[Rhodes22-list] The Ben and Brad show...(Political)

Wed Oct 1 20:34:21 EDT 2008

Brad, Ed, Steve and Colleagues:

I think we need to talk about this word , "ELITE".  Think of it in terms of
converstions with folks who seem to want a President who they'd be
comfortable having a beer ( or a shot and a beer) with. To be perfectly
frank, I don't want a President I'd like to hang out with; I want one who is
smarter, better eduacated, more sophisticated, more cosmopolitan, harder
working, more dedicated to public service, and better looking than I am. 
(OK, Sarah Palin has met the last criterion). 

Can we have these conversations without "Mr Fancy Pants" type of put-downs? 
That Barak Obama went to Harvard Law School is much to his credit.  Harvard
is the single most selective and competitive law school in the country. 
There's just no debating that point, and the fact that Obama was selected
not only to attend, but excelled there to become President of the Law Review
is (to my mind) a tremendous feather in his cap, and a very objective
measure of him as a spectacular intellect.  He was certainly no "legacy", as
W was at Yale.  Obama's father, as Brad is fond of pointing out, did him no
favors and gave him no advantages.

I do not listen to Christian Radio (please let's not start THAT debate) and
perhaps I therefor do not have my finger on the pulse of what the fans of
that medium are thinking. Is this Ramsey guy simply a modern Father
Coughlin?  If so I'll pass.

best to all,

Ben C.

