A news guy who is weary of the news?
‘Fraid so. A little bit. Between politics and the markets, it is a week of way more heat than actual light. Never is so much being done about so many important things with less actual information available to/comprehensible by the public.
That’s the negative, pre-coffee side of me coming out. I mean, look – what do any of us really know about this “$700 billion” bailout plan, other than the “$700 billion” that might or might not be the actual pricetag to bail out people who probably don’t actually deserve it. So, on the one hand, you have Treasury, market leaders and the balances on every American’s retirement accounts suggesting that this is needed. You have a large group of people trying to understand and translate the information they have to the general public – but because there aren’t a lot of details on what “bad loans” might be – there’s really not that much that can be said for certain.
We’re in uncharted territory here. So read and listen with the knowledge that even the people close to the situation don’t have all the information/presience they need to actually know what will happen.
For a depressing take on this – here’s Jeff Jarvis’ reminder of what $700 billion could buy.
On the plus side – at $700 billion, neither side of the presidential campaign is going to be high-fiving and credit taking on this – and neither will reall be able to do too much to spin the situation.
Which is good – because the volley after volley of attack ads has me weary as well. Both sides have their share, although the ‘lipstick on a pig’ ads accusing Obama of sexism and the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ ads suggesting Obama voted for it have me more weary of McCain right now.
Just FYI on the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’:
Fact: The bridge was buried in a budget bill for a number of government agencies. The only way to defeat the earmark would be to reject the whole budget which never happens. In this case, the budget passed 93-1 (Sen. Evan Bayh was the lone NO vote). John McCain didn’t vote – but I haven’t been able to determine why he left D.C. that day. He took part in the first votes of the day on October 20, 2005, then disappeared.)
Using the same logic of this ad – John McCain has voted for thousands of earmarks – unless he has never voted for a budget while in Washington. In another world, Obama could use this as an example of how insane the earmark system is – hundreds of millions for a bad project, and the only way to defeat it is to basically shut down a chunk of the federal government.
But of course, he can’t, because that would be acknowledging that he “voted in favor of the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’”.
Meanwhile, both sides keep the advertising flying – Obama camp says McCain would cut social security benefits “in half” and would put retirees futures in the stock market. (OK – maybe they will try to spin this.) Not really. McCain camp says Obama “voted to raise taxes 94 times”. Not really.
My advice – make Politifact and Factcheck part of your daily rounds.
Don’t blog before having your coffee.
And don’t stare too hard at your 401(k). You’ll go blind.
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