CRIMES AGAINST THE STATE

If you mention Watergate to someone, the first word that usually comes up is burglary. But the Watergate break-in involved a much more serious crime. The five men sent by the White House to break into Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel weren’t looking for jewelry. They were looking for strategic information that might help Richard Nixon win a second term. They needn’t have bothered – he won in a landslide. But the fact remains, the real crime wasn’t burglary, it was treason.

Free and open elections are at the heart of any democracy. If the elections are altered, the state is altered. Those five men sought to undermine the integrity of that election, and therefore committed treason.

Nine days remain till the upcoming election, or so my MoveOn.org email tells me. The newspapers and political talk shows are filled with stories of voter suppression and voter fraud, but nobody seems very concerned about it. The Democratic Party and the Obama campaign say they have people “keeping watch,” whatever that means, yet I don’t see anyone lighting signal fires or ringing alarm bells. Why is that?

There are tons of ways, both legal and illegal, to achieve targeted voter suppression, all of which are attempts to steal an election. You can play footsie with registration forms or you can just put thugs out on the street to intimidate voters, it all amounts to the same thing. And that thing is treason.

Allen Raymond was on Real Time the other night. In his book, How To Rig An Election, Raymond, who spent three months in jail, tells how he helped steal the 2000 election for George W. Bush. I understand that he has since repented and feels poorly about what he did. I’m glad to hear it, but I think he should be telling his story from behind bars. Three months ain’t much for treason.

Using the 1st Amendment as a shield, campaigns are legally permitted to intentionally deceive the public in their advertising. That should be remedied, but at the moment, it is what it is. On the other hand, anyone who attempts to otherwise alter the outcome of an election should be charged with the real crime they are committing - treason - and suffer the appropriate consequesces.

PATRIOTIC GRACE

I don't read as many books as I should, and most of what I read I listen to, in the form of audio books. However, after seeing author Peggy Noonan on TV, then spotting a copy of her latest book at B & N, I scooped it up. Lucky me.

Patriotic Grace is an exceptional book. Ms. Noonan uses her literary expertise - she was Reagan's head speech writer - to argue for a return to civility and reality. They might seem to be incompatible, but, as it turns out, they are inseperable.

This book gets five ***** stars and my warmest recommendation. Who knew a Republican could be so smart?

THE RED SHOES

The big story on the campaign trail today is that the trail led to Neiman/Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, where the RNC reportedly bought some new clothes for their vice presidential candidate. Apparently they felt her hockey-mom image needed a little something extra – about $150,000 extra.

The RNC did mention that at the conclusion of the campaign the clothes would go to charity, though they didn’t specify which one. I think that’s a bit unfair. They bought the clothes for Gov. Palin; the least they can do is let her keep them. Saturday Night Live let her keep her cue cards. What’s the big deal?

The heart of this story, however, goes deeper than a big price tag. In campaign terms, it isn’t really all that much money. The campaign will certainly spend more than $150 million – so $150,000 is only one tenth of one per cent. That seems...almost justifiable.

But America is now suffering through its worst financial crisis in seventy-five years. Hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs, their homes, their futures. Yet the Republicans, the party which espouses family values, casually spends money as if we were all living at the Ritz. How could they make such a phenomenal blunder?

I think this act reveals an enormous disconnect between this Party and the people. It reveals a mind-set that says, this isn’t real money. It isn’t our money. It’s just campaign money. I can imagine the person who authorized the buy saying, “What’s the problem?”

The spirit of we’re-all-in-this-together that typified the Great Depression is sadly missing in 2008. It isn’t communism. It isn’t socialism. It is a recognition that we have common goals, and that our best hope for achieving them is team work. In effect, we are in this together.

Colinoscopy

Colin Powell, retired Chairman of the Joint Chief and former Secretary of State, endorsed Barack Obama this morning on Meet The Press. Sighting the qualifications of both men, Powell told moderator Tom Brokaw that he felt the country needed a change of direction and tone, and that he would be voting for Obama. In doing so, he apologised to long-time friend, John McCain.

Powell, who at one time was the most likely choice to become America's first black president, said he was disturbed by McCain's choice of Sarah Palin and encouraged by Obama's development over the course of the campaign. He made a special point of saying that he thought Obama would definitely be ready to be commander in chief on day one.

The endorsement from Powell will provide Obama's campaign, already traveling at warp speed, with an additional rocket boost. With only two weeks and two days left before the election, now is the time to put the pedal to the metal. The entire staff of Bush Leeg believes he can really win. See you at the finish line!

GAS

The price of crude oil peaked a few months ago at about $144 per barrel. At that time, gas at the pump was over $4 a gallon. How far over depended on your location. According to CNBC, oil is now selling at $71 per barrel, or less than half of what it was. Hmm.

My question is: Why isn’t gas $2 a gallon? Am I missing something? Because as I drive around town, what I see are prices hovering at about $3.50.

What’s the deal? What happened to supply and demand? Where are all those self-inflated, free-market economists now? I don’t see them around anywhere. All I see are signs saying: “Move to the forward pump - bend over - hold your ankles.”