Brad Haslett-2 wrote:
> 
> Slim,
> 
> Several years ago (pre 9/11) I boarded the airplane in Miami and there
> was a Chinese gal sprawled out sleeping on the jumpseats. I woke her
> up rather rudely and asked, "who are you and why are you sleeping on
> my airplane?"  She apologized and told her story - something about
> visiting a boyfriend and being tired and some other stuff I would
> rather imagine than actually know.  I made her ride in the cockpit (we
> could do that pre 9/11) and asked her if she knew where the best
> Chinese food was in Memphis and then invited her to our house.  She
> had already been accepted into Harvard's MBA program and I used to fly
> the Boston trip while I was working on my MBA and compare notes with
> her. We were using the same textbooks and studying the same cases.
> The difference between our programs was that she and her fellow
> students were all on the same trajectory to high flying firms with
> "networking" you can only get at Ivy League schools, while my fellow
> students were at best hoping to move a rung or two up the ladder they
> were already toiling at on a daily basis. I'm not joining you in a
> Bush bashing party, but could - just one data point that perhaps an
> education from Yale or any of the other "elite" schools is way
> overrated.
> 
> Brad
> 
> On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 4:21 PM, Steven Alm <stevenalm at gmail.com> wrote:
>> "Elites of course don't think those of us with degrees from state
>> universities are sophisticated enough to handle complex problems."
>>
>> Brad, you're talking about Bush, right?  A Yalie.
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 8:15 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Ed,
>>>
>>> Better get your licks in on the NY Times while you can.  The "grey
>>> lady" as been morally bankrupt for some time and their business model
>>> is failing - they will soon be financially bankrupt as well.
>>>
>>> I like Dave Ramsey and occasionally listen to his radio show.
>>> Personally, I supported the 700 Billion dollar "bailout" plan even
>>> though it went against personal and political philosophies.  Now that
>>> it's been rejected (and wealth equivalent to the entire economy of
>>> India has been wiped away in a single day) perhaps it's time to look
>>> at some alternatives.  The mark to market accounting rule change
>>> bought us some time.
>>>
>>> I'm including an article out today from Fred Thompson on Sarah Palin
>>> because he references Brooks, the author of Ben's article.  Sarah was
>>> able to shake-up the 'good ole boy' network in Alaska and made a
>>> market based end-run around the Big Oil stranglehold on the pipeline
>>> deal.  We could use some "Joe six-pack" common sense in Washington.
>>>
>>> Elites of course don't think those of us with degrees from state
>>> universities are sophisticated enough to handle complex problems.  We
>>> couldn't do any worse than they have.
>>>
>>> Brad
>>>
>>> ---------------------------
>>>
>>> Qualified
>>> Fred Thompson
>>> Tuesday, September 30, 2008
>>>
>>> When John McCain selected Governor Sarah Palin, as his running mate,
>>> the Democrats and their far-left constituency let out a primal scream
>>> that could be heard from sea to shining sea. How dare he choose
>>> someone that they and their pals in the media had not had a chance to
>>> vet (i.e. libel, slander, and otherwise and otherwise eviscerate). Ah,
>>> but it was not too late. These seekers of "a new kind of politics"
>>> poured torrents of malicious abuse upon her and her family.
>>>
>>> Plane loads of scandal mongers, lawyers and other truth seekers became
>>> more numerous in Alaska than the polar bear, as they rallied local
>>> Democrats and disgruntled Republicans to their cause.
>>>
>>> Here was a woman who chose to have children and a career. Aging
>>> Washington socialites weighed in with newly discovered sensitivity for
>>> mothers with careers outside the home. Here was a woman who became
>>> upset because her ex-brother-in-law had tasered her nephew and
>>> threatened her father. The Democrats and their friends had to save the
>>> country from a woman like this.
>>>
>>> Governor Palin's every comment was scrutinized by the media and judged
>>> against what Jefferson or Lincoln might have said. Never mind that her
>>> counterpart, the 30-year-Washington-veteran Joe Biden, apparently is
>>> unaware that America relies upon coal for a lot of it's electricity or
>>> that he recently referred to a top level U.S. official's visit to Iran
>>> that never happened. That's just Joe being Joe – protected by the
>>> sheer number of his gaffes and the fact that he is Barack Obama's
>>> running mate.
>>>
>>> For a while there it seems the fact that so many uninformed yahoos
>>> (average people) love her was going to drive the main stream media
>>> nuts. They had a hard time grasping the fact that people like her
>>> because she is precisely the kind of politician that everyone has been
>>> saying they've wanted: Independent, not a captive of the Beltway
>>> including a Congress with a 9% approval rating, who will take on hacks
>>> of either party; who has the tenacity to win and the courage to fight
>>> for the long-term benefit of those she represents.
>>>
>>> Apparently what no one counted on was that a politician like this
>>> would actually show up on the national scene. The media was caught by
>>> surprise. The media doesn't like surprises.
>>>
>>> Naturally, there was a backlash to the treatment of Governor Palin and
>>> cooler-headed critics have largely concentrated on what they claim is
>>> her lack of qualifications. Of course much of the criticism of her
>>> qualifications reveals the application of the same old double
>>> standard. Less accomplished governors in times past have been
>>> considered to be perfectly "well-qualified" as VP picks.
>>>
>>> However, it is a legitimate issue and should be taken seriously. I
>>> especially take seriously the criticism of people such as New York
>>> Times columnist David Brooks who I consider to be an insightful
>>> analyst of the political scene.
>>>
>>> He recently wrote that governance is hard. It requires acquired
>>> skills. Most of all it requires prudence. What is prudence? Among
>>> other things, it is the ability to absorb information and discern the
>>> essential current of events – the things that go together and the
>>> things that will never go together. It is the ability to engage in
>>> complex deliberations and to understand which arguments have the most
