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The New York Times, one of the world’s most highly respected newspapers, just announced their editorial board’s decision to endorse Hillary Clinton and John McCain in the upcoming primaries. While the endorsement of McCain isn’t such a surprise, the NYT’s endorsement seemingly could have gone to Obama or Clinton. Luckily, the Times doesn’t fall down on the typical “experience” excuse that Obama has refuted in the past. Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for the Times, shoots down Clinton’s “experience” argument today as well in a new editorial. Kristof notes that the politician that is “most experienced today in the classic sense” is Dick Cheney, and he succeeds in proving that the most experienced candidates aren’t always the ones we’d like to run our country. The stark differences in tone between the Republican and Democratic endorsements from the Times seem to echo the feelings of America today.

John McCain and Hillary Clinton, who received the endorsements of the New York Times today

Hopeful for the future, the Times “strongly recommends” that voters select Hillary Clinton from what is, luckily, not “an uninspiring pack.” While the Times focuses mainly on Clinton and Obama, they make a point of noting that Edwards has “enlivened the race with his own brand of populism,” which may, according to analysts, help to make him a kingmaker at the Democratic Convention later in the year. They do, however, temper their admiration of his dedication by saying that they’re “not sure shere he stands,” effectively making Edwards’ the Democratic flip-flopper, like his 2004 running mate John Kerry.The recommendation to vote for Clinton doesn’t mean the Times doesn’t recognize the strength and benefits of an Obama candidacy, and they draw attention to his successes as well. A key point the Times makes, however, is the fact that “Firstness” is not a reason to choose a certain candidate in this election. Despite what the mainstream media may say, many voters do delve deep into issues and are not voting for candidates superficially. CNN ran a horrendous story last week on the subject, mentioning what they basically call the plight of black women voters. It’s not a question of whether or not to vote for the first woman or first black man. It’s instead a question of who’s going to run the country better.

Barack Obama, Clinton’s main adversary in the quest for the Democratic nomination

The New York Times has decided that Clinton is that candidate. Both candidates, they feel, can repair the “grievous harm” Bush has done to the United States’ image around the world. As I have said in the past, Clinton and Obama really don’t have that much separating them in terms of major issues, and the Times agrees. While Obama highlights change in his candidacy, Hillary has recently taken his message and reiterated it with her own spin, garnering praise from pundits after she “found her voice” after victory in New Hampshire. Key reasons the Times mentions for selecting Clinton include “the depth of her knowledge, …the force of her intellect, and..the breadth of, yes, her experience.” They go even further, praising Clinton and saying she would be a “strong commander in chief.” The problem with Obama’s campaign is that he deals in abstracts, and Clinton seems instead to be equipped with in-depth answers and a clear plan for America’s future. The ideals held by both candidates - the elimination of No Child Left Behind, broadened health coverage, and more - are music to the majority of Americans’ ears. The Times critiques Clinton’s camp as well, explaining that while they support her candidacy, they’d prefer that she abandon the divisive and negative attacks she has pursued against Obama and other competitors. That didn’t stop them, however, from calling Clinton the “best choice for the Democratic Party as it tries to regain the White House.”The tone of the McCain endorsement is strikingly different, but the liberal slant of the New York Times means it isn’t quite a surprise. McCain’s bipartisan efforts in the past have led the Times, and much of America, to conclude that he is America’s best hope at uniting the two parties, a contrast to Hillary’s often divisive politics. The editorial begins, “We have strong disagreements with all the Republicans running for president,” and then proceeds to lampoon them for a laundry list of failures in the campaigning season, including a lack of a plan for Iraq, clinging to discredited economic theories, and more. McCain received the endorsement because of his ability to stand on principles, battle global warming, and stand up for the ethical treatment of detainees.

