Archive for September, 2008
A Brilliant Flashback
Saturday night I took a trip back to the 1970s and found two groups of people. One remains unchanged — seemingly frozen in time. Another group has taken what they learned in the seventies and used it to change the world. The occasion was a benefit concert for the Seva Foundation at Oakland’s beautiful Paramount [...]
ImPalin' the Ticket
We knew she was a high risk pick that would prove either inspired or delusional. And we knew that the learning curve for a small state governor would be treacherous. After only three interviews, the Dan Quayle comparisons have started. Now Politico notices that the Palin-induced smile on Republican faces is rapidly becoming a cringe. [...]
Democrats — the new Republicans?
Berkeley’s always informative economist Brad DeLong has posted some astonishing graphs comparing the economic performance of Democratic vs. Republican administrations. Remember when Republicans were the party of fiscally responsible business? It is now clear why Wall Street donations have tilted so heavily Democratic over the past few election cycles: people who care about economic performance [...]
“How would a Machinist say that?” Talking points for Obama on the financial crisis.
During the early 1980s an odd combination of economic recession, bad career planning, and good fortune pulled me out of my job making turbine blades at Westinghouse and landed me in the position of directing education programs for about 200,000 west coast members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. I trained union [...]
Buffett's Warning. Obama's Opportunity.
Last March, legendary investor Warren Buffett warned investors that a ‘time bomb’ was ticking in US financial markets in the form of the exploding market in financial derivatives, which he memorably termed "financial weapons of mass destruction" (thanks to the JSD reader who recalled this memo to me). By November, Buffett was actively advising Barack [...]
Category Five Storm Slams Wall Street
It is the worst financial crisis in a generation and, for just a moment, I thought that it might be divinely inspired. Only two weeks ago Focus on the Family called on Americans to pray for a rainstorm “of biblical proportions” to wash away Obama’s outdoor acceptance speech in Denver. God delivered perfect 72 degree [...]
Obama: Fifty Focused Days
There are two ways to become President of the United States in the modern era. One is to be a Republican. Any state will do, but California or Texas seem to work well. Since the great re-alignment election of 1968, all three landslides (1972, 1980, and 1984) were won by Republicans from California. It is [...]
Complex Farewells
David Petraeus, our finest living general, today resigned his command of Multi-National Force Iraq and assumed command of CENTCOM. He is now the commander of two wars, not one. I admire Petraeus and profiled him here ("David Patraeus, Rock Star General"). I still believe that that he would be an impressive presidential candidate. The current [...]
Can't Google and Apple Sync Without Microsoft?
Few companies hate Microsoft as much as Apple and Google do. With Google CEO Eric Schmidt on the Apple board, you would figure that the two companies would consistently team up against Microsoft. Sometimes they do, but for over a year, Google and Apple have reinforced Microsoft’s dominance over corporate email services, needlessly helping Microsoft [...]
The JamKid Blogs China
Long-time readers of JamSideDown know a bit about the JamKid, profiled two years ago here, and featured in our trip to the Iowa caucus here. He is Jamie Manley, my oldest son and at 16, no longer a kid. During his freshman year in high school, Jamie studied Chinese history and seemed to like it. [...]
Ignore the Moose — Follow the Money.
If you want to understand Sarah Palin, start not with Alaska’s politics, but with its economy. Alaska is fundamentally different from the other 49 states. Having returned from a visit just as Palin became famous, I’ll comment less on Alaskan moose (big, slow), mountains (big, steep), or mosquitoes (big, scary) than on the three paradoxes [...]
The Real McCain
As noted in the previous post, there are at least two faces of John McCain. McCain 1.0 is to the left of many Democrats and much closer to Barack Obama than most people realize. Almost every Republican official has denounced McCain 1.0 during the past two decades. John Kerry seriously considered asking McCain 1.0 to [...]
Sarah Palin: Politically Smart Pick
It is one of those decisions that could still blow up, of course. Maybe she can’t spell potato or sort out which is Iran and which is Iraq. But I would not bet on it. John McCain’s surprise pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate was not an impulse decision. It was a big [...]
