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The hope of the left was that the U.S. economy would tank, helping to elect a Democrat in ‘04. But the economy appears to be trending up. Even the airline stocks are climbing.
CBS MarketWatch
Dow jumps triple-digits to new yearly high
By Tomi Kilgore
NEW YORK (CBS.MW)—The major U.S. stock indexes celebrated the anniversary of their bear market bottoms a day early by surging to new yearly highs Thursday, after a fall in claims for state unemployment benefits suggested the economic recovery may no longer be jobless.
In addition, Yahoo’s better than expected quarterly report and strong monthly sales updates from retailers suggested the coming third-quarter earnings reporting season would help justify recent gains.
The Dow Jones Industrials Average ( ^DJI -News ) jumped 133 points, or 1.4 percent, to 9,764, the highest level seen since early-June 2002.
Of the Dow’s 30 components , 28 traded higher. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ -News ) led the way with a 5.5 percent gain following a positive analyst comment, and a powerful surge in airline stocks helped propel the Dow’s aerospace component makers—Boeing, United Technologies and Honeywell—to gains of at least 2 percent.
Jobless Claims Lowest in Eight Months
By JEANNINE AVERSA
The Associated PressWASHINGTON – New claims for unemployment insurance fell last week to their lowest level in eight months, a hopeful sign that companies may be having a bit more faith in the staying power of the economic recovery and thus are easing the pace of layoffs.
It looks like the Bush tax cuts worked.
That’s a reasonable question today, seeing how many times their front page repudiates the decision of the people in the election. Quotes from front page stories in today’s edition:
In a popular revolt unmatched in the 92 years that Californians have held the power to recall elected officials, voters chose a Republican film star with no government experience to replace a Democrat steeped for three decades in state politics.
That’s the second paragraph of the lead story today. The disdain for the will of the people is right there. Later in the same story:
The national implications of Schwarzenegger’s victory were quickly apparent. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a presidential candidate who hopes to tap into the same popular anger that propelled the recall, said Californians had vented “their frustration with the country’s direction.”“Come next November, that anger might be directed at a different incumbent … in the White House,” he said in a statement.
It doesn’t say that that’s just the opinion of Dean – the TIMES says these are “the national implications”.
And then there’s this slam, also on the front page:
THE NEW GOVERNOR
So Familiar Yet So Unknown
Californians have never known more about a new governor. We’ve seen him naked on screen. We know about the Nazi father, the celebrity journalist wife, the bodybuilding titles and the crude behavior toward women. We have seen him in theaters, fallen asleep to his voice on television and imitated his accent.
Californians have never known less about a new governor. We’ve never seen him hold office. We don’t know what programs he’ll cut, how he’ll balance the budget, how he’ll negotiate with recalcitrant legislators or how he’ll manage the state’s bureaucracy.
Lawyers, business people, doctors, even actors leave behind their professions for politics. Arnold Schwarzenegger at various times the most physically developed man in the world, Hollywood’s most famous actor and soon the 38th governor of California has made the switch too, with one critical difference. He is bringing his lifetime of personas, real and fictional, with him to office.
Schwarzenegger, who built his career on changing shape, could claim during his campaign to be just about anything.
Three slams against the people’s choice, on the front page of the paper, the day after the election.
Bias before the election is one thing. These stories imply a rejection of the people’s will, and of American democracy itself.
Is the TIMES no longer a team player?
This election wasn’t even close. This was a blowout. Check out this chart of voting on the recall by county.
The vast majority of counties voted in favor of the recall.
Schwarzenegger has shown tremendous leadership in his handling of the campaign. When the Republican Party inexplicably didn’t run TV ads favoring the recall, Arnold’s campaign produced them and ran them.
He let everyone believe he was unable to speak to the issues, and then showed up at the debate and blew away all those criticisms. That was the moment that turned the whole campaign around.
Monday, when Peter Jennings was grilling Arnold, playing the usual media games, finally there was this exchange:
JENNINGS: The question I’m just trying to understand is you say some of it’s not true and some if it you don’t remember. What don’t you remember and what isn’t true?SCHWARZENEGGER: It doesn’t make any sense to go through details here with you.
