God's Politics

So how far do you think a candidate should go with their faith? Is it okay for candidates to wear their religion on their sleeves?

In S.C., Obama Seeks a Spiritual Reawakening
By Sridhar PappuWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, October 29, 2007; C01
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- As a man not only of God but of politics, the Rev. Joe Darby is an outspoken observer of the campaign scene. Reclining in his cluttered office at Morris Brown AME Church here, he witnesses the union between the pulpit and the polls.

"Politics does come down to some degree of emotion . . . ," says Darby, one of this state's most prominent African American preachers, whose church is a magnet for Democratic presidential hopefuls. "The Democratic Party is just catching up to that. It's been nauseatingly safe in recent years."

As if from Darby's mouth to Sen. Barack Obama's ears, the Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois -- hoping his campaign can recapture some of that old-time religious fervor -- launched a three-city gospel concert series over the weekend across the state, in North Charleston, Greenwood and Columbia. Although Obama did not attend the "Embrace the Change" series in person (instead campaigning in Iowa), he was here in spirit, appearing by video screen and sending out his surrogates, such as pastor Hezekiah Walker and singer Beverly Crawford.

Obama's campaign could certainly use reenergizing. Since he announced his intention to run for the presidency, Obama -- and the powerful ebb that surrounded him wherever he woke, spoke, ate and sat -- seems to have withered beneath the supernova that is the Clinton campaign. Today, the senator from New York carries with her a fortified sense of inevitability, laughing off controversies while appearing on Sunday morning shows, showing no wounds from questions about fundraising, absorbing Obama's criticism over the weekend regarding Social Security. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Clinton leading Obama by more than 20 percent, with a lead of 13 percent among African American voters.

Those numbers mirror polling results in South Carolina, where any candidate hoping to capture this early primary state needs much of the African American vote. But Obama cannot presume such support as he tries to catch Clinton, who has been embraced by many black voters.
As Obama races after the Clinton juggernaut, trying to go on the offensive, some of the state's more prominent Democrats see him as "dinking-and-dunking" instead.

"What needs to be done, what we need to do now, is get these young folks re-fired up," says former state senator Herbert Fielding, an Obama supporter who works at the funeral home that his family has run since 1912. "And in the process of getting the youngsters re-fired up, it will dispel doubts in the older community."

But the first two concerts, in North Charleston and Greenwood, certainly are not testament to young people being reinvigorated by Obama. Yes, there are young folk who'll pose outside the events with the navy-blue Obama 'o8 shirts they've just bought from a makeshift Obama store, alongside tables with voter registration forms and volunteer sign-up sheets. But more often than not, the gospel concerts are populated with the retired and nearly retired, people who learned long ago not to take their right to vote for granted and so are perennially drawn to the polls.

"I support him," says Blondell Smalls, a 67-year-old retired home-care worker from John's Island, at the North Charleston event. "I like looking at him, and it's time for a change."
And Matthew Rivers, 70, says, "He's knows what to do. He's not going in there fumbling."
The events themselves seem to straddle a strange line between political pep rally and old-school revival. At the first two concerts, Obama appears by video offering his regrets for his non-attendance and thanking those who've come. At the Greenwood event, a video is shown that begins with Obama's convention speech in 2004 and then retells his life story. In North Charleston, a video display of a speech given by Michelle Obama in Iowa gives rise to calls of "You go, girl!"
(The gospel series also draws attention because of the inclusion of the Grammy-winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who has publicly said he overcame his homosexual thoughts and desires through prayer.)

Each concert stirs some of the fervor that typified the Obama campaign in its early days. As the gospel acts perform, people rise to their feet, mothers hug daughters, old friends reach out to one another and then embrace strangers. Couples hold each other tight. Some close their eyes and sway in their seats. In Greenwood, most of the room is drawn to the stage, leaping up and down as if it were a mosh pit. The concerts' playbook was open to innovation. In North Charleston, the sister combo of Mary Mary recalled Beverly Crawford to the stage after her set, asking her to sing a few lines of her song "Praise Jehovah." The following night, with the show running long, Byron Cage did an impromptu set with a group of young liturgical dancers before he jumped from the stage to jam with the believers who had surrounded the stage.
"We've got the faith," Obama senior adviser Rick Wade tells those assembled on the first evening. "But now it's time to go to work."

Repulicans or Democrats....Does It Matter?

Do Political Parties Matter?
By Stephen J. Dubner
That’s the question asked by the Wharton economists Fernando Ferreira and Joseph Gyourko. But they are not talking about national political parties. In that realm, party affiliation has indeed been shown to have a strong effect on legislation and policy.

No, Ferreira and Gyourko are interested in whether party affiliation matters on the local level — and their answer, essentially, is no. Using data from more than 4,500 U.S. mayoral elections between 1950 and 2005 in more than 400 cities with populations of at least 25,000, here is what they learned:

[W]e find that party labels do not affect the size of government, the allocation of spending or crime rates, even though there is a large political advantage to incumbency in terms of the probability of winning the next election … In particular, there is a relatively high degree of household homogeneity at the local level that appears to provide the proper incentives for local politicians to be able to credibly commit to moderation and discourages strategic extremism.

While few people would accuse Rudy Giuliani of having “commit[ted] to moderation” or avoiding “strategic extremism” when he was mayor of New York City, the fact remains that he was the rare Republican elected by an extraordinarily Democratic town, and he was generally well regarded until close to the end of his second term. By then, it was mainly his temperament and personal affairs that had turned off many swing voters.

It is true that the mayor of New York City has a larger budget and set of responsibilities than the governors of some states; still, he is the lone mayor running in this year’s presidential election, and is leading the way at that. It will be interesting to see if and how Giuliani, running against a pack of men and a woman who have long been faithful to their national party, assumes the true stripes of his Republican affiliation.