And don’t bother telling me that B.S. story about refining capacity. That goes in the fantasy bin with Santa Claus, WMD, and Sarah Palin’s qualifications.

Far be it from me to accuse anyone of actually lying when I don’t have all the facts at hand, but it seems to me there are enough facts available to make a strong case. As my mother would delicately put it, we are being “screwed, blued and tattooed.”

Pass this around. Ask questions. Leave comments (I never get any comments). Rattle the cage. Quiet citizens do not a democracy make.

a foot on either side

THE FINAL DEBATE

The third and final debate between the presidential candidates was...not entirely unlike the first two. The biggest difference was the fourteen point lead Obama has opened up in the polls. McCain’s frustration at Obama’s success was palpable.

The physical set-up helped. The candidates’ close proximity to one another created tension, promoted confrontation, and gave the audience a more intimate look at how each one might behave in a meeting. McCain is obviously less comfortable with himself than Obama, and it showed. He kept eyeing the younger man with astonishment, as if he couldn’t believe this rookie was trying to take away his presidency.

Bob Schieffer performed like a pro. Also aided by the set-up, which put him right in front of the debaters, he asked relevant, difficult questions, and more importantly, follow-up questions. He couldn’t force the two men to stick to the subject of course, but he did his best not to let them off the hook.

It was clear that each candidate had learned from the previous debates. McCain spent more time looking directly at Obama, while Obama spent more time looking directly at the camera. Both men, unfortunately, spent too much time directly addressing (and pandering to) “Joe the plumber.”

There was some post-debate criticism of Obama for not going on the attack, for not striking back at Gov. Palin when he was offered the opportunity. But whatever else Obama may be, he is a savvy politician. He has a fourteen point lead. If the polls are off by 50% he still has a seven point lead. This is not the time to get even, this is the time to hold your ground and look presidential - calm, cool, collected, and presidential.

Lending a surrealistic touch to the debate, McCain followed an obvious bit of coaching at the end by leaping to his feet, shaking Obama’s hand, and saying, “Good job!”, an imitation of what Obama did in the first debate. These two guys are vying for the most important job in the country, perhaps in the world. They have just accused each other on national television of everything from treason to senility. And yet they shake hands as if it were a little one-on-one in the Senate gym and they’re just good sports. If I though it would add a sense of realism to the process, I’d prefer a bit more hostility.

ADJUSTMENTS

Several months ago, my regular golf partners and I played at Woodley Lakes in the Valley where we were joined by a young banker, a man in his early 30s I would imagine. I asked him what he thought would be the result of the real estate crisis (or what seemed like a crisis at that time). I didn’t really care about the real estate crisis and certainly didn’t understand it. I was just making conversation, the way one does while walking from the tee to the green.

He said the market would make an “adjustment”, then used his #9 iron for a 150 yard shot. He was way short.

At the time I was shocked by his cavalier attitude, how he failed to see any connection between the movement of the market and the actual human suffering it would surely cause. In the end, I was fairly naïve and he was fairly prescient.

The adjustment, as it turns out, was the pork-laden bailout bill that just waddled through Congress is. The connection that shouldn’t be missed here is that Congress opened the door to this disaster with deregulation of the market in 2000; the financial community strode through with a wink and a grin, used the deregulation to satisfy its bottomless greed, and fell flat on its face; now Congress is using our money - $820 billion of it – to “adjust” the market and save us all from financial collapse.

Mort Zuckerman of The McLaughlin Group opined that the bailout may serve to help the Wall St. crowd, but it certainly wouldn’t help the people who are losing their homes. Monica Crowley of the same show – a nasty woman, though well educated – suggested that this is, in essence, a huge tax increase to the public.

The icing on the cake is that politicians have taken advantage of this crisis – a crisis which they created - to establish their positions in what they portray as an epic battle between good and evil, between Wall St. and Main St. Predictably, everyone who helped to deregulate Wall St. is now on the side of Main St. And this is the biggest lie of all, because as Tim Rutten pointed out in the Times, there is no Main St. That place where Andy and Opie live - where everyone is honest and thoughtful, and the worst crime is eating too much apple pie at lunch – is more a part of American myth than American history. But that doesn’t stop politicians from using it to define themselves as blameless.

The banker was right about the adjustment, but the rest of us are going to need a little more club to get to the green.

THE DEBATE

The Veep debate is right around the corner. Democrats are putting extra chairs in the living room, stocking up on popcorn and Gummy Bears, and inviting friends over to gleefully watch Joe Biden run a dog sled over his ill-prepared competitor. Better get some Tums, too.

Gov. Palin is an experienced debater – see her gubernatorial debates on U-Tube – and a former sports reporter. She is completely familiar and comfortable with both cameras and audiences. On top of that she is filled with self-confidence – undeserved perhaps, but there all the same – has a ton of bluster and does not hesitate to interrupt or talk over her opponents. It may seem rude at first, but the end result is that she looks like she knows what she is talking about while her opponent looks like a dork. Sarah Palin may not be an expert on foreign relations but if you think she’s going to do a Tina Fey imitation and sink like a stone you should probably rethink.

Mr. Biden would do well to take this debate very seriously - keep his answers short and to the point and do not hesitate to attack. She certainly won’t.