Fortunately, the coffee was not in the mouth at this point ...
... in my reading.
I did not think much of Bill Clinton our modern-day Alcibiades. But all through his administration, and of course before and after it, I thought a great deal of the United States, especially in comparison to the alternative.
That word 'Alcibiades', too perfect in the wake/midst of Hillary's confirmation hearings, was so appropriate that any volume of fluid in my mouth would have hit the keyboard and screen.
Victor Davis Hanson has more, and all the Obama reservations are solid, though I think he is too hopeful (though not very changey):
As Obama begins to govern and as the public sees that he simply borrowed Bush’s foreign policy rhetoric, jazzed it up with his cadences and pauses, and then took either Bushites or Democratic centrists and called them hope and change, and as he glued new rhetorical veneers on the Patriot Act and FISA, and as he alienates many by making decisions other than voting present, and as the gaffes begin (Biden and Michelle can’t be put under wraps forever), and the Chicago fumes linger (Blago ain’t through yet), the fawning media will begin to look embarrassed, then ridiculous, and finally completely bankrupt. They offered no audit of Obama, no tough treatment, no honest examination of his flips, no balance in their treatment of Bush, and they will soon pay a terrible price for that derelection and worse, as the public sees them as the state megaphones that they have so sadly become. The only suspense? Will they play Pravda to the end?
Meanwhile, I think Doc has a more solid grasp on where we are headed and it will not be pretty!
I am less optimistic than Llosa. I expect that the 3Ps will win out, and more bureaucrats with more hubris and more east-coast-elitist-interventionist training will pour into Washington; and they will negotiate (albeit in good faith, for the most part) with increasing numbers of rent-seekers to redistribute more wealth and power away from voters and taxpayers. Furthermore, the slower growth the US will experience 5 and 10 years from now will be attributed to these policies by only a minority of policy analysts.
As Russ Roberts says, "Watch your liberty and your wallet. They are both at risk."|
I am REALLY hoping (pace Rondi) that we baby-boomers can prevail in the rent-seeking!
Labels: Alcibiades, Barack Obama, rent-seeking
posted by Alan Adamson @ 8:32 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home