Presidential Character

"If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig."

--Woodrow Wilson

The qualities of a great man are "vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character."

--Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Kindness of Strangers

I thought it interesting that, for a man who really had seen and done so much, in Eisenhower's quote above, he doesn't mention "experience" or even "wisdom." And the Woodrow Wilson quote makes the perfect lead-in to this NICE story, which I include because these days, I find myself a little beaten down by the negative turn in the campaigns.

Several bloggers are carrying this little item, which first appeared in the Norwegian daily newspaper Verdens Gang or VG. (You can get a rough idea from the Google Translator here.) It sounds a bit like the all those all-too-heartwarming email forwards, but VG is a well-known newspaper with a circulation of 1 -1.5 million throughout Norway.

Anyway, here's the story: It seems that back in 1988, then newlywed 31-year old Mary Andersen was in the Miami airport, on her way to joining her husband in Norway. She had all of her prized possessions in two suitcases, but because they were overweight, the airline representative told her she would have to pay $103 in luggage surcharges. Mary unfortunately had no money, and her husband had travelled on ahead of her, so she had no one to call. I was completely desperate and tried to think through which of the things I could do without. But the bags were filled with my most prized possessions, "says Mary.

"As tears streamed down her face, she heard a 'kind and friendly voice' behind her saying, 'That's okay, I'll pay for her.' Mary turned around to see a tall man whom she had never seen before.

"She was thrilled to be able to bring both her suitcases to Norway and assured the stranger that he would get his money back. The man wrote his name and address on a piece of paper which he gave to Mary. She thanked him repeatedly. When she finally walked off towards the security checkpoint, he waved goodbye to her.

The name on the piece of paper was "Barack Obama."

A grateful Andersen paid him back the day she got to Norway. Years later, Andersen heard Obama was thinking about running for president and Mary's parents decided to write to Obama supporting him and to thank him for helping their daughter 18 years earlier.

Obama replied in a letter to Mary's parents dated May 4th, 2006 and stamped 'United States Senate, Washington DC':

'I want to thank you for the lovely things you wrote about me and for reminding me of what happened at Miami airport. I'm happy I could help back then, and I'm delighted to hear that your daughter is happy in Norway. Please send her my best wishes. Sincerely,

Barack Obama,
United States senator'.

Mary says that when her friends and associates talk about the election, especially when race relations is the heated subject, she relates the story of the kind man who helped out a stranger-in-need over twenty years ago, years before he had even thought about running for higher office.

In the PBS website for their 1996 TV special on what constitutes Presidential Character, they cite a quote from Dear Abby, "The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back."

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And now, the news
Dear me, the Dow is down AGAIN today. 800 points. Perhaps we're still gripped by an Olympic fever, because we're just all about setting new records these days. The DJIA dipped below 10,000, which apparently hasn't happened since October 22, 2004. Hmmmm, just before the LAST presidential election. My Fellow Americans, does suffering through a presidential campaign depress you?

But I guess we're not the only ones. World markets are coming along for the ride too. You know, this whole "failed bailout" thing kinda puts a fresh perspective on the Germanically snarky article, "The End of Arrogance," which Betty sent me from Der Spiegel, "The Americans are now paying the price for their pride. Gone are the days when the US could go into debt with abandon, without considering who would end up footing the bill. And gone are the days when it could impose its economic rules of engagement on the rest of the world, rules that emphasized profit above all else -- without ever considering that such returns cannot be achieved by doing business in a respectable way." Oh, wait, what's this in the Wall Street Journal? "In tandem with its surprise move to protect deposits, the government of Germany, Europe's largest economy, arranged a bailout for Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, a giant property lender that came close to collapsing after private lenders pulled out of an earlier €35 billion ($48.2 billion) aid plan last week."

$48.2 billion? Pshaw. Hey, Angela Merkel, take that-- we still LEAD, even in Global Thermonuclear Economic Flameouts after ridiculously high-priced bailout plans! Yeah.

If you've got time, play around with the Google chart for the Dow. Via the links on the top of the chart, you can "Zoom" and show how much the Dow has grown since 1970, or just examine how much it's fallen in the last month.

Folks, take some cash--not all of it, just some-- and break it into small bills. Place those bills under your mattress. (Okay, maybe not literally under your mattress.) But you get my point. I have a lot of faith in the resiliency of the world economy, but I also know that there are places in this world with nice people who have woken up one morning to discover that they have no access to cash, and no way of getting access, and therefore no way of eating. I'm just sayin'. Also.