Generation Q

So what do you think are the most pressing issues of today that no one "politicians" is talking about?

Generation Q

I Love the Smell of Surge in the Summertime

I was reading this on a friends blog.

By Steven D. Levitt

One of the most important political questions of the day is whether the troop surge in Baghdad is working. If you ask politicians, the answer you get to that question is very predictable. Republicans say yes, Democrats say no.What do the data have to say about this question?Michael Greenstone, an M.I.T. professor, good friend, and one of the best young economists in the world, has just released an incredibly thorough and thoughtful analysis of the impact of the surge.He finds the answer is mixed.

On at least one dimension, there is strong evidence of progress. The data clearly suggest that deaths of civilians in Baghdad have fallen, and there is no evidence that the crackdown in Baghdad has shifted violence to the rest of the country. Coalition troop fatalities have been stable since the surge, which in some ways signifies progress since they were on a steady upward trend prior to the surge.

The surge does not seem to have helped in other dimensions such as the amount of oil produced or hours of electricity in Baghdad.The most interesting part of Greenstone’s paper is his analysis of the pricing of Iraqi government debt. The Iraq government has issued bonds in the past. These entitle the owner of the bond to a stream of payments over a set period of time, but only if the government does not default on the loan. If Iraq completely implodes, it is highly unlikely that these bonds will be paid off.

How much someone would pay for the rights to that stream of payments depends on their estimate of the probability that Iraq will implode.The bond data, unlike the other sources he examines, tell a clear story: the financial markets say the surge is not working. Since the surge started, the market’s estimate of the likelihood of default by the Iraqi government has increased by 40 percent.

I have a few thoughts after reading Greenstone’s work:

1. This paper shows how good economic analysis can contribute in a fundamental way to public policy. Anyone who reads Greenstone’s article will recognize that it is careful and thorough. It is even-handed and apolitical. It combines state-of-the-art data analysis techniques with economic logic (e.g., using market prices to draw conclusions about how things are going).

2. Top economists like Greenstone virtually never write papers like this. The simple reason is that this sort of work is not rewarded in our profession. Academic economists are judged by the papers they publish in peer-reviewed journals. The lag time between submission to these journals and publication is often two or more years. By that time, no one will be interested in the surge, so editors won’t want to publish the paper. Consequently, good economists don’t think it is worth their while to do topical work like this.

3. Instead, this sort of analysis tends to be done by bad economists, or economists on the payroll of special interests. These reports might appear informative, but instead are often pure propaganda. To outsiders, it is difficult to determine what is careful analysis like Greenstone has produced versus the usual junk.

4. The internet can potentially solve both problems (2) and (3) above, leading to an increased supply of good, timely analysis. If people like Greenstone can immediately get their findings into the public debate through the internet, it gives a real purpose (not just an academic one) to doing the work. In addition, there are now online peer-reviewed academic journals that have greatly sped the time from submission to publication, potentially increasing the academic payoff to someone like Greenstone. With many respected economists now blogging, there is also a vehicle for these folks to weigh in on the quality of policy-related economic writings — like I am doing in this blog post.

Bush's New AG

Just too funny. I wish I would have come up with this one!

Washington, DC (Rotters) - In a surprise announcement early this morning at the White House, President Bush announced that he would be putting forward the nomination of former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick as the new US Attorney General to replace disgraced former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Belichick was recently found guilty of covertly videotaping opposing team's signals after an NFL investigation, and fined $500,000. Belichick resigned his duties as head coach earlier this morning, and the White House announced that he had received a full presidential pardon. Under pressure from the White House the NFL had agreed to forgive the fine after the head coach's resignation.


"I seem to have inherited a fairly demoralized group," stated Belichick after the president's introduction, "but this team of attorneys has some real talent and I think we can turn them into contenders in pretty short order."

The White House refused to disclose terms of Belichick's contract, but it is rumored to be in the millions and with a taxpayer-funded signing bonus as well.

"This man understands the need for security and vigilance." stated President Bush. "He's got some great ideas on both offense and defense in our ongoing struggle to push our necessary domestic wiretapping policy past the new FISA rules. What's more, Bill is a true Patriot."
The White House downplayed concerns over Belichick's lack of legal experience stating that this should be viewed as more of an asset.

"We've got a whole team of young, eager Regent Law School graduates ready to assist Mr. Belichick in any way," stated White House spokesperson Dana Perino."The goal will be to not have him bogged down in the mundane, day-to-day legalese and management concerns, but to focus on ways to increase homeland security through covert monitoring in all forms."

Senate Democrats immediately decried the president's appointment vowing to oppose and overthrow it during confirmation hearings. The White House has reportedly offered a counter proposal of three first round primary election picks for the 2008 season, if the Democrats will allow confirmation.

Fantasy Congress

Okay Government students. Here is your chance to prove just how good you are. Do you think you have what it takes to beat your peers and your teacher when it comes to picking the dream political team? Where here is your chance.

I mentioned in one class that sometimes I play fantasy congress. Well, here is your chance to play along with me and the rest of the classes at LHS. Click on the link above and then register (Upper left hand corner). The items that you will need to have are the class ID: 164

and the class code: lockbox (of course)

Then follow the instructions for picking your team. I already have my team up and running so sign up quick if you want to compete with the master!

Ed Meese

Those interested in joining me for this lecture on Thursday night, please message me or see me in class. I have room for a total of 5 students. The lecture will start around 6:30 and end around 9:30. If I have more than 5 that are interested, I will draw the names out of a hat!
This really is an awesome opprotunity to hear from someone who was in the White House and served as the Attorney General of the United States.
Here is a wiki link about Mr. Meese.