Barack Obama, the young challenger, looked a little hesitant coming out of
his corner for Thursday night's big bout in Austin. He seemed slow and
halting in his initial remarks compared to Hillary Clinton, the veteran
debater. From the first, she came across as the smooth, powerful
professional she is. It took a while to figure out why her usually verbally
elegant opponent seemed to be short of charisma this evening. Then it
dawned: In a one-on-one debate, Sen. Obama is without the cult following
that fills vast auditoriums when he alone occupies the spotlight.
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There really wasn't much difference between the two rivals when it came to
economic policy. The choice they offered voters was between tax-and-spend
and tax-and-spend-more, though it wasn't clear which candidate espoused
which position. Each seemed to vie for the title of champion taxer and
spender.
Given such a choice, it was easy to see why voters in the last 10 Democratic
primaries - a grand total of 11 if you count the primary arranged for
Democrats abroad - would choose Barack Obama. If there's not much real
difference between these two, why not go with the candidate who makes
tax-and-spend sound like a bright, shiny, new idea instead of the same old
racket?
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Both these senators wound up defending earmarks, which is how members of
Congress get appropriations for their pet projects into law without risking
an open vote on them. Come fall, one of these candidates will doubtless have
to debate John McCain, the great opponent of congressional earmarks and
deficit financing in general. Whoever the Democratic nominee turns out to
be, he or she will sound equally unconvincing. Pork is pork.
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Hillary Clinton's answer to every difficult economic question seems simple
enough: Don't answer it. Review it instead.
Here's how she would rev up the economy: Freeze interest rates for five
years. Declare a moratorium on housing foreclosures. Call a "time-out" on
free trade agreements Smoot-Hawley style.
(Historical footnote: The Smoot-Hawley bill, which dramatically increased
tariffs, was the Hoover administration's answer to the Great Depression;
naturally it succeeded only in prolonging it because it had the effect of
freezing American trade. Just as Miss Hillary's timeout would.)
In general, Hillary Clinton's temporizing would only put off solutions,
worsening the problems and delaying the eventual recovery.
To sum up, it's a hard question which of Sen. Clinton's economic panaceas
makes the least sense. She's got her practiced sound bites down pat, all
right. What she lacks is Economics 101.
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On immigration and its discontents, Hillary Clinton sounded as sensible and
humane as Mike Huckabee. (That's the Mike Huckabee who as governor of
Arkansas stood fast against against the hysteria over ILLEGAL ALIENS! - not
the presidential candidate who's begun pandering to the kind of voters who'd
rather go on fighting this problem than fix it.)
Sen. Clinton wants a comprehensive approach to immigration - one that puts
illegals who have a clean record on the long road to citizenship, brings
them and their families out of the shadows, and makes them pay a penalty for
breaking the law. She doesn't envision deporting all 12 million of them or
so, thank goodness, with all that would mean in terms of disrupting their
and their children's lives, not to mention the American economy in general.
Sen. Clinton also knows the difference between a national
and an official language. She would
insist that English remain the national language, the glue that holds the
nation together, and embodies and reflects so many of our national values -
political, legal and cultural. That's why she would insist that immigrants
and future citizens know English. But she wouldn't start a wholly
unnecessary language war a la Quebec by declaring English the one and only
official language and discriminating against all others. That way lies
little but friction and ill will.
On this subject, Sen. Clinton sounded almost as sensible as John McCain,
principal promoter of the bill that tried to solve this problem last year -
a bill much too sensible to get past the House.
For his part, Mr. Obama suggested we tone down the rhetoric that has
inflamed this issue. Good suggestion.
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As for building a fence along the country's southern border, an overdue
gesture of respect for the law even if it may prove little more, Sen.
Clinton seemed to be in favor of building it without actually building it,
at least not in places where it might inconvenience anybody.
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