What's at Stake In Iowa and New Hampshire

Let’s get down to brass tacks. For Democrats the presidential election is not going to be about a revolution. Rather, it will come down to protecting the domestic legacy of Barack Obama and the myriad of progressives who preceded him and extended equality and opportunity to millions of minorities, be they of color, religious sects or gender, not to mention the tens of millions of middle class families of all backgrounds created by legislation and regulations that supported and protected workers. A Republican victory, whomever is the GOP standard bearer, would roll back 80 years of progressive legislation and enforcement.

So the question boils down to, which Democrat has the best chance of keeping the Oval Office blue: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton or Martin O’Malley?

O’Malley might be a good man. He has not aroused any semblance of passion behind his candidacy. On the other hand, as much as Sanders engenders passionate followers his phenomenon is reminiscent of the debacles fostered four decades ago by anti-Vietnam War candidates Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern. Perhaps it is because too many Democrats are too young to remember or have not been taught the consequences of a quixotic candidacy, they are ignorantly eager to adhere to Sanders’ banner. They would follow him to sure defeat in a presidential election even against a divisive Republican such as Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. I’m sorry, but the country is simply not ready for a Social Democrat, a Jewish Social Democrat, born in Brooklyn, to be president.

Clinton is not an ideal candidate. But her pluses outweigh the minuses. Last time out in 2008 her campaign engendered more passion. Fatigue might have set in this time among many of her supporters, but as November grows nearer I believe they will be re-energized by the prospect of electing the first woman president, especially someone who has the wide-ranging experience she possesses.

Her challenge once securing the nomination will be to bring into her tent disaffected Bernie-backers. Otherwise, as Hubert Humphrey and the nation found out, a less than solidly unified Democratic Party will result in a Republican victory and this time the winner would be much more regressive than Richard Nixon.

Nixon had to work with a Democratic Congress and Senate. Both houses will be Republican in 2017. Imagine the social network legislation, the worker-consumer-environmental protections and the civil rights laws that would be gutted by a triumvirate of conservative Republicanism. (Are you shuttering at the prospect? I did when writing that sentence.)

Most importantly, the next president may well have the opportunity to nominate two to four Supreme Court justices and countless lower court judges. If you cherish the advances of the last 80 years you cannot countenance the prospect of a judicial system tilted to the right for decades to come.

So as Iowans go to their caucuses Monday and New Hampshirites troop to the polls eight days later let’s hope they have perspective. Bernie has been a useful diversion, especially in this age of Trump when crazy passion seems to be restricted to Republicans.

Hillary doesn't need a coronation. But the party, the nation, will not benefit from sidetracking her nomination.

Thoughts on Hillary, Bernie, The Donald, Pope Francis, The Yankees

Before Hillary Clinton officially declared for the presidency, whispers abounded she was too old. If elected, she would be 69, two months and 25 days old by inauguration, January 20, 2017. Ronald Reagan was 69, 11 months and 14 days old when he took office.

How do you think she feels about Bernie Sanders who is seven years her senior? Or Joe Biden who was born five years before her?

I’m still unconvinced Bernie-mania will prove viable in the long run. Fringe candidates are good for raising important issues, but it is the center that wins national elections. What we are witnessing in Iowa and New Hampshire are small states influencing the national dialogue. Hillary is suffering from diminished expectations. Everyone thought she would win the nomination in a cake walk (as they also expected of Jeb Bush). Having to fight for what she wants is a good thing. No one should consider a nomination an entitlement. 

I’m not as sanguine on the Republican side because that party is comprised of crazies who care not about the proper role of government. Several of its contenders would like to shut the government down. Others would like to subjugate the Constitution to the Bible. Benjamin Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, doesn’t believe in evolution. If he has such irreverence for science, imagine what support a Carson administration would have for scientific research and development. 

Trump almost sounds sane compared to them. By the way,  The Donald is 16 months older than Hillary.

The Christian Way?: To secure a free ticket to see Pope Francis in Philadelphia later this month one had to be swift and lucky. The 10,000 tickets allotted to the masses were scooped up in 30 seconds.

But if you really want to see the pontiff pontificate, it could cost you $500 or more to buy a “free” ticket on various Web sites. Now I ask you, is that very Christian of the sellers?

At first blush I thought not. But upon further reflection I wondered if The Holy Father’s visit might in some way be a blessing for the less fortunate who might be selling their tickets to secure food for their family or some other staple of life. Sure, some quick-buck artists might want to make a fast $500. But even if just one of the sellers is indigent Francis would have contributed, indirectly, to their benefit. 

