Motley Moose – Archive

My world has turned upside down. I read a column by William Kristol in the NY Times and found myself agreeing with him. How has this come to be? What next, agreeing with Charles Krauthammer? If that happens, please drag me out behind the barn and shoot me.

In his latest column, which is the source of my great discomfort, Kristol says the Right and Left are dumping on the  auto companies. (my emphasis)

Today, G.M., Ford and Chrysler get no respect. Maybe they don’t deserve much. Detroit has many sins to answer for, and it’s been doing plenty of answering. But – and I say this as someone who grew up in non-car-driving family in New York and who is the furthest thing from an auto aficionado – there is a kind of undeserved disdain, even casual contempt, that seems to characterize the attitude of the political and media elites toward the American auto industry.

Kristol goes on to quote Warren Brown of the Washington Post.

As a life-long car guy, the plight of the auto industry is painful to watch. I worked for General Motors for 20 years before leaving to try my luck elsewhere. My father and both of my brothers spent their entire working lives at General Motors. The economy in my area is still highly dependent on good  paying jobs at area factories. The demise of GM would completely devastate this region of the country.

Many people have spoken out about the current crisis in the auto industry, including Mitt Romney. In an editorial in the New York Times, Romney argued for letting the Big 3 go through bankruptcy. That editorial will kill any chance he has of carrying Michigan in a future presidential bid. He angered those who know the industry best by not only placing blame in the wrong place, he got much of his argument wrong.

Romney argued that one important change the industry needs is to bring in top executives from outside the auto industry. Apparently, the presence of Alan Mulally at Ford and Robert Nardelli at Chrysler escaped his notice. Mulally came from Boeing and Nardelli from Home Depot. Those aren’t exactly car companies, Mr. Romney.

Have you ever sat down to do your finances, and come up with a negative number?

It’s not a fun experience. And certainly not one I’m used to.

It’s been a very hectic and exciting year for me. Two days before the close of 2007, I was blessed with the presence of a beautiful baby girl. I had never imagined being a single parent before- hell, I’d never even held a baby before I picked my daughter up, writhing and screaming and covered in gunk- but here I was.

And I never gave it a second thought. Here’s why:

Another day of WTF as everyone tries to figure out what this complete financial and political debacle means for their homes, their jobs, and their pensions.

A bit of historical insight from Howard Fineman which some of you might have missed in yesterday’s welter of bad economic news: Bailout Ushers in the Era of Obama

The Bailout Bill failed today, the Dow fell a record 777.68 points – losing $1,200,000,000,000 ($1/second for nearly 40,000 years) in value, the whole thing has turned into a political hot potato and credit effectively ceased to exist.

Is this good?  Is this bad?

What else is on your minds?

Happy Friday, Folks!

It is less than nine hours to the first Presidential Debate as I write this, an event that will (or won’t) be watched by what has been forecast to be 100M people and will (or won’t) be the first chance for Americans and the world to hear how the two (or one) Presidential candidates handle direct questions together (or alone).  3,000 journalists are gathered in Mississippi wondering what they will reporting on.

The “Bailout” deal is (or isn’t) coming together, House Republicans are (or are not) planning their own Palace Coup and banks are (are) still going under.

Prepare to speak liberally.

A late-night emergency session of the committee trying to negotiate a solution to the liquidity problem plaguing the economy came to a crashing halt tonight.  With John McCain back in DC, the House Republican caucus has rebeled against the President and McCain.  At this meeting tonight, the House Republicans sent a representative unauthorized to negotiate to the meeting (Spencer Bacchus) with a one-sheet whitepaper of “principles and general ideals” that included a Capital Gains tax-cut, increased banking deregulations and mortgage insurance that Henry Paulson has already stated to be a non-starter.

The meeting has fallen completely apart, there is another tomorrow at 11:30am ET which will not include House Republicans, and will therefore have no impact whatsoever.

CNN and MSNBC provided breaking coverage of the detonation of the talks, FOX is rerunning footage of McCain and Bill Clinton together at the Clinton Foundation.

New York Times:

Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he would temporarily suspend his presidential campaign on Thursday to return to Washington to deal with the financial crisis and the $700 billion bailout package now before Congress.

Mr. McCain said he told Senator Barack Obama that he was asking the Commission on Presidential Debates to postpone the debate scheduled for Friday night.

“I am calling on the president to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself,” he said. “It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.”

‘McCain Suspends Campaign’ is a headline you don’t expect to see every day.  Looks like Obama has to tread lightly here; he can’t let his opponent gain the upper hand on statesmanship.  On the up side, the foreign policy debate is one that Obama can afford to hold off on for the time being.