Thursday, September 25, 2008

One of the only things I admire about Rudy Giuliani, is the way he handled the attacks on New York on September 11th(and if you don't believe me just ask him). New York City pretty much hated him before that date, and not too long afterwards, they hated him again (as we saw when he tried to run for President) but for a month or so after 9/11, he was a hero. It can be argued that 9/11 fell in his lap, and he did what any good leader would do, which was to lead, but I still admire what he did. He didn't just sit in his cushy NY home and give press conferences, he put his hard hat on, and he went to various spots around the city to lend moral support, assess damage and give speeches. He tried to be a calming influence in an otherwise chaotic situation, and from my vantage he did not do a bad job at all..which brings me to President Bush.

We are in a bonafide financial crisis right now, and I think it finally dawned on Bush that he had to address the country to talk about why it happened, what his solution is, and what the overall prognosis is for this country. Oh yeah, and he wanted to push his $700 billion government rescue plan. This was the time for Bush to shine, and take baby steps towards erasing the abysmal reputation he has carefully crafted over an 8 year period. And he dropped the ball.

Bush looked so stiff up there last night, it may as well have been a Weekend at Bernie's situation. There was not a word uttered last night that was not on the teleprompter, and I would bet my dwindling life savings that he did not write a single, solitary word. I understand that president's are busy, and they frequently don't write their speeches, but this is a dire situation for our country, and it requires something different in my humble opinion.

I would have ditched the written speech, and I would have just talked to the American people(real talk as the kids say). Yes I would have notes in front of me just in case I got tripped up on details, but mostly I would just talk. It wouldn't solve the problems, and it wouldn't keep another person from being foreclosed upon, but at least people could feel like the President was taking their problems seriously and doing something different for once. Instead, they saw a stiff, smirking man just reading words in a callous fashion. I mean what good is a leader if he doesn't lead in a time like this?

Perhaps I'm way off on this, and if I am, I am QUITE sure my boy Cliff will call me out, but these are my thoughts at 730 am.

And McCain isn't fooling anyone with his "let's cancel the debate" speech. That's riduculous. As I said to my lady last night, EVERYONE in the world has to multitask in some form or fashion. He could work around the clock, take time out to debate, and then go right back to working on the economy. But to stop everything, just to work on a problem that has been brewing for months and months is just asinine. Just do the damn debate man.

Eleanor Rigby - Stanley Jordan

3 comments:

Jazzbrew said...

Did you see Letterman last night? Apparently McCain was supposed to appear on his show but cancelled at the last minute. It actually provided for some really funny stuff in classic Dave Letterman fashion...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26886321/

Anonymous said...

I think McCain's cop out on the debate is foolish..what is he gonna do if he gets in office? I know he'll have to multi-task there

spirit_55 said...

Screw John McSahme. I agree with Barack Obama in that the debates should proceed.

However, he should have a backup plan in place right now, that if McShame does not show up, Jim Lehrer should facilitate an open forum for the audience to ask Barack questions. How many American viewers are projected to tune in Friday night?