I’d like to think positively about this one.

Bronx Cheer: I think it is time to write about the New York Yankees. They deserve a real Bronx cheer, not the euphemistic “boo” commonly associated with the phrase. Regardless of what happens in their four game series beginning Thursday night with the front running Toronto Blue Jays, it must be said the Yankees have made the summer surprisingly pleasurable.

A few weeks ago, after the Blue Jays swept the Bronx Bombers at home, I thought the team we expected to see this season—too old, too slow, too frail—had finally shown up after overachieving in the first 100 games of the year. Yet, despite injuries and the dogs days of August, the Yankees have shown true grit, refusing to play their age. They have the third best record in the American League, just 1-1/2 games behind Toronto in the AL East. 

I was a huge Derek Jeter fan. Early this season his replacement seemed lost on the field, a perfect manifestation of the leaderless Yankees. Over the summer, however, we have witnessed the transformation of Didi Gregorius from a scared, overawed replacement into a full-fledged diamond at shortstop. 

Didi has grown up before our eyes. He has made plays darting, dashing, lunging and throwing that Jeter could not make even in his prime. At bat, he has become a deft hitter to all fields. What he hasn’t done, so far, is develop Jeter’s knack for the dramatic. Jeter’s signature moments came in important games either in the post-season or against arch-rival Boston. Didi’s legend will grow if his teammates help get him to the stage. He can’t do it alone.

Yankees fans should be grateful for what we have had this season. Who would have thought we would be in  first place for the better part of the summer? Who’d have thought Mark Teixeira would enjoy an MVP season until a leg bone injury sidelined him a few weeks ago? Who would have thought Alex Rodriguez would resurrect his career? We were ready to boo him. Instead, we’ve imagined him leading us to the promised land of playoff and championship baseball.

George Steinbrenner’s children have instilled financial accountability to the team. But at a cost to attaining the goal of ultimate victory. George would never have stood pat at the trade deadline. He would have recognized the need for more starting  pitchers, for more young bats. George would not have let the Mets outshine him. 

When the season ends and free agency begins, it will be fascinating to observe what the Yankees will do. Will the team try to snatch Yoenis Cespedes from the Mets? Will they go after another slugger or a top tier pitcher or two? My guess is they will pick up two quality starting pitchers and either a power hitting third baseman or outfielder.

Obamacare for Corn, Ichiro, Banking, Neo-Cons

(Editor’s note: Slight delay in posting today’s blog as I was constrained by holding Dagny during a quick trip to Boston to visit the new granddaughter and her brother Finley.)

As news reports of the drought across much of the nation, particularly in the breadbasket corn belt states of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, kept spreading in the media, I turned to Gilda last week to sarcastically suggest it wouldn’t be too long before President Obama would be blamed for this catastrophe. Sure enough, on Tuesday night’s Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert reacted to information that 90% of Iowa farmers had federal crop insurance by declaring it “Obamacare for our corn.”

It’s not too far fetched to think Obama would be blamed. After all, many of the water-parched states are electorally red, meaning they lean toward Republican and conservative candidates. Conservatives keep calling him a socialist, and in case you haven’t heard, Russia has been suffering from drought conditions for years longer than the U.S. It’s only natural, then, that God is exacting punishment on America because of its “anti-religion” leader just as He (for sure, not a She) is doing to the godless Rooskies. 

On the other hand, perhaps God is punishing those red states for being so intolerant to those who don’t match their DNA and beliefs, such as gays, Mormons, abortion rights advocates and immigrants (legal and illegal).

Ichiro to the Rescue? Now that Ichiro Suzuki is a NY Yankee, there is speculation he may finally make it to the World Series. If their play come October in any way resembles their last seven games, however, the Yankees once again will go home before the championship contest. 

Though they have the best record to date in baseball, they are vulnerable to good pitching that limits their home run output, as the games against the Oakland A’s and the Seattle Mariners showed this week. They won just two of seven games, repeatedly failing to score runs without the aid of a home run. Teams they would face in October would have better than average pitching, so a short playoff run is not inconceivable. 

Meanwhile, Alex Rodriguez’s broken hand injury, suffered in Tuesday’s loss to Seattle, is further validation he is a schlemazel. Three Yankees were hit by pitches during the game—Derek Jeter, Ichiro and A-Rod. Only A-Rod sustained an injury. He may be out six to eight weeks. As I wrote back in February 2011, A-Rod is more schlemazel than a schlemiel. 