And not only that, it's going to be a cold winter. I get nasty chills just thinking about this report from the AP that thousands of Americans have had their power shut off because they couldn't afford to pay their utility bills. "Shut-offs have been running 17 percent higher than last year among customers of New York state's major utilities, and 22 percent higher in economically hard-hit Michigan. They are up in all or part of dozens of other states, including Pennsylvania, Florida and California, according to an Associated Press check of regulators and energy companies." And here comes winter. My God, this is turning into a Dickens novel

Sidebar: Did we just strike inside Pakistan? Just like John McCain said we should never do??? From WaPo "The attack is apparently the latest in an escalating U.S. campaign of strikes originating across the border in Afghanistan and aimed at al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in the rugged tribal lands of Pakistan. The attacks have generated a substantial backlash in Pakistan, where insurgents have used the strikes as a tool for rallying public opposition to U.S. anti-terrorism efforts."

Pre-Debate Mood

Refresh my memory, folks, was it like this in the last election in 2004? I don't remember having quite this much energy about the candidates before...Even Roger Ebert is voicing political opinions: "I do not like you, John McCain. My feeling has nothing to do with issues. It has to do with common courtesy. During the debate, you refused to look Barack Obama in the eye. Indeed, you refused to look at him at all. Even when the two of you shook hands at the start, you used your eyes only to locate his hand, and then gazed past him as you shook it." (Thanks Mary Ann for the link!)

Rolling Stone comes out with a devastating portrayal of "the real John McCain."

"In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches. In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot."

Politico reports that the Obama campaign is ready to roll on the attack (Did I not bring up McCain's history as a member of the notorious Keating Five and his "Bahama Mama" vacations weeks ago? Just checking.) : "Pushing back against what it calls McCain's "guilt-by-association" tactics, the Obama campaign is e-mailing millions of supporters a link to a website, KeatingEconomics.com, which will have a 13-minute documentary on the scandal beginning at noon Eastern time on Monday. The overnight e-mails urge recipients to pass the link on to friends." Here's the movie on YouTube.com, but visit the site too, for some interesting archives of articles about McCain's unethical involvement with Charles Keating and Lincoln Savings and Loan.

Hey, at least when Obama attacks, it's about something completely relevant to the ECONOMIC CRISIS AT HAND! It's not about radicals from the 1960s who have nothing to do with how the world is falling to small bits these days. By the way, do take a moment to check out John Wilson's comprehensive "Thirty Lies Refuted about Obama and Ayers."

And more in the negativity report: in an interview with Bill Kristol for his column in the NY Times, Palin unveils her latest attack --on Obama's connection to Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Kristol asks her "if Ayers is a legitimate issue, what about Reverend Wright? She didn't hesitate:

"To tell you the truth, Bill, I don't know why that association isn't discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that — with, I don't know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn't get up and leave — to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up."

Which I think is *just RICH* coming from the woman who was once a member of the Pentecostal Wasilla Assembly of God, led by a pastor, Ed Kalnins, who "has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war 'contending for your faith;' and said that Jesus 'operated from that position of war mode.'" Palin is on YouTube, addressing the WAG (I love using the acronym), and talking about how thrilled she is to have gotten a "laying on of hands" from the Pastor Thomas Muthee, an African evangelist and WITCH-HUNTER (???), who in his own words, wages "spiritual warfare." She's also immortalized on YouTube (I love YouTube) asking members of the Pentecostal church to pray for an oil pipeline, "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said. Palin's CURRENT church is the Wasilla Bible Church, which recently promoted attendance at a conference to "Pray Away the Gay."

(Do you think Jesus is up there someplace saying, "Stop asking me for stupid things like oil pipelines and 'pray away the gay'-- what about asking for BROTHERLY LOVE AND WORLD PEACE??")

And aw, geez, Palin was actually just here in San Francisco. (What? WHAT did she think she could accomplish in San Francisco? Oh, right.. praying away the gay... I got it.) Whilst here, she bestowed an extra- special Palin Gaffe-awe upon our fair city. '"They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,' she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco."

Um...question in the back? Can you see Afghanistan from Alaska too? Well,doggone it, they keep on moving those little country-thingies on the map-ey-whatsits.

Oh, wait! It's all coming clear to me! OBVIOUSLY, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in the 1970s, they had to go through Alaska! Look where it is!
PLUS, Afghanistan...is just south of Alaska...where they want to put the TransAfghanistan pipeline... that everyone prayed for in church! It all makes sense now!

Wow. Gosh. Gee-whillickers. THIS is why Sarah Palin is such an expert in Russia/Oil relations also!

