Facing the Judges

President Obama's big speech to Congress bumped American Idol back a night. I am not sure that is the way to win over the American voters (Idol viewers do vote!). To fill the void, I wondered what the four judges might say to the President once the speech was over. (Disclaimer: I am not trying to ascribe any political views to the four judges, I have no idea where they stand.)

Randy: That was the bomb! You had the dog pound jumping up and down, I thought Nancy was going to break a hip back there. I loved it. The riffs about clean energy and health care, I wasn't sure if you could keep it all together, but you did. I want to see more, yeah! Yeah!

Kara: Actually it was a bit of a letdown for me. I remember when we first saw you back in Iowa and New Hampshire and you were all about hope and change and "yes we can". It just seems like you haven't quite gotten that back. It wasn't bad, but I was hoping for a little more of that guy we loved so much back in the auditions.

Paula: You're just the best. You're just wonderful. You brought tears to me eyes. Just, oh I am too overcome with emotion...you're the best.

Simon: It wasn't memorable. If you are going to do Roosevelt, Kennedy or Reagan, you have got to really make it memorable and I don't know that you did. Health care, the environment, education, we have heard all of this. The red tie and the blue suit, so predictable. You needed to do something to really make you stand out and show us what kind of President you are going to be and I don't think you did that tonight. Sorry.

So that is how I think last night would have played out with the Judges.

A couple of my own observations. First, Nancy Pelosi needs to calm down. She looked like a jack in the box back there jumping up and down. At least let the man finish a sentence before leaping to your feet to applaud.
Second, the U.S. Congress is really old. Not that I have anything against older Americans, I am rapidly becoming one of them, but that Congress looked ancient. The speech looked a little like the high school "what should we do about America" essay winner speaking to the local senior citizens' center.
Finally, and this is a big one: some members of Congress got into a seat at 8:30 in the morning so they could be right on the aisle and shake the President's hand when he came down at nine o'clock that night. We have members of Congress who can devote 13 hours to sitting in a chair so they get a two second handshake and a picture? Congress has become like teenagers hoping to get a glimpse of the Jonas Brothers. I am so glad they are in charge of our future.
The speech was big and the promises were bigger. There was a little more determination and optimism than we have previously seen, but as I write the markets are not jumping for joy. I think the President is determined, but looking at the Congress, I am afraid they are planning business as usual (please Speaker Pelosi, sit down, that was not meant to be an applause line!).

Spring is Here

Pitchers and catchers reported last week and position players are coming into camp now. Spring training has begun.
Spring training is the time of year when every team is in the same spot in the standings and has an equal chance to win the pennant. Once we get about a week into the regular season, Pittsburgh and Kansas City are out. By May 1, about 10 teams are effectively eliminated. That's why the first days of spring are so much fun.
Often, it is the first time we see new players in their new uniforms. Yes, the Yankees had a size that fit C.C. Sabathia.
Still, we hear some familiar story lines: Boston's J.D. Drew is already nursing an injury.
We usually find out a few young players falsified documents and aren't really so young. The Department of Homeland Security is helping clean up baseball!
Spring training usually brings speculation as to which managers are going to be fired early in the season. Imagine going to your job just after New Years and the whole company is e-mailing about whether you will make it to Valentine's Day.
This year, there are a few notable absences from Spring training. Manny Ramirez still does not have a contract. It seems ever more likely that he is going back to the Dodgers. His only other option may be joining Joaquin Phoenix's' hip hop band. The problem is the Dodgers, at first, seemed up for two more years of Manny, now their tolerance and payroll will only support one. Ouch.
Also absent is Barry Bonds. Yes, he was absent last year but he has not officially retired. He does have that little legal matter in federal court, so his spring may be spoken for. Frankly, playing on the prison softball team seems more likely than his being in a major league lineup.
Perhaps one of the most surprising absences is Mike Mussina. In this day and age, when winning nine to twelve games commands an $8-10 million dollar salary for a starting pitcher, Mussina won twenty last year. Then he retired. He walked away from $20-$30 million dollars. Too many players hang on too long, but not Mussina...something to think about Pedro Martinez?
The spring is fun because all of the young players are in camp. The Dodgers and Angels of three or four years from now put on the major league uniform (usually wearing a number like 87 on their jersey) and play with the big guys. It is a tantalizing glimpse of what will be.
Spring training has arrived. Forget about the contracts, the arbitration hearings, the grand jury hearings, the congressional hearings (is it me or is baseball involved in a lot of hearings these days?) and, as our beloved Dodger announcer Vin Scully says "pull up a chair" and let's see what the 2009 season might bring.