Rudy Giuliani, former NYC Mayor and current Republican candidate

The remainder of the endorsement, however, focuses on Rudolph Giuliani, the onetime mayor and also-ran presidential contender in 2008. His candidacy depends largely on success in Florida, which he is unlikely to achieve. The Times claims that the mayor they endorsed in 1997 for reelection is not “the man..running for president.” We’ll be analyzing Giuliani’s campaign in an upcoming feature article as well. The Times closes their editorial by claiming that McCain is not a “moderate,” but still is “the best choice for the party’s presidential nomination.”New School Politics will publish our official endorsements later in the month, but I believe that those of The New York Times should be a valuable resource to voters in their quest to find an adequate candidate for the 2008 election. They should, however, be taken with a grain of salt as well, as Obama’s endorsement by New Hampshire papers like the Nashua Telegraph failed to produce results for him in that crucial early primary. We’ll have more on the presidential election, including the aforementioned piece on Giuliani, tomorrow.

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Today was a big day for presidential politics, as the long-shot candidate (and one of my closet favorites) Dennis Kucinich decided to cease his run for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Calling it a “transition,” Kucinich insisted [in a video to Cleveland's Plain Dealer] he wanted to continue to serve in Congress and will pursue re-election. He’s been in the news recently for his plan to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Bush on January 28th, the day of his State of the Union speech. Kucinich’s speech, where he tears into Bush claiming, “We already know the State of the Union…it’s a lie,” is available on YouTube. He was rebuked by House Republicans afterwards, and Florida GOP Rep. Cliff Stearns called Kucinich’s plan a “personal attack.” Kucinich’s famed single-player health care plan, a hallmark of his campaign, may find its way into the healthcare plans of other candidates. Kucinich’s often radical views brought some humor and some radicalism to the race, and he will be missed. The mainstream media, it seems, made it more difficult for Kucinich to continue his run, excluding him from the past couple of debates.

Former Democratic Candidate Dennis Kucinich

We’re expecting announcements over the next couple of days of a couple of more resignations as the fields thin with the continuing primaries. Mike Gravel, a Democrat who has polled even lower than Kucinich, still remains in the race along with John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. The Republican field saw the loss of Fred Thompson the other day, and if Rudy Giuliani doesn’t win in Florida, he looks like he’ll be the next casualty. On Super Tuesday, February 5th, join New School Politics for live multimedia and written coverage of the primary results from twenty-four states, along with in-depth analysis from our staff of writers.

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From Steve Forbes:

Our Founders drafted the Constitution with fewer than 5,000 words; with later amendments it is about 8,000 words. The federal tax code is more than 9 million words. So the document that created the government is less than 0.1% as long as the tax code that funds it. Such is the state of Washington today.

Well, needless to say the contrast is stark. For all the politicians who do, I think it is an absolute crock for any of them (except for the Ron Pauls of the world, perhaps) to implicate their nostalgia for the Founders considering they support a federal government that spends one fifth of the economy (and state and local governments that spend another one sixth). And this includes the Republicans who trick themselves into thinking they are the party of small government.

The truth is they’ve got nothing on Thomas Jefferson, who cut the already small federal government by a quarter. The third president outlined his belief in a “wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another.” Today, the Democratic party, which holds an annual dinner in Jefferson’s name, wants the government to control the whole healthcare industry.

While Americans have no problem glorifying their forefathers, it is clear that they have no idea what they actually stood for, and what the constitution stands for. And until and unless they do, American freedom will continue to be marginalized.

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“…because her father is Janet Reno.”

Now before you castigate me for that admittedly off-color two liner, I must disclose that the ill-humor is not my own.

But, who’s is it?

Surprise: that joke was John McCain’s at a fundraiser in 1998 according to several newspapers, including the Arizona Republic. Many other prominent papers, as well as the Associated Press, alluded to but did not publish it, saying it was “too vicious to print.”

With the 2008 general election looking like it may shape up to be Clinton v. McCain, one can only wonder if that past predicament will come to light 10 years after the fact.

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The Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation recently released their annual study on economic freedom, which evaluates and ranks the economic freedom of 162 nations. Here is the page for the new study; here are the rankings.

Note that the study is not only cool for its rankings, but it is also an excellent resource for macroeconomic statistics and government policy of any nation in the world.

