Politics & Communication with Joshua Gee

Just a reminder that this guy:

Is the President. It still gets me sometimes.

Despite spending the day at home, I spent most of it watch the NCAA rather than daytime TV. Plus, since I was sick, I slept until noon so I missed Jim Cramer on the Today Show firing back at Jon Stewart. His criticisms of Stewart were completely incongruent with his performance on Stewart’s show. I think Stewart, in general, gets too cute in a lot of his media criticism. He is a comedian, but he is past the point in his career, popularity and influence where he can claim what he doesn’t matter. He would probably be better served by pointing to some of the solid opinion and commentary that occurs on his show that is disguised as comedy.

That being said, Cramer was an absolute wuss when he had the chance to actually confront Stewart last week. I thought that he took a dive in order to kill the media hoopla that had built up around his “feud.” That would have made sense. However, his outburst this morning means he either decided he wants to prolong the debate or, as I am beginning to think, he is just kind of a bully.

Either way I am curious to see if Stewart goes after him tonight.

UPDATE: He didn’t

It is worth noting that the War in Iraq started six years ago today. It is also worth noting that the more I learn about international relations, foreign policy and the Middle East the more I can see it was a terrible, terrible idea. Oh well.

• The Big Picture has some heartbreaking recession photos.
• Are PR Agencies a Dying Breed? My short answer: No. My slightly less short answer: shut up bloggers. My long answer: upcoming.
• I need to pay more attention to special and off-year elections. Especially ones in New York.
• One and Two quality foreign policy articles from The Washington Post

Bad news for steel magnates and railroad tycoons: The Greebrier, a famous spa and golf resort in West Virginia, has filed for Chapter 11. The Greenbrier was already ailing as its core audience started to, well, die and it has struggled to connect with a younger class of luxury resort goers. Then the entire industry got hit by a truck during the current recession – luxury hotels are down 20 percent from last year.

The article has a few cool facts that I did not know.  The resort is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and “guests have included Dwight Eisenhower and 25 other U.S. presidents, Monaco’s Prince Rainier and Princess Grace and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.” It is also the site of a once-secret Cold War bunker built to house Congress in case of a nuclear attack.

There are a few economic stories I can independently add color too and this is one of them. I was lucky enough to have gone to the Greenbrier several times during my childhood. The cold war bunker is just about as cool as you think it is. The media center in the bunker had four backdrops of the Capitol building – one for each season – so surviving members of Congress could do media interviews with their home districts and, regardless of the season, give the impression that the Capitol building was still standing. Also, last time I was there (either 2002 or 2003), the rumor running around the resort was that it was the “Undisclosed Location” that the Secret Service had brought Dick Cheney too.

Obviously, there are many people and entities suffering more than the Greenbrier and its 1,318 workers. In fact, a sale to Marriott seems like it will only improve the quality of the resort (I am dubious of the talk of a casino). It doesn’t make sense for a railroad company to own a hotel and the article implies that CSX was mismanaging the resort and using it as their own personal slush fund/playground (My grandparents say that all of the recent changes that were made in an attempt to “update” the resort were absolute garbage). However, it is still sad to see a place with such a rich history and that I have real affection for in such dire straights.

Finally, a personal request. There used to be a jazz combo that would play at “Old White,” the cocktail bar where the Gee family would congrigate for 30-40 minutes before dinner every night (Old Fashioneds for the adults, Shirley Temples for the kids). The band played “The Greenbrier Song” about life at the resort and it become one of my favorites. The title of this blog post is a hazily remembered lyric from the chorus of that song. I’ve been unable to find a copy of the song anywhere and it breaks my heart to think that a recording simply may not exist. Especially since “Old White” was closed in the last round of renovations to make room for an absurdly pretentious fusion restaurant (As I said, garbage). Any help finding lyrics or, god forbid, a recording would be greatly appreciated.

Governorships by Party Control

Elliot Spitzer’s columns on Slate have not been particularly interesting or enlightening. He has, generally, stuck to relatively banal forms of conventional wisdom and avoided any controversial positions – even on issues he might have particular expertise in like financial fraud… or hookers (there, I made the joke. God I feel dirty) . That’s why I was pleasantly surprised that his current column hits on an issues I have been thinking about a lot recently and he is uniquely suited to give some insight on.

There has never been a tougher time to be a governor. Governors must deal with all the problems confronting our economy, but they lack the federal government’s ability to run a deficit. With the $787 billion stimulus and sundry other bailout spending, President Obama and Congress have the rather pleasant task of printing gobs of money and throwing it toward favored sectors and projects.

Governors can only gaze on with envy. The numbers from the states are downright horrifying—and getting worse. The best estimate is that states, nearly all of which are constitutionally obligated to balance their budgets, collectively face deficits of about $350 billion over the next 30 months. That is about 20 percent of total state spending.

He goes on to give more details into the variety of ways which Governors are screwed. Governors are facing cratering state revenues, big chunks of their budgets tied up in entitlement spending and they can’t cut costs the way a business could without major political opposition. He also details his own problems trying to reform Medicaid in his state. The whole thing is worth a read.

I have been thinking about this issue in particular because I have seen some bad headlines and poll results for my Governor of choice, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. A relatively recent poll has him with a 70% disapproval rating and has me totally bummed out. I mean, Mitt Romney looked like a champ because he was Governor during a boom time (and he never really had to do anything, just fight with the legislature) and now my guy is already facing a primary challenge. Deval could still rise to the occasion and come up with some amazing policy solutions, but his power isn’t all-encompassing and I imagine that the recession is also making special interest groups hesitant to engage in sweeping reforms. The problem now is how do Governors up for reelection in 2010 communicate how screwed they are to the electorate. “The Wrong Side of History” doesn’t have the same ring as “Yes we Can.”

This will also affect potential 2012 challengers like Govs Jindal, Palin or Pawlenty. It would be interesting to look back and see if Governors who attained national prominence and a reputation for competence did so during relative boom times. I am thinking in particular of Dukakis and “The Massachusetts Miracle” occurring amidst the backdrop of the entire country coming out of a recession in the mid-80s.

I guess that good news is that since we have 50 states that are facing a roughly 10% budget shortfall, we have 50 different public policy labs. Out of those we might see some of the ideas that will become national models being touted by new nationally prominant figures.