President's Day

Today was President's Day. When I was a kid February included Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday. Now, having added more national, state and local holidays to the calendar, we are forced to roll the celebration of the two greatest Presidents into a day to recognize all 44 chief executives.
Hey liberals: today is a day to honor George W. Bush. Bet that ticks you off.
Not so fast with the chuckle Republicans, it is also Jimmy Carter's big day.
Today we celebrate Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Herbert Hoover and, yes, Richard Nixon. In politics they talk about riding the coattails of a more popular President. On President's Day a bunch of them ride Washington and Lincoln's coattails.
What makes a great President? To me it is someone who changes the thinking of the body politic. Washington created the institution and changed the notion of an infallible, appointed for life, chief executive or monarch, to an elected official answerable to the people who still must, at some point, give up power.
Lincoln changed the thinking that the Union could somehow exists with two sets of rules for basic human rights. The nation, and in some sense the world, was never the same.
In the 20th Century Franklin Roosevelt persuaded the electorate that the government could and should be the engine for driving the economy and providing a social safety net. The nation's view of the role of government continues to be debated even as recently as last week.
Ronald Reagan changed the idea that the Cold War had to continue with a series of concessions and accommodations to the Soviet Union. The United States emerged as the lone global superpower, a role that we have struggled with ever since.
These four Presidents dramatically changed the thinking and conventional wisdom of their times.
Other Presidents have left indelible impressions, even if not as significant. Teddy Roosevelt created the President and his family as a personalies to be reported on by the press. Nixon reminded us the election to the nation's highest office can occur in spite of deep personal demons. Clinton forced a national conversation on what the definition of "is" is. Clinton also got us talking about a few other definitions, but that is a topic for a later day.
Some were not there long enough for us to fully assess. William Henry Harrison only had a month. John F. Kennedy served a mere thousand days. Gerald Ford was not elected and did not serve a full term.
Others we appreciated more after they left. History has been kinder to Harry Truman than his time in office was. Eisenhower has been shown to be much more shrewd than was thought at the time. John Quincy Adams fought slavery in the House of Representatives for many years after he left the White House.
While I would still like the second holiday back this month, it is good to pause, remember and thank the 44 who have served in the nation's highest office. Yes, that means W and Jimmy too.

