It is guests and intentions as shown on today's Meet The Press that make the program what it is - the news program of record. Today's format brings out the best in the guests and the moderator. At this moment, interviewing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is more important than speaking with The President, and that's who Executive Producer, Betsy Fischer, put on today. The other singular voice for the entire second half of the show come from Senator John McCain (R-AZ).
A major critique of Mr. Geithner is that he doesn't instill confidence when he speaks publicly. The hammer came down so hard at one point, that some are still calling for his head. This column doesn't feel that this kind of articulation is a high priority on the prerequisite list for the job. Just look at Henry Paulson; he sounded like he knew what he was doing. The classic con man, schemes us into doling out a ton of dough and then splits the scene leaving the rest to hold the bag and wonder, 'what just happened?' Most people didn't even know his name until about a month and a half before he was to leave the post.
Mr. Geithner's statements are quite measured; he doesn't use many extraneous words; his head dips below his shoulders when making a difficult point. However, despite the opinions of Paul Krugman and others, he does have conviction in what he's doing as a real solution. Good or bad, Mr. Geithner doesn't strike as a cynic, completely cognizant of the situation. He sometimes looks as though he's at the breaking point of being overwhelmed, but that can be good as it does not afford him the posture in which he can lie to the public. However, Mr. Gregory pointed out a very valid and big concern that many of the positions in the Treasury have yet to be filled. This is troubling because multiple voices and hands are needed for our financial problems, a consolidation of thinking leads to narrow ideology, which is detrimental. You can sight the Bush Administration's approach to the War on Terror as the operational example of where such ideology leads to and the end results. By filling the positions, the benefits are instantly a 'two-for.' You get more people to help and you calm others that there are other voices in the room. Lastly, it's a sad commentary that the Administration feels they can't find enough top-tier people to fill the posts who haven't sufficiently remained untainted by the financial industry.
Lastly, the Secretary stated today that he sees the economy and financial industry fundamentally changing, and it's going to one way or the other. It's how we want to see it changed... This is cause for action, in which the Treasury has no choice. The main debate on how to act is between the Administration and the economists. The Republicans are fringe in the economic theater, offering no real plan of long-term action, a voice sans amplification.
With that in mind, Senator McCain should still be speaking for the Republican party now, until the rest of the party can get its act together with solid reasonable new leaders and policies to go with them. Upon their respective introductions to the public as the new Republican faces, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) have failed miserably in trying to instill any confidence. Tradition would dictate that the vanquished take a step to the back so that a new energy can be realized, but let's face it, right now these new Republicans are bad energy policy. How bad? We're saying that it is a good idea for John McCain to still lead the party right now - that says it all.
However, it is because he can take a step back that his opinion is more rational and practical to reality. For example, he agrees with the Obama Administration on its Afghanistan policy. In fact, he advised today that the President should have been even more candid about the casualties and the length of time we would be there. Southern Afghanistan is for all intents and purposes under Taliban control. They now serve as as the de facto guard to the boarder region where Al Qaeda resides and operates. We're tepidly reassured because the administration understands this and making it the top priority. If it isn't, sadly we could be marking another date on our calendar.
Mr. McCain has not abandoned his style of sedated bluster completely. On the economy, he has honed his canned phrases and obviously schooled himself a bit better, but when a Republican... any Republican... talks about generational theft when discussing Mr. Obama's budget proposal, it disqualifies that person as a leadership voice on the issue. This exactly what Senator McCain did today. He, personally, could argue his points with regard to Bush policy and the past eight years, but what about the others? He was making a run for the Presidency; he could have been more vocal and persuasive if he disagreed so vehemently on all the reckless spending. With a $10 Trillion debt in the rearview mirror, some hindsight has to be 20-20, right?
The Arizona Senator also called out what he perceived to be a lack of transparency and accountability by the administration on how the money is being spent. Even though this column made the point that Mr. McCain should still speak for his party, we are not saying that we agree with his positions or have confidence in all his statements. This is the new America... we're realizing we can not have everything.
Postscript: We found it amusing how Senator McCain responded to Mr. Gregory's question of endorsing Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AL). First, he completely backed away from any endorsement, didn't commit to supporting her, and said he would like to 'see her compete.' Who's kidding who?
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