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But seriously, folks. Today's topic is:

The Fog of Deregulation

I'm struck these days by all the talk from McCain on more regulating (but less government? He and Palin should really try to align their world-views on this...). Maybe John McCain doesn't remember, maybe it's the Alzheimers? But he's actually been a FAN of deregulation--like, um, all of his life? Oh, until last month.

Here are a few key highlights from Johnny Mac's Wonderful World of Deregulation:

• 

  1980's- as noted above and on the new website KeatingEconomics.com, McCain was a key figure in deregulating the savings and loan industry. McCain parlayed it into highly profitable graft for himself. In the Keating Five scandal which followed the collapse of the savings and loan industry, McCain was reprimanded for his role in asking Federal regulators to back off closing down Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan.
  
• In early 1995, after Republicans had taken control of Congress, Mr. McCain promoted a moratorium on federal regulations of all kinds. He was quoted as saying that excessive regulations were "destroying the American family, the American dream" and voters "want these regulations stopped." The moratorium measure was unsuccessful.
• In 1996, one of McCain's chief responsibilities on the Commerce Committee was overseeing the Telecommunications Act of 1996. "The act removed or set conditions for the removal of the walls that had separated different parts of telecommunications. Its sponsors claimed that the act would encourage competition in the telephone, cable, and broadcast industries and lead to lower prices for consumers.... It has encouraged a spate of gigantic mergers. SBC Communications and Bell Atlantic, having gobbled up their competitors, now control two-thirds of local telephone lines. AT&T and TCI own 60 percent of cable lines. Cable rates, which were deregulated, have gone up 23 percent since 1996, three times faster than inflation. Hourly rates for phone users have declined, but access charges and other fees have skyrocketed. While large businesses are paying less for phone service, most consumers are paying more—about $2 billion more annually than three years ago." Ultimately, McCain was one of only five senators to oppose a comprehensive telecommunications act, but only, he says, because it did not go far enough in deregulating the industry.
• In 1999, McCain voted for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which essentially repealed the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act's prohibition on bank holding companies from owning other financial firms. The deregulation bill loosened restrictions on the activities of banks, brokerage houses, and insurance companies. McCain had joined with other Republicans to push through landmark legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (Tex.), who is now an economic adviser to his campaign. "The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country's financial institutions competitive by removing the Depression-era walls between banking, investment and insurance companies. That bill allowed AIG to participate in the gold rush of a rapidly expanding global banking and investment market. But the legislation also helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments. McCain now condemns the executives at those companies for pursuing the ambitions that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act made possible, saying that 'in an endless quest for easy money, they dreamed up investment schemes that they themselves don't even understand.'"

• 

  McCain's economic guru, Phil Gramm, slipped the "Enron Loophole"--which exempts most over-the-counter energy trades and trading on electronic energy commodity markets from government regulation-- into legislation in the year 2000. This deregulatory loophole was used by that infamous company to game the electricity markets so egregiously that it led to Enron's own collapse. Since then, McCain has blocked every effort to close the loophole which is now being used by energy traders to game gasoline prices.
• In 2002 he did vote for some regulatory reforms in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was introduced after the accounting scandals involving Enron and other major firms and which passed the Senate without opposition. In 2007, he told a group of bloggers on a conference call that he regretted his vote in favor of Sarbanes-Oxley, which strengthened financial reporting requirements for publicly held companies but which has been the subject of complaints from businesses.
  
• In Sept, 2002, McCain introduced Senate Bill 2863. Consumer Broadband Deregulation Act of 2002, intended to deregulate the broadband Internet market. Most residential broadband Internet users currently connect over cable systems, but the local phone companies dominate the business market. The bill was intended to increase the power of the Baby Bells to offer their services to American homes. Federal regulations then prevented this from happening until the Baby Bells opened their own historical local calling areas to competitors. "The potential for government interference with market forces is not limited to federal regulation. State and local governments are also capable of obstructing the deployment of broadband," said McCain during the introduction of his measure, The McCain measure also called for a study within two years to determine whether state regulation is necessary to protect consumers, as well as a study on the government's role in facilitating wireless broadband. It did not pass.
  
• In 2008, McCain expressed approval of the results of financial deregulation by pointing to it as a model for health care policy, writing: "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

It makes no difference whether a good man has defrauded a bad man, or a bad man defrauded a good man, or whether a good or bad man has committed adultery: the law can look only to the amount of damage done.