>>> weight. How is prudence acquired? Through experience. Experience
>>> allows a leader to judge what is important and what is not. He added,
>>> "Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a
>>> corrupt establishment, she'd be your woman. But the constructive act
>>> of governance is another matter."
>>>
>>> One can hardly disagree with the desirability of our leaders having
>>> the qualities that Brooks describes (putting aside the question of how
>>> many of our leaders who are not Sarah Palin have demonstrated these
>>> qualities). But there are other important qualifications, such as
>>> will, courage, and determination. Frankly, an infusion of these
>>> qualities into our body politic is desperately needed – not just to
>>> raise hell with the establishment, but to speak the hard truth about
>>> unpleasant choices facing our country. To push for choices that will,
>>> in the long term, benefit our country, our children and our
>>> grandchildren. In other words, things which "prudent" leaders are all
>>> too often reluctant to do.
>>>
>>> For many years we have failed to address looming problems that will
>>> prove catastrophic to our nation. It's not because we are bereft of
>>> leaders with great experience. And it is not because they do not
>>> understand the "essential current of events." They know these things
>>> all too well. It is because they do not have the political courage to
>>> do anything about it.
>>>
>>> Recently, a Washington Post editorial pointed out that even before the
>>> recent financial crisis on Wall Street, the Government Accountability
>>> Office issued a report declaring the federal government on an
>>> "unsustainable long term fiscal path." This was primarily due to the
>>> projected cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, brought on
>>> by an aging population. We will be spending $41 trillion dollars more
>>> on these entitlements in the next 75 years than we will receive in
>>> payroll taxes and premiums, although the crunch will actually begin
>>> much sooner than that. And we already owe Japan and China about $500
>>> billion each.
>>>
>>> David Walker, the former Comptroller General of the United States
>>> calls this problem much larger than the recent financial rescue plan.
>>> In fact he calls it the "super sub-prime crisis." Which bring me to
>>> the current sub-prime crisis.
>>>
>>> Wall Street and Washington were full of people who were "qualified and
>>> experienced" in the field of finance. Sen. Barack Obama, for one, has
>>> a great deal of experience in the housing field. So do many of his
>>> closest advisers. I would have traded some of that experience for a
>>> few more leaders with less experience and more courage to buck the
>>> establishment and tell the truth about what was happening.
>>>
>>> This brings me back to Governor Sarah Palin, and why I say that
>>> courage and political will are at the very top of the "qualification"
>>> requirements for today's leaders. So the question is, how does Sarah
>>> Palin compare on that score with Biden and Obama, for that matter?
>>> Very well, I'd say.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 7:04 AM, Tootle <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Ben and Brad Show:
>>> >
>>> > Ben said,"
>>> >
>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
>>> >
>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
>>> >
>>> > The above link is to my favorite NY Times main stream media columnist. 
>>> I
>>> > like the way he thinks about the "bailout" issue.
>>> >
>>> > Brad said, "He got much of it right."
>>> >
>>> > Ben citation of the New York Times and its columnist is an issue for
>>> two
>>> > reasons.  The New York Times once billed itself as printing all the
>>> new
>>> that
>>> > is fit to print.  It lost that standard over the years and the rest of
>>> the
>>> > country recognizes it.  It has lost its credibility.
>>> >
>>> > Secondly, the New York Times is solidly main stream media as Ben said.
>>>  This
>>> > means that reasonable people in the other parts of the country
>>> understand
>>> > that what ever it prints, it is biased reporting.  So even when as
>>> Brad
>>> > says, "He got much of it right", its veracity is questioned by the
>>> rest
>>> of
>>> > the country.
>>> > Ben has coalesced into the Northeast Pseudo Elitist mold.   This type
>>> of
>>> > reasoning is exemplified by Chris Mattews.  Specifically that is put
>>> down
>>> > 'Blue Collar' America, because I have more than a high school
>>> education I
>>> > understand better and more.
>>> >
>>> > Blue Collar America does not read nor will it accept advice [even if
>>> it
>>> > good] from the New York Times.
>>> > Here is where Blue Collar America is getting it ideas on the situation
>>> from:
>>> >
>>> http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/fed_bailout/3_steps_to_change_the_nations_future_10928.htmlc?ictid=mlfrnd
>>> >
>>> > Now a read of David Brooks column cited shows that he has read George
>>> Soros
>>> > books and his thinking is influenced by Soros's concepts of capital
>>> flow.
>>> > Why has no major media interview Soros?  That is a big mistake and
>>> lost
>>> > opportunity.
>>> >
>>> > And the White House failed in not inviting Buffet and Soros to get
>>> their
>>> > perspective and ideas.  Because you seek advice does mean you have to
>>> follow
>>> > it.  But do get some good advice and not insider advice from Goldman
>>> Sachs
>>> > via Hank Paulson.  (Goldman Sach is openly supporting your opposition,
>>> so
>>> > why would they give you the best advice?).
>>> >
>>> > Brad, thank you for pointing out that the old lack luster McCain has
>>> looked
>>> > at the accounting issues and spoke about them.  Whereas Obama has
>>> developed
>>> > an elitist attitude that is to let others decide.  Obama has
>>> demonstrated
>>> a
>>> > real lack of understanding and leadership.  It seems that he does not
>>> have
>>> > even average intelligence.
>>> >
>>> > This guy is a real example of Elmer Gantry, Jim Baker and other con
>>> men.
>>> If
>>> > Obama was an army second lieutenant in combat he would have been
>>> fragged
>>> a
>>> > long time ago.  He is a phony leader, a false god image.
>>> >
>>> > Ed K
>>> > Greenville, SC, USA
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > View this message in context:
>>> http://www.nabble.com/The-Ben-and-Brad-show...%28Political%29-tp19759011p19759011.html
>>> > Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>> >
>>> >
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