As for the countries, year in and year out, Hong Kong remains at the top of the list, often with Singapore in second. The US and the world’s other English-speaking powers are also prominent. Here is the top 10:

 1. Hong Kong

2. Singapore

3. Ireland

4. Australia

5. United States of America

6. New Zealand

7. Canada

8. Chile

9. Switzerland

10. United Kingdom

And here are the bottom ten:

10. Venezuela

9. Bangladesh

8. Belarus

7. Iran

6. Turkmenistan

5. Burma

4. Libya

3. Zimbabwe

2. Cuba

1. North Korea

And also note that countries in chaos–as if the last ten weren’t in their own chaos–were not part of the ranking (i.e. Sudan, Iraq, Congo, et al).

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No but I shudder at the fact that he actually said it.

Below is the video from Mitt Romney campaigning at a MLK day rally. While taking a photo with a group of young black kids, the Mormon Governor exclamed, “Who let the dogs out! Woof! Woof!” referencing the 2000 one hit wonder of the Baha Men. Apparently, it is the only rap song that Romney has ever heard of.

At the very end of the video you can also hear him pointing out to a young boy, “I see you’ve got some bling-bling there.”

Henceforth, I shall refer to the Governor as “Vanilla Mitt.” Lire le reste de cet article »

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In a three sentence statement, Former Senator Thompson withdraws from the Republican presidential primary.

This comes after his third place finish in South Carolina where he garnered just 16%. He did not mention whether he would endorse anyone as of now (I’m not sure if he will endorse anyone, but if he does I predict that it would be his Senate colleague and friend, John McCain). It is also not apparent which candidate his withdrawal will help.

Addendum: to elaborate, I believe Thompson will endorse McCain because he endorsed and campaigned for him in 2000. Additionally he has a friendly relationship with him as John and Cindy McCain spent time with Fred and Jeri Thompson on the latter couple’s honeymoon.

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George Soros is convinced that the world is about to enter a serious recession.  Unfortunately, it seems as if most of the financial world is similarly convinced. The latest trend in stock markets seems to be, “Sell!  Sell!” as traders don’t know what’s going to happen in trading today in the United States, which just opened at 10AM.  The Federal Reserve, in an attempt to head off the recession, cut interest rates last night in a rare between-meetings announcement.   News from the Asian markets isn’t good, with Forbes saying that the environment is rather negative.  One Japanese trader seems to have summed up the mood.

“It’s like a funeral in here,” said Ken Masuda, senior equities dealer at Shinko Securities in Tokyo.  ”No one knows what’s going to happen tonight in New York.  It’s like we’ve gone blind, you don’t know what’s coming.

“Until we see New York, all we can do is sell.” 

We can hope that the United States can stave off recession with an economic stimulus package and without pushing the stock market lower.  Unfortunately, the stimulus package seems far off, as Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on how to reinvigorate the economy.  Sen. Charles Schumer [D-NY] predicts that the stimulus package will be passed some time in March.  If the market drops today as it has been predicted, this may be too late.  Europe, meanwhile, is convinced they won’t be affected by the US’ possible recession.  We’ll be covering the financial situation all day, and we hope that our next post comes with good news instead of bad.  In the meantime, as Eftychis suggested, stick to Forbes, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and financial aggregators like Google Finance & Yahoo Financefor up to the minute reports on the stock market’s position.  As of this writing, the NASDAQ was down approximately 117.68 points, or 5.03%, while the DJIA has seen a drop of 59.91 points [or .49%].

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In a surprise move this morning, the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate by .75%, from 4.25% to 3.5%, which is the largest single day adjustment by the Fed in years.

The move came amidst growing US recession worries, and a severe drop in Asian and European markets on Monday and Tuesday.

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A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP

U.S. stocks looked set to enter a bear market Tuesday, with stock futures pointing to losses of roughly 5% after two days of relentless selling pressure in overseas markets on fears over a U.S. recession.

Less than two hours before the start of trading, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped 516 to 11590. The S&P 500 futures sank 63.8 to 1261.5, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 77.25 to 1772.25. Changes in futures do not always accurately predict early market moves after the opening bell.
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For the best coverage of the global recession I suggest the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg for up to date information and accurate analysis.

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