Who will get your vote?
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Here’s what strikes me this election eve: I can’t remember a
presidential campaign that was so disconnected from the actual
challenges of governing that will confront the winner the morning after.
When this election campaign began two years ago, the big issue was how
and for how long do we continue nation-building in Iraq. As the campaign
comes to a close, the big issue is how and at what sacrifice do we do
nation-building in America.
Unfortunately, you’d barely know that from the presidential debates.
Watching them in the context of the meltdown of the financial system was
like watching a game show where the two contestants were kept off-stage
in a soundproof booth and brought out to address the audience without
knowing the context.
Since the last debate, John McCain and Barack Obama have unveiled
broad ideas about how to restore the nation’s financial health. But they
continue to suggest that this will be largely pain-free. McCain says
giving everyone a tax cut will save the day; Obama tells us only the
rich will have to pay to help us out of this hole.
Neither is true. We are all going to have to pay, because this
meltdown comes in the context of what has been “perhaps the greatest
wealth transfer since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917,” says
Michael Mandelbaum, author of “Democracy’s Good Name.” “It is not a
wealth transfer from rich to poor that the Bush administration will be
remembered for.
It is a wealth transfer from the future to the present.” Never has
one generation spent so much of its children’s wealth in such a short
period of time with so little to show for it as in the Bush years. Under
George W. Bush, America has foisted onto future generations a huge
financial burden to finance our current tax cuts, wars and now bailouts.
Just paying off those debts will require significant sacrifices.
But when you add the destruction of wealth that has taken place in
the last two months in the markets, and the need for more bailouts, you
understand why this is not going to be a painless recovery.
The Bush team leaves us with another debt - one to Mother Nature. We
have added tons more CO2 into the atmosphere these last eight years,
without any mitigation effort. As a result, slowing down climate change
in the next eight years is going to require even bigger changes and
investments in how we use energy.
Given that Times columnists are not allowed to “formally” endorse
candidates and given that the context of this election has changed so
much from the policy positions the candidates started with, all I can
suggest is that you vote for the candidate with these character traits:
First, we need a president who can speak English and deconstruct and
navigate complex issues so Americans can make informed choices.
We have paid an enormous price for having a president who could not
explain and reassure us during this financial meltdown. We wasted a huge
amount of time pretending that we could punish Wall Street without
punishing Main Street - when, in fact, they are intricately intertwined.
A major money market fund - Reserve Primary - failed in September
because the extra interest it offered customers derived, in part, from
the $785 million in high-yielding Lehman Brothers commercial paper and
notes it was holding.
Depositors who told their congressmen to just let that greedy Lehman
Brothers fail were shocked to discover this meant that their own money
market would be frozen.
No, we don’t need a president defending greed on Wall Street, but we
do need one who can explain that we are all in the same boat, that a
leak at one end can sink everyone and that while we must regulate, we
don’t want to kill risk-taking and the rewards that go with that - which
are essential to growing our economy.
Second, we need a President who can energize, inspire and hold the
country together during what will be a very stressful recovery. We have
to climb out of this financial crisis at a time when the baby boomers
are about to retire and going to need their Social Security and
eventually Medicare. We are all going to be paying the government more
and getting less until we grow out of this hole.
Third, we need a president who can rally the world to our side. We
cannot get out of this crisis unless China starts consuming more and
unless Europe keeps lowering interest rates.
Everyone is interconnected, and everyone is still looking to America
to lead. So, bottom line: Please do not vote for the candidate you most
want to have a beer with (unless it’s to get stone cold drunk so you
don’t have to think about this mess we’re in). Vote for the person you’d
most like at your side when you ask your bank manager for an extension
on your mortgage.
Vote for the candidate you think has the smarts, temperament and
inspirational capacity to unify the country and steer our ship through
what could be the rockiest shoals our generation has ever known. Your
kids will thank you.
New York Times
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