.

With all the new DNA testing available today, many of us white folk can find out we have African blood. (Now I could make a smart aleck remark like, “Then why can’t I dance? But I won’t since Whitney Houston has no rhythm either.)

And just as we share the same blood, we also share the same shame. White America should – and does — feel the historic pain of slavery. But black America also realizes their culpability in our racist past. Read the classic book Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison from the 1950s where Ellison reminds us that black on black violence and racism was prevalent, too. Pick up Thomas Sowell’s recent book Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Sowell explains how the low-income, low esteem black males took their cue from the Southern Scots Irish of the 1800s who enjoyed drinking, loafing and sex more than work, family, and sobriety.

To understand how far we’ve come, watch Chocolate News on Comedy Central. David Allen Grier hosts it. I nearly split a gut while watching his piece on a De-Negrofication Clinic for wiggers.

After watching that show and seeing how the majority of America voted Tuesday, I began to think we can all laugh at our past ignorance – and move on. Hopefully, the media will allow us.

Why The Election Frustrates You

This is a posting to show that despite the changing world we need to change the underlying problems that make politics so frustrating for so many of us. I write this on Sunday before the election, assuming no major surprises from the polling that points to an Obama victory or even a landslide.

LAS VEGAS, NV (November 2, 2008) – My wife Teri told me she doesn’t feel like voting. “I’m so tired of it,” she confessed to me. “It”, of course, is the constant campaigning and innocuous news coverage by the cable networks.

For the record, she tried to vote early but the lines were too long. She will vote on Tuesday, though, despite not knowing who she will vote for.

However, I understand her frustration. She’s inundated by news and information because she lives with me, a political junkie who weighs everything as a political analyst. And most of the information, from the cable yakkers, is repetitive or nonsense. To most folks, the campaigns seem to miss the reality of what is really happening.

What makes this election and the times so fascinating is that we’re breaking new ground in this worldwide economy and yet we fail to understand the challenges we have refused to face that are the roots of our problems – and frustrations.

Here I’ll cover the underlying problems that aren’t being addressed. In another column I’ll look at the changes that are happening – as a result of this campaign and the economic downturn – in the media.

First, this campaign has way too much money involved. Granted, it shows the massive interest in this campaign. And yes, so much more money has come from the small folks donating ten or twenty dollars online to Obama.

But don’t be fooled. Obama has received enormous amounts from the same corporate and business interests that filled the coffers of George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. President Obama will be under pressure to acquiesce to these benefactors, or as I like to call them legally-sanctioned bribers. This will shackle the new president into doing what has to be done for all Americans. It will also cause some backlash; there will be considerable angst by various groups with the Democratic Party that will feel betrayed. Watch out for a bumpy ride for the rookie president. Most of it can be traced to the donors who feel cheated.

The question is this: will Obama stand up to a large number of donors and govern without their input? The one solace I have about both candidates is that both of them will thumb their noses at their party’s core: McCain to the Christian Right; Obama to the far left.

Let’s also remember that what a president campaigns on is rarely what he governs on. George Bush was adamant about stopping America’s efforts at “nation building,” yet we’re trying to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. Bill Clinton, in David Halberstam’s War in a Time of Peace, admits that running against the first President Bush on the Bosnian War was much easier than managing a war. And in Bob Woodward’s book, The Choice, we see how Clinton swung to the middle right as Congress turn Republican in 1994. Obama would do well to read those books.

The second continuing problem is that our leaders – including those in the presidency or vying for it – spend too much time campaigning and not working. It’s incredible to think that we’re suffering through the worst economic crisis since The Depression and our leaders are spending more time on the campaign trail discussing whether their Senatorial opponent believes in God, as we saw in North Carolina, or whether the opponent is a terrorist sympathizer in the presidential race.

I have a two-pronged solution. It’s posted in a previous column. The first part of the solution calls for a Canadian style of election – only based on time constraints. A presidential campaign cannot start until August of an election year. And then until Election Day, the candidates can go nuts with TV and campaign stops. I would suggest a mandate by the FEC that requires weekly town hall meetings.

As a nation we spend too much time campaigning and not governing. Think about how that relates to the everyday American. We spend maybe one month out of every four or five years interviewing or negotiating for a job. Congress and the President should do the same.

To help them further with this work ethic, we need to force Congress into a military style boot-camp. They cannot go AWOL until laws are at least debated at length whether passed or rejected. If our elected officials can praise the military, then they should take a cue from them: work hard in uncomfortable surroundings; sacrifice for the greater good of all Americans; and take home lower pay grade. Our leaders should be in Congress to serve, not to walk away with a bigger net worth.

To make this happen, we the People need to be ready to vote out the incumbents immediately. However, we need to also understand that the problems we face economically will not be solved in a matter of months or a few years with the election of one group over another. To right the economic ship of state, it will take years of cooperation with other governments. This is a Herculean task that requires the public to get educated. 

And more importantly, Americans need to stay engaged in the political process after the election — even more vigorously than during the campaign.

The road block is the covert money-making partnership between both political parties and the media. The political parties raise huge gobs of money by attacking each other and the media outlets make huge revenues during election years. To ask them to refrain from the campaigning and fundraising won’t be easy while asking them to educate us at a time when their revenues will be down.

Politics is just like the NFL or other sports leagues. The politicians are like teams. They compete against other teams (candidates) and the public pays to watch or participate. The media companies make even more money by making the conflicts more entertaining. That’s great for sports. But when it comes to the complicated issues we face today — that can’t be determined in black and white terms – this system is dangerous.

Until we understand the underlying corruption and inefficiency that has grown in our political system, we will continue to have frustrating election cycles.