Slow rebound
The third quarter’s 3.5 percent growth rate drew cheers from a White House eager for data validating its economic policies. Certainly, growth is better than recession. But a number of analysts quickly pointed out the third-quarter figure was heavily inflated by one-time government spending — cash-for-clunkers, new home buyer tax credit — that overstated the truth health of the economy. One analyst told Reuters’ James Pethokoukis real economic growth probably was closer to 2 percent, which is poor compared with the way economies coming out of recession have performed historically.
The real test will be how much the economy grows without special government spending. While the $787 billion stimulus nudged the economy away from a possible depression, Pethokoukis writes, it wasn’t structured (two-thirds spending, one-third tax cuts) to launch a robust recovery. As a result, a number of experts think high unemployment will persist and be a drag on more rapid growth — allowing those who called for more tax cuts to say, we told you so.
Fore!
Back during the Bush administration it always seemed petty when it was implied George W. Bush somehow was being derelict when he took time off from work to chill out at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. The line of questioning to his press secretary would go something like, “How can the president justify taking a vacation when the country is at war, the economy’s a mess and there are starving children in Darfur?” Similarly, the press is gigging President Barack Obama for the number of times he has played golf since taking office — 24 in just over nine months, to be exact. CBS’ Mark Knoller tweets that it took Bush nearly three years to play that much golf. There’s just no rest for the weary — or golf, either.
Oops, we missed it
OK, what if there was a stimulus but nobody noticed? Top White House economist Christina Romer told a congressional committee this week the $787 billion stimulus package passed earlier this year already has had its biggest impact on growth and probably won’t help much next year. Although only about $200 billion of the package has been spent, the rest won’t drive expansion next year, Romer said. That’s especially bad news for the nearly 10 percent of Americans without jobs. It’s bad news for taxpayers, too, because the stimulus was sold as an emergency measure to perk up the economy. Instead, it appears there was a little stimulus and a lot of something else — all billed to the country’s credit card. Meanwhile, Romer said unemployment will remain high through the end of 2010, which begs the question of how much worse joblessness and other economic statistics would have been without the stimulus and all the extra debt that came with it.
Happy birthday, Coach
Congratulations and best wishes to basketball coaching legend John Wooden, who turned 99 this week. Besides his on-court achievements (10 NCAA championships at UCLA), Wooden is notable for an approach to life many of his former players say was more important than anything he taught them about basketball — captured in aphorisms such as “never mistake activity for achievement,” “ability is a poor man’s wealth” and “be quick but don’t hurry.” Another Woodenism reflects his sense of self: “Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.” Short and to the point, John Wooden’s timeless way.
Nobel’s prize
Members of the Nobel Peace Prize committee must have missed last week’s “Saturday Night Live” skit in which an actor playing President Barack Obama ticked off a long laundry list of non-achievements. No worries. The Nobel people awarded Obama the prize anyway, suggesting it was more for what Obama promises for the world than anything he’s achieved. It’s the only plausible rationale, because the Nobel application deadline came less than two weeks after Obama took office. Nobel’s highest-profile prize is its most political and often serves as a platform for its left-leaning views. “It’s the committee’s preaching to America — this is the way to go,” former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told Fox News. The White House didn’t try to hide the fact it was caught completely off guard. Hours later, Obama offered humble remarks, saying he didn’t consider himself as worthy as other past winners. Still, not bad for a fledgling presidency more noted for flowery speeches than concrete accomplishments, which prompted one Web wag to ask, “What’s next? The American League Cy Young Award?” Funny.
White out
Kudos to the White House staff for its wardrobing efforts this week before a presidential photo-op with doctors designed to build support health care reform. The New York Post reports about 150 physicians were invited to pose in the Rose Garden as President Barack Obama made another pitch for his proposals. The idea was to have a sea of white-coated doctors serving as the backdrop for Obama’s statement, indicating physician support for his ideas. The doctors were invited to wear their lab coats for the event, but some apparently forgot. No problem! The Post reports the White House staff had requisitioned spare coats for those who showed up in business suits or dresses. No word on whether the docs got to keep the white coats as White House souvenirs.
William Safire
“Pugnacious” is a word frequenting a number of remembrances of William Safire, the former Nixon speechwriter and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The New York Times who died Sunday at the age of 79. The author of then-Vice President Spiro Agnew’s “nattering nabobs of negativism” line in 1970, Safire also distinguished himself as a conservative political columnist and ardent defender of clear and concise English at The Times. He won his Pulitzer in 1978 for columns skewering Bert Lance, President Jimmy Carter’s controversial budget director. The Times’ obituary described Safire as a forceful conservative voice in the paper’s “liberal chorus.” He was old-fashioned in reporting for his columns and unafraid of blunt appellations, such as when he called then-first lady Hillary Clinton a “congenital liar.” Like Robert Novak before him, William Safire’s passing leaves a sizable void in the world of newspaper punditry.
Called third strike
Is it really all that surprising that Iran has had another nuclear fuel processing plant covertly under construction for years? Shouldn’t be. Iran’s nuclear intentions have been pretty thinly veiled. Still, President Barack Obama, France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Great Britain’s Gordon Brown sounded dismayed as they accused the Iranians of cheating on international nuclear protocols for at least the third time.
The allies have known about the site for years but waited to publicly challenge Iran until after the Iranians tried to pretend the facility was a “pilot” project in a recent letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The leaders sounded tough but stopped short of threatening Iran with anything more than more economic sanctions if it doesn’t abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions. An Iranian official shrugged off more sanctions, telling Fox News that Iran has coped with sanctions for 30 years and will continue to do so.
So, there’s another line in the sand for Iran. Past usually is prologue, which means the Iranians probably won’t hesitate to call the world’s latest bluff.
The Bear’s growl
The Obama administration’s decision to cancel planned missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic has opened a hot debate. Officials told The New York Times the administration no longer believes radar and interceptor sites promised the two U.S. allies are needed because the chief missile threat, Iran, is thought to be concentrating its efforts on medium-range weapons instead of long-range ones. Critics say the administration simply caved in to the Russians, who claimed they would be threatened by a defensive system — even though the planned installations would not have deterred an arsenal the size of Russia’s. “This is bad news for all who care about the U.S. commitment to the transatlantic alliance and the defense of Europe as well as the United States,” writes analyst Nile Gardiner in the London Telegraph. “It represents the appalling appeasement of Russian aggression and a willingness to sacrifice American allies on the altar of political expediency. A deal with the Russians to cancel missile defense installations sends a clear message that even Washington can be intimidated by the Russian bear.”
Jody Powell
Former White House Press Secretary Jody Powell’s death this week caught a number of people by surprise. He was just 65 when an apparent heart attack claimed him at his home in Maryland. Powell flakked for President Jimmy Carter for four years and was well-liked by reporters because of his obvious closeness to the president. Powell had a tough job, tasked with putting the best foot forward for Carter, who was no Obama or Reagan. Told of Powell’s passing, Sam Donaldson expressed admiration by saying Powell tried hard not to lie. After the White House years Powell pursued other interests, including a love for Civil War history — highlighted, perhaps, by his appearance in Ken Burns’ award-winning PBS series on the war in which he furnished the voice for Confederate Gen. John B. Gordon, a fellow Georgian. A Washington outsider when Carter was elected, Jody Powell became part of the permanent, insider establishment, heading the PR firm Powell Tate.