What is important is—what is important is that I cannot remember what was happening 20 years ago and 15 years ago. But some of the thing sounds like me and this is why I was the first one to come out and say, ;You know, some of the things could have happened.’’ I want to apologize to the people if I offended anyone, because that was not my intention.
“It doesn’t make any sense to go through details here with you.” Perfect. That’s what we need, is someone with the personality to blow away all the game-playing, and get the job done.
Check this out, from a front-page story in today’s TIMES (emphasis added):
The fact that the lieutenant governor could be condescending while being asked whether he is condescending may not cost him votes. (Given the public’s resentment of the media, it may gain him a few.)
So here the Times is actually reporting that the public resents the media. Hopefully the Times is looking for ways to clean up its act with regard to politically biased reporting.
USC law and poli-sci professor, and former Democratic campaign manager for Michael Dukakis, has an excellent article today with the goods on the latest Schwarzenegger mini-scandal:
A Deplorable October Surprise
By Susan Estrich
So this is the October surprise? The Los Angeles Times headline that Arnold Schwarzenegger groped and humiliated women?
...As a professor of sex discrimination law for two decades and an expert on sexual harassment, I certainly don't condone the unwanted touching of women that was apparently involved here. But these acts do not appear to constitute any crime, such as rape or sodomy or even assault or battery. As for civil law, sexual harassment requires more than a single case of unwelcome touching; there must be either a threat or promise of sex in exchange for a job benefit or demotion, or the hostile environment must be severe and pervasive.
...What this story accomplishes is less an attack on Schwarzenegger than a smear on the press. It reaffirms everything that's wrong with the political process. Anonymous charges from years ago made in the closing days of a campaign undermine fair politics.
...But here's my prediction, as a Californian: It's too late for the Los Angeles Times' charges to have much impact. People have made up their minds. This attack, coming as late as it does, from a newspaper that has been acting more like a cheerleader for Gray Davis than an objective source of information, will be dismissed by most people as more Davis-like dirty politics. Is this the worst they could come up with? Ho-hum. After what we've been through?
To his credit, Schwarzenegger apologized for "behaving badly." So should the Los Angeles Times.
Read the whole thing. I give the TIMES a lot of credit for printing this article, which is so critical of the TIMES' own behavior.
Before the September 24th Gubernatorial debate, Schwarzenegger was behind in the polls; afterwards, he was ahead. One of the key moments in the debate was this statement from Bustamante:
BUSTAMANTE: Well clearly we spent too much. We spent more as a government, we spent more than it was coming in. There’s no rocket science to this. We clearly knew that there were certain incomes that were coming in, and we spent more than we had.
Establishing:
Busted.
is an excellent new weblog. It contains letters written by our soldiers in Iraq. Here’s a quote from a particularly moving one .
We live in a country where people feel secure with their daily lives. They do business like usual and don’t worry about the thought of terrorism actually happening to them.The people of 9-11 thought the same thing. We now know that it can happen to anyone at any time.
Yet as Americans we’re afraid of losing our soldiers to defend our security. I can only speak for myself when I say that my life is an easy expense to ensure that my family and friends can live in peace. I strongly believe in what we are doing and wish you were here to see for yourselves the honor and privilege that American soldiers aboard this ship are feeling, knowing that we are going to be a part of something so strong and so meaningful to the safety of our loved ones. Then you would know what this potential war is about. We will stand tall in front of terrorism and defeat it. We as soldiers are not afraid of what may happen. We are only afraid of Americans not being able to understand why we are here.
I ask for your courage as Americans to be strong for us; I ask for your understanding in what we believe is right. I ask for your support in what we are sworn to do: defend our country and the life of all.
We will succeed in our task and will end the threat of terrorism in our back yard. We will also end the threat of terrorism in our neighbors’. We have to remind ourselves of what this country stands for: life, liberty and justice for all. In order to maintain those rights we have to stop the threat of terrorism.
I am proud to be here. I will be coming home, but not until I know that it’s going to be safe for all Americans and for everyone I love. My family is first. My country is where they live. I will defend it.
