UPDATE, Editorial Note 10/14/02: We used this headline a full three weeks before NYT columnist Frank Rich. Perhaps his online editorial board should keep a better eye on things…
We can already smell the napalm.
And so can Senator Daschle and the rest of the Democrats. That’s why they’re busy trying to refocus the public eye on the economy, and away from the impending duel in the deserts of Iraq.
Daschle publicly assailed the Bush Administration’s record on the economy, pointing to the loss of 2 million jobs, a doubling in the rate of long-term unemployment, a $4.5 trillion decline in the value of the stock markets and an “anemic” economic growth rate.
He and other top Democrats have accused the Republicans of using the specter of war to hijack control of the most closely divided Congress in 70 years.
Although hardly responsible for the current downturn, which actually began on the previous Administration’s watch, Bush and Co., with Karl Rove dutifully massaging the numbers, have somehow managed to make Saddam Hussein more evil than the business criminal assholes that caused the stock market to tank, and put the livelihoods of countless working stiffs in double jeopardy.
So why are all but a small cadre of Democrats lining up like toy soldiers behind Bush and Co. and their plan to oust the Butcher of Baghdad, once and for all?
Simple. Most Americans are scared easily, and even some aging, feces-tipped Scuds several thousand miles away can be made to seem threatening post 9/11.
The Republicans are already running ads browbeating certain Democratic Senators and Congressmen for their voting records on the Gulf War, and attacking those that have questioned the value of a potentially catastrophic misadventure in the Middle East.
That’s not to say that the Democrats aren’t right on about the economy.
A projected budget surplus is fast-becoming red ink. Growth, especially in the service sector is screeching to a halt. The current account deficit is swelling to record levels. Consumer confidence is plummeting. Industrial production is falling and layoffs are rising.
Stocks tumbled last week to their lowest level since the overall market hit a five-year low in July. Oil prices have climbed 45% over the past year, to close to $30, largely in anticipation of an assault on Iraq.
Add to this the feared bursting of the seldom-mentioned real estate and consumer bubbles, with an ensuing period of outright deflation, and we’ve got all the right mixings for a severe recession.
It’s too bad that more Democrats aren’t putting their political asses on the line, because polls show that most Americans in the hinterland understand little about the security of Israelis or Saudi Arabian princes, and a hell of a lot more about their own long term economic security.
Perhaps Senator Daschle should take lessons from German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who had some troublesome economic problems of his own.
Fierce opposition to a war on Iraq put him and his Social Democrats over the top in the most tightly contested German election of all time.
It’s the war, stupid.
