Tthinking about the Presidency By Fred Cederholm

Column for on/after February 3rd, 2008

I’ve been thinking about the Presidency. Actually I’ve been thinking about Super Tuesday, “the six,” messes, the US Dollar, banking, energy, debt, deficits, and choices. Tuesday February 5^th, marks our first real “national” primary election when voters in 22 states cast their ballots/ caucus in the selection of candidates for the 2008 Presidential race. On the Demo side there are two choices and on the Repub side there are four. They want the office and are spending fortunes to get it, but the desire(s) leading their quest run the gamut – greed, power, ego, money, vision, a permanent place in history, agenda, service to self, and service to others. Why would anyone subject themselves to this?

You see there is more to being President than living in an incredibly historic home, having an army (literally and figuratively) at your beckon call, and traveling in a style unimagined by mere mortals. Also there are quirky titles of honor: “Mr.” President, Commander-in Chief, and Leader of the Free World. Our next President faces challenges, crises, and messes literally unseen since 1776. Our future, our way of life, and our Constitutional liberties are under assault like never before -THAT includes the darkest days of either the Great Depression of the 1930’s or those of WWII. Why would any rational (sane) individual want to assume such a huge leadership burden, because whoever wins this Election of 2008, loses… and they (with their families) will pay a huge price?

Since August 2007, the economy has surpassed the stagnating military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq as the hot button campaign issue of 2008. There is good reason for this. The US economy has been fluffed/ hyped beyond all rational recognition. Daily revelations of some new crisis are one by one undercutting the smoke, lights, and mirrors behind the illusion that all is well. Our mythical GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has at its core increased consumption, not increased production. The “real growth” has been triggered by cheap money, plastic money, increased debt, and the illusory paper profits from bubbles. All seems fine only as long as minimum payments are being made and foreign $ugar daddies continue their willingness to hold the US debt and continue to assume more!

The weakening US Dollar continues its hegemony as the world’s reserve currency only because no other currency is “big” enough to replace it. Besides… what is truly gained merely by substituting one fiat (debt based) currency with another? Cutting interest rates to promote more debt is no solution to a solvency based problem. This only weakens the US Dollar and makes it less desirable to hold as a store of value. Which of “the six” candidates holds the answer/ solution?

The worldwide financial network is tottering on the brink of collapse. What is the real value of what they hold, or continue to market, as “assets?” Investment banks and financial advisors have sold a bill of goods that is unraveling before our very eyes. With hats in hand, they now go begging for bailout capital in the Middle and Far East - not to fix problems mind you, but merely to buy more time before the ultimate day of reckoning. Which of “the six” candidates holds the answer/ solution?

Our debt/ deficits now project themselves out into infinity. This will continue (and escalate) as long as we as a nation buy more than we sell in the global markets, depend on ever increasingly costly imported energy to fuel our toys and our economy, and pursue a profligate and bellicose foreign policy to police the entire planet. Which of “the six” candidates holds the answer/ solution?

The Tuesday primaries are about change AND choice. But… change for change alone is no solution. Have candidates even identified the problems, much less addressed them in plans? They all claim to have “ideas,” but what are they? Talk and clichés are cheap! Which of “the six” candidates holds the answer/solution? I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.

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