Enhanced Performance

No, this is not an ad for some new men's product!
Yesterday baseball, with spring training about to start, was greeted with Alex Rodriguez' admission that he used steroids as recently as 2003. Lest you think he had an attack of conscience, reports were all over the media that a list of failed steroid tests included Rodriguez' name (as well as 103 other names). So while I am glad he admitted it and saved us countless stories and exposes which would lead more strained denials, I do not think A-Rod grabbed the moral high ground here.
What he did was make a very calculated and practical decision. Get it out, take the public relations hit and try to move on. He does not have to go to bat tonight in a stadium full of people holding up "A-Fraud" signs or throwing syringes on the field. He will report to spring training in a couple of weeks, no doubt have another few days of questions then state that he just wants to "focus on the coming season and getting the Yankees back to the World Series". If all goes well, by Opening Day everyone has moved on.
Miguel Tejada was kind enough to help out today. Apparently he is going to plead guilt to lying to Congress (I love the irony that lying to Congress is a crime, but lying while in Congress...oh well). Rodriguez had the good fortune never to testify before Congress.
The real question is: what does it mean for baseball? We now have the games greatest home run hitter (although he continues to deny), the greatest pitcher of the past twenty years (although he continues to deny) and arguably the best all around player of the past decade or, so under the cloud of steroids.
In the 1990s the numbers were inflated. I maintain that expansion and the building of bandbox ballparks still contributed to that. Approximately 40 pitchers were on major league rosters who would not have been ten years earlier. Lesser quality pitchers in smaller ballparks are going to produce more home runs.
Steroids are harder to quantify. Were the players who used bigger and stronger? Yes. Is hitting a baseball (or pitching one for that matter) entirely reliant on strength? No. A player must have great eye hand coordination, be able to generate bat speed and be able to make a decision to swing within hundredths of a second. I do not believe steroids impact any of those skills.
That said, the real problem to me is the lack of truth. What is emerging is a story of an era in baseball where the fans were not told the truth. We were first told there was no problem. Then we were told that suspected users were not using. Bit by bit baseball's big lie emerges. The 1998 McGwire-Sosa home run derby now feels more like a movie we saw than something we experienced. Yes it was entertaining, but was it a put on? Maybe pitchers grooved pitches to these guys to help the game. Seems far fetched, but so did a lot of things ten years ago.
No, I don't believe baseball in the 1990s and early 2000s was a screenplay played out on large stages with the results pre-determined, but I don't know what it was I saw in those years. I think it is a shame that Maris, Aaron and others are now lower on the list of "all time" records. We know they were real. Henry Aaron had to overcome incredible odds, racial prejudice. and death threats. Alex Rodriguez tells us he had to overcome the burden of a $25 million a year contract. Sorry Alex, that does not work.
Sometimes when your computer is giving you trouble you can "restore the system" back to an earlier point in time. I wish baseball had that function right now. If it did, and if I got to pick, it would be right before Tommy Lasorda elected to pitch to Jack Clark in the 1985 playoffs. First base was open, walk him!
It felt good to talk about baseball for a moment.

Echos of Yesteryear

President Obama may be the best thing that could have happened to the Republican Party. For the first time in years, it seems that the party has regained its focus. Once again the Republicans are talking about spending restraint (remember that?) and tax cuts (remember those?) The key now is not to sell out in the name of "working with" the new President or bipartisanship.
A proposed trillion dollars in spending tends to refocus the mind. Democrats were especially helpful in proposing spending for studies of sexually transmitted diseases, arts and crafts and refurbishing of federal buildings (I guess under the theory of if we are going to dramatically grow government, the offices need to look nice). Democratic Senators are now touting their "fiscal responsibility" by listing the items removed from the bill. Of course none of these had anything to do with stimulating the economy in the first place.
Everyone agrees the economy is in dire straights. Everyone agrees that the American people are struggling. The markets are worried. Job losses continue to mount. It is not a pretty picture. That said, rather than focus on the types of things that would stimulate the economy, and more importantly lay a foundation for the future, Democrats in the House went on an old school binge. Democrats in the Senate seem willing to trim a little fat, but every time I see Harry Reid standing arm in arm with Nancy Pelosi I don't believe it is all that sincere.
The debate her really comes down to how you believe that the economy works and who best is able to stimulate it. We have people and companies that are over leveraged and weighted down by the debt. This stimulus package does nothing to address that central problem. Spending more money to prop up failing businesses (see the big 3 auto makers) does not address their underlying problems. Continuing to get a paycheck from a business that is ultimately doomed only prolongs the inevitable.
Much of this bill is bricks and mortar. The infrastructure of this country is need of repair. However, unless we are going to embark on an endless cycle of roads projects, this is only a temporary fix. Those bridges will get repaired, then what do the workers do?
We hear politicians, particularly this President, talk about moving this economy into the 21st century, yet this stimulus bill is right out of the 1930s with a mix of the 1960s. It is not new, it is not innovative. It is the same thing government has always done: expand its reach and control. The government is going to pick winners and losers and favored industries.
So what should the stimulus do? We need to understand that we are in a new world. We need to start with thinking about how we educate our future work force. The models of public education have not changed in 200 years. The school year and schedule is based on an agrarian economy. The bureaucracy limits who can teach, thereby locking out some of our brightest minds who might bring a different perspective to the classroom. The divide between rich and poor in education continues to grow. The on education funding however, only focuses on spending more and how much more without regard to how we spend it, where we spend it and why we spend it that way.
When young adults emerge from the schools they often go to work in companies whose model has not changed in decades. "This is the way we have always done it" is a mantra amongst senior executives and even in the face of evidence that it is not working, they continue to chant it. The first round of TARP money, a cool $350 billion, did nothing to encourage reform or looking at new models. It simply went to fund operations as they always had been done.
Where is the stimulation to modernize? This means not just your equipment, but your workforce. Politicians crow about jobs being shipped overseas, but institutional knowledge has value to a business. Where are the incentives to retrain people in house? Democrats want to make the government the "retrainer", but how does government know what retraining is needed, or is government simply going to decide?
Democrats in Congress have fallen back into their tried and true formula of more government, more money. This bill could have been written 75 years ago. This is a new world, unfortunately Pelosi and Reid are not living in it. The debate and the stimulus need to enter the 21st century, the rest of us are already there.