--Aristotle
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News from SurveyUSA, which reports that in new polls, Obama is not only leading handily in Virginia (13 electoral votes) 53%-43%, he's stomping McCain. "McCain no longer leads in any region of the state. In Northeastern VA, which includes the DC suburbs, Obama leads by 24 points. In Central Virginia, home of the Confederate White House, the Museum of the Confederacy and Appomattox, Obama today leads by 8. In Southeastern Virginia, Obama leads by 11. In the Shenandoah, where John McCain led by 24 points one month ago, Obama and McCain today tie." Dude, you just blew my mind. I guess Jim Webb was right. Scots-Irish Populism works all the way, even in Appalachia.
The Ballot Ballet
Clock is ticking...Only 29 days to the election, people!

For new registrations, time has already run out in many states (Today was the deadline for Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia). RockTheVote's list of voter registration deadlines. Here are some upcoming dates--forward this on to your friends in the appropriate states (swing states in bold).

• Tuesday, Oct 7: Illinois, New Mexico
• Wednesday, Oct 8: Missouri
• Friday, Oct 10: New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma
  
• Saturday, Oct 11: Delaware
  
• Tuesday, Oct 14: Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon
  
• Wednesday, Oct 15: Massachusetts, West Virginia, Wisconsin

Shenanigan Watch

I've already passed this on to many of you, but here it is again: news today that hundreds of thousands of people in the United States who filed registration applications but were not put on the voter rolls because of actual or alleged defects in their applications. Electoral-vote.com notes that "Unbeknownst to them, thousands of people have been purged from the voter rolls. Project Vote lists the names and addresses of purged voters in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas (so far). If you live in one of these states, check the list TODAY to see if you have been purged and also check for friends, relatives, and neighbors." If you find yourself or someone you know on one of these lists, they may be able to protest being removed from the rolls.

CHECK THE VOTER REGISTRATION LISTS TODAY and check for your friends!!

Some of you may be wondering, is there really any reason to worry? I've got my ID, so no one can turn me away, can they? But thanks to Leslie (sending word via Lisa) who compiles this sobering list of reminders:

• From USA Today: "Five years after passage of a federal law to create electronic registration databases to deter voter fraud, the new technology is posing hurdles that could disenfranchise thousands of legal voters, a USA TODAY examination finds.From Florida to Washington, voters have been challenged because names or numbers on their registration forms did not exactly match other government databases, such as Social Security and motor vehicle agencies. 'We know that eligible people have been thrown off the rolls,' says Justin Levitt, a lawyer with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law."
• From the Nation: As reported in the Michigan Messenger, Republicans intended to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls. In a conference call with reporters, Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said that the McCain campaign "wants to add insult to injury by denying those residents their right to vote." Bob Bauer, general counsel for the Obama campaign, called the GOP plan "a new and especially repellent version of caging." (Caging is a technique used to challenge voters by taking a list of addresses, mailing letters to them marked "do not forward" and then claiming that those voters whose letters were returned no longer live at the addresses at which they are registered and thus are ineligible to vote.)
• From Demos: "In 2000, thousands of legal voters were purged from Florida's voter rolls. One list sent to Florida officials erroneously included the names of 8,000 Florida residents who had committed misdemeanors -- not felonies -- in Texas. In 2004, despite Florida's sizable Hispanic population, the state's purge list contained only 61 Hispanic surnames, and also mistakenly included thousands who had had their voting rights restored. After these and other errors were publicized, the state withdrew its felon purge list. But under Florida law, county election officials may still purge voters based on their own, locally generated lists."

I'd also like to remind people that there's more than one way to rig an election. No one paid much attention to this item that appeared in Wired a year ago, but we might want to notice, when those Ohio results start coming in: Researchers commissioned by the Ohio Secretary of State's Office "found that a voter or poll worker with a Palm Pilot and no more than a minute's access to a voting machine could surreptitiously re-calibrate the touch-screen so that it would prevent voters from voting for specific candidates or cause the machine to secretly record a voter's vote for a different candidate than the one the voter chose. Access to the screen calibration function requires no password, and the attacker's actions, the researchers say, would be indistinguishable from the normal behavior of a voter in front of a machine or of a pollworker starting up a machine in the morning." (Full report here in PDF format)

Yep, this is me, the absolute paranoic who sees conspiracy theories around every corner. But just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get us.

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If you're voting absentee, you may have to get your ballot in weeks before the Nov 4th Election date. Declare Yourself has links to each state's voter information page where you can find out how to get your absentee ballot.

Also, in many states, you may vote EARLY, before Nov 4, to avoid the long lines. Reed College has compiled lists of which states offer early voting/absentee balloting options.

And remember, tomorrow TUESDAY October 7, 2008 at 9pm EDT, 6pm (PDT), is the next Presidential Debate, from Belmont University's Curb Event Center in Nashville, Tennessee, moderated by Tom Brokaw, special correspondent for NBC News. This debate will have a town-hall meeting format.