McCain Must Inspire Confidence in Times of Crisis …Whether or Not Debate Occurs
As I’m writing this article, Friday’s debate at the University of Mississippi is still up in the air. Both John McCain and Barack Obama have returned to Washington – Senator McCain of his own volition after temporarily ceasing his campaign and Senator Obama because he was requested to return to D.C. by President Bush. Assuming the debate happens, here’s my take on the encounter’s importance and what John McCain must do to change the current situation in the polls.
For John McCain’s candidacy, every appearance with Barack Obama is important. The race has returned to where it was pre-Republican and Democrat convention. Senator Obama holds roughly a two percentage point advantage over the Arizona Senator and eight to ten states will determine the election.
While the topic area for Friday’s debate is foreign policy, the subjects that are actually discussed are irrelevant. What is important is the appearance John McCain projects and the messages he conveys.
JP: Where are you when we need you?
The stock market fell nearly 50% from its peak. One of New York’s largest trust companies was crashing and burning. Grown bankers cried.
Today’s news? Hardly. 101 years ago, America braved what they called then the Bankers Panic of 1907. It looked like capitalism, early 20th Century vintage, was circling the drain and ready to disappear as they then knew it.
One man, J.P. Morgan, stepped forward. The US had no national bank back then. Morgan convinced New York bankers to stand with him, to stand firm against the panic which endangered our financial system to its core.
Never mind what caused this collapse 101 years ago; all financial catastrophes are unique – each comes from its own set of factors, plus a bit of greed thrown in for good measure. Working all night, Morgan and other bankers injected some $8.5 million dollars in 1907 money to keep the giant Knickerbocker Trust from failing to pay its depositors and increasing the panic to oblivion settings.
Getting Past Gridlock – Achieving Budget Reform
A lot of us have been preparing for the day when the political and fiscal crises in California reached the point where substantive changes could be made. We may be getting close.
Based on the proclamations made Wednesday in Sacramento, it is clear that in terms of budget reform what the public wants also makes good policy, and that at least some political leaders are beginning to see the opportunity of the crisis.
The event, organized by California Forward, highlighted best budget practices from other states and the findings of in-depth public opinion research in California. Incoming Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), Sen. Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad), Director of Finance Mike Genest, and Mike Rubio, chairman of the Kern County Board of Supervisors, described how they would like to see budget reforms advance.
Leon E. Panetta, co-chair of the bipartisan reform effort, ended the session by outlining the types of improvements that will be necessary to restore the public trust, and the consequences of failing that challenge.
Shift in Thinking Needed to Deal with Financial Crisis
Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange, California and a recognized authority on global, economic and political trends, has written an interesting assessment on the financial crisis.
He argues that what is needed now is not a revolution against capitalism but a shift in emphasis back to the basics such as manufacturing, basic infrastructure and training critical skilled workers that a ‘real’ economy needs to encourage entrepreneurism and long term growth.
About California, Kotkin writes:
“California’s once envied water-delivery systems, roadways, airports, and education facilities are in serious disrepair. In the 1960s, infrastructure spending accounted for 20 percent of all state outlays, but as the technocratic perspective took hold in Sacramento, infrastructure spending fell to just three percent of all expenditures, despite the rapid growth of the state’s population.”
Read Kotkin’s piece on how America can grapple with the financial thicket here.