"I forgot"

Steve Martin used to have a wonderful section of his stand up act called "how to be a millionaire and never pay taxes". The first step was to get a million dollars. Then, two simple words "I forgot" as in "I forgot to pay my taxes".
Seems that a lot of folks in Washington didn't quite understand that Steve Martin was doing a comedy bit, not giving financial advice. The new Treasury Secretary had a little $34,000 lapse in memory. Surely he will be quite understanding of all those late filers and payers now that he oversees the I.R.S.
Not to be outdone however, Tom Daschle drew a blank on about $130,000 in taxes. A "mistake" and he said he was sorry. Again, I am sure the I.R.S. will be much more sympathetic as long as you admit you made a mistake and say your sorry. Of course any of us would be saying our sorries from a jail cell. Daschle just had to give up a Cabinet post and return to a lucrative career of consulting and speaking.
I thought Vice President Biden said last year that paying taxes, and more of them, was "patriotic"? Didn't those two guys get the memo?
I don't just want to pick on politicians. As the government has been writing checks to save banks and other companies, their executives redecorate offices, buy planes and take lavish trips.
Now liberals say the corporate behavior is the product of the unregulated Bush era, but how do they explain wealthy liberal Democrats who don't pay their taxes? That's the Republicans fault too?
The real problem is simple arrogance. Politicians who have been in power so long laugh at the rules the rest of us live by. Corporate execs sign contracts with friendly boards of directors that result in no negative consequences for poor job performance. Any of the rest of us would be out of our jobs. For politicians and executives: no accountability whatsoever.
The new President seems to like the word accountability. He admitted that a "screwed up" on the Daschle nomination. Points for honesty, but his White House still puts out a statement that the President reluctantly accepted Daschle's withdrawal and Geithner remains at Treasury. His press secretary's defense on Geithner seemed to be, "well he has already been confirmed". I think the kids say "neener, neener".
On Daschle, what President Obama should have said was "damn right I accepted his withdrawal and if he had not given it I would have asked for it". When the Geitnner story broke he should have said "I think he would have been a fine Treasury Secretary, but I cannot put someone in charge of the nation's finances who sees fit not to pay his own taxes".
If President Obama wants to be different, he needs to be different. He needs to stop enabling the arrogant behavior of Washington and corporate insiders. That is change to believe in.