Last Week's Economic News Was A Big Shot In The Arm For McCain

by Bradley R. Schiller - September 5th, 2008 - Wall Street Journal

. . . on Thursday, Aug. 28 . . . before Barack Obama gave his stirring acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention . . . before the Republican Convention even started . . . the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis revised its assessment of GDP growth in the second quarter of this year. Rather than growing at the anemic pace of 1.9% as reported in July, the April-June quarter actually registered a healthy GDP growth rate of 3.3%. Growth at this rate exceeds the long-term U.S. growth rate of 3.1% over the past 50 years.

Unemployment is currently lower than it was for the majority of the much vaunted economic good times of the "Clinton" decade in the 90s. However that doesn't matter to the press if they can deny Republicans credit.

The two major domestic problems we currently face are both creations of liberal governance. The serious problems in the housing market are a blow back from the liberal demand for "affordable housing", and the ridiculous laws that were passed to pressure lenders to give loans to people who were not qualified for them. The serious problems in the energy market are a blow back from 40 years of liberal pressure driving energy production overseas due to environmental extremism.

George Bush and Karl Rove nearly destroyed the Republican Party with their liberal based "compassionate conservative" repackaging of liberal orthodoxy. Republicans became the party of big governance and corruption, thanks to those two . . . and Mr. Pork barrel himself, Dennis Hastert. The public face of Republican corruption may have been Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, Bernie Kerik, Mark Foley and Ted Stevens, but the problem was the disconnect between Republican principals and Republican governance presided over by George Bush himself. Republicans in Washington had a blast spending money and doing whatever they wanted without an iota of concern for what Republicans back home stood for.

Bush has been good on the war, good on rule of law judges and good on tax policy but it is hard to find much else that can be defended as consistent with the principals of the party that loved Ronald Reagan.

It is amazing to me that our economy is showing the strength and resilience it is showing. 3.3% growth? Absolutely amazing in light of the George Bush led growth of government during the last 8 years. There is a difference between a helping hand and a free ride. The concept of a free ride becomes epidemic when respect for the tax payer's money is lost. Bush cannot tell the difference because he is as guilty as any politician in the last century of spending on anything he thought was a good idea with no concern for how to pay for it.

What is important to recognize is that Bush is NOT a conservative, and NOT a real republican. We need to find people who are, at every level of government, and back them. My type of Republican? Ronald Reagan. Oh and there is this lady named Sarah Palin who seems pretty good on both taxes and ethics too.