SECOND POT OF COFFEE THOUGHTS

Wall Street will be a thorny issue for the candidates in 2016.  While it is clear to all that the Street benefited from economic policy since the 2008 recession and the middle class did not, its deep pockets can buy a great deal of campaign advertising.  This makes it difficult for candidates to campaign on cutting back Wall Street’s piece of the pie to provide a larger slice for the middle class.

As Hillary Clinton crafts the message for her campaign run, will she appear as the Barrack Obama Clinton, the Elizabeth Warren Clinton or the Bill Clinton Clinton?  Because she is a candidate with so much baggage, it is hard to image a message that presents her as a unique Hillary Clinton.

In the next election voters will have a clear cut policy choice regarding radical islamists and foreign policy. Some candidates will advocate “boots on the ground”, the use of force and filling up Guantanamo.  Others will call for diplomacy, strategic bombing and closing down Gitmo.

The republicans would do well to learn from the NCAA football playoff championship in choosing a presidential candidate for 2016.  As Ohio State has proven, the beaten down mid west has risen from the ashes.  Those scruffy, average looking mid western republican Governors appear more electable than the dapper high flying politicians from the coasts or the new South.

 No new ideas articulated by Obama in the State of the Union Address will actually become law in the next two years.  It is more realistic to view the President’s proposals as democratic talking points for the 2016 campaign.

The President’s decision last October to not close our airports to passengers arriving from Ebola ravaged countries in the face of media and Republican fear mongering turns out to be the right call.  Unfortunately misplaced hysteria trumped rationale decision making and voters punished democratic candidates at the polls as the Ebola crisis unfolded during the last election.   

After viewing the movie Selma, I agree that it is a great piece of film making.  However the director did not do the movie any favors by fictionalizing President Lyndon Johnson’s role in passing the Voting Rights Act.  To suggest that Johnson was not a positive influence on the process and not an ally of Martin Luther King Jr. was misplaced, given the importance of the message and the need for an accurate portrayal.

How times have changed.  Ten years ago ever American would have been thrilled at the dropping price of oil.  Today, there are many working in the shale belts who would not be disappointed if the ghost of Saddam Hussein blew up some mid east oil fields, lowering production and sending prices up.