“For those not familiar with the Yiddish terms, a schlemiel is a person who, despite the best of intentions, always fouls up. A schlemazel is an unfortunate soul, a person to whom misadventure always falls. To gain a deeper understanding of the distinction between the two, think of a schlemiel as a bumbling waiter who spills hot soup on a patron; the person drenched by the soup is a schlemazel. Active or passive, schlemiel or schlemazel, A-Rod can’t catch a break.”

Financial Misadventures: James “Jamie” Dimon, chairman, president and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has predicted there will be no more surprises similar to the $6 billion-and-mounting loss from speculative trading. He believes we need less, not more, regulatory oversight of the banking industry. Does anyone truly believe him?

Does anyone else find it ironic that the new basketball home of the Nets in Brooklyn will be called the Barclay Center, named for the same bank that is a key player in the Libor-fixing scandal? Barclay, along with other banks, reportedly shaved points in setting the interest rate banks charged each other to borrow funds. Hmmm...shaving points...basketball. Sports fans will immediately get the connection. All others, google “point shaving”.

Neo-Con Comeback? Mitt Romney, currently on a trip to England, Poland and Israel, leveled a broadside against President Obama’s foreign policy earlier this week. Nothing new here, it being the season of politics. Similarly, there’s nothing new about Romney’s foreign policy advisors. They’re mostly neo-conservatives, the same sad sack lot who brought us wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Does the country really want to go back to a world view based on belligerency rather than diplomacy? 

While on the subject of politics, have you noticed the terms POTUS and SCOTUS creeping into coverage and TV fare? For the uninitiated, POTUS is President of the United States; SCOTUS is Supreme Court of the United States.

Politics and Some Old Fashioned Values

Michele Bachmann’s politics might not be my cup of tea, but at least she seems to have the credentials of someone who has served the public for many years. She also appears to be no slouch when it comes to intellect, though I would question some of her conclusions.

What I don’t understand, however, is why politicians like her always insist they are not politicians? More curiously, why do so many voters swallow their swill?

The other day, when announcing her candidacy during an Iowa stopover, Bachmann asserted, “People are tired of politicians.” Okay, if that’s the case, why is she running? She is a professional politician. Anyone who is a three-term congresswoman is a professional politician. How can anyone who knows her think she is not a politician?

Michael Bloomberg was not a politician when he first ran for mayor of New York City. Now in his third term, Mayor Mike is definitely a politician. Rand Paul was not a politician when he ran for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky last year. If he seeks re-election in 2016, or heaven help us higher office, he no longer should be able to claim the mantle of an outsider.

Bachmann appears to be as scripted as they come. She’s chock full of sound bites, an impressive quality in this era of fly-by news coverage and casual listening by the electorate. That’s why it was all the more humorous when she misspoke at her Waterloo, Iowa, campaign launch by saying both she and John Wayne hailed from that small Iowa town. In case you haven’t heard, she got the wrong John Wayne mixed up with the conservative, Hollywood icon. John Wayne the actor was from a different Iowa community, Winterset. John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer, was from home town of Waterloo. Perhaps she'll turn her faux pas into a clever retort by saying she will serially kill government, program by program.

Oh well, in any campaign there are bound to be gaffes, like when Sarah Palin couldn’t remember the name of any newspapers she read, or lauded her foreign affairs expertise because she could see Russia from her porch.

Palin is the protagonist of a new documentary premiered Tuesday in Iowa designed to right the wrongs that have besmirched her political career. The Undefeated is said to portray her two and a half years as governor as among the most fulfilling of any full-term chief executive of Alaska. I haven’t seen the film, which Palin did not commission. But you have to wonder why the documentarian chose the name The Undefeated. Palin, did, after all, lose her last election in 2008.

According to Human Events, a conservative Web site, filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon “said he titled the film The Undefeated in part because Palin fights for 'the values that she stands for and represents -- the American spirit that is found on the frontier -- and those values cannot be defeated.’”

I’ve seen lots of Westerns in my time, many starring John Wayne. While they deified individual accomplishment, self-reliance and a refusal to give in, they also contained some themes that were decidedly un-Republican: bankers often were shady characters; land- and cattle barons along with railroad tycoons were selfish aggrandizers, willing to pay hired guns to do their dirty work; to get ahead, homesteaders and townspeople often had to band together in a sort of collective socialism; prostitution was an accepted, at least tolerated, social norm; a good lawman was one who enforced gun control over the citizenry. No one declared their Second Amendment rights when Marshal Dillon or Wyatt Earp demanded they put down their side arms.