WHAT'S THE BIG HURRY TO GET OUT OF TOWN? - Just A Minute Radio - Monday 101011

            Here we are at the beginning of a week – headed down the slide straight to the end of this electoral cycle – 23 days to go it seems like we’ve been on this street for a long time… but there are 23 more sunrises to go through. So – let’s get started.

 

The White House last Friday – while the Prez was out of town stirring up the troops – announced that he would be leaving Washington on November 4^th for a four country tour in Asia. Turns out the schedule was moved up two days – according to news sources in India – to get the President into Mumbai so he could take part in honoring those who died about a year ago in a terrorist attack then.

 

            John Fund – who is editor of Opinion Journal -- the Dow Jones electronic effort aside from its newspaper – said it took the Washington press corps by surprise. And generally it was being put down as a ‘get out of town’ maneuver to avoid the  embarrassment of having to take phone calls from defeated Democrats asking: “What happened?”  The speculation is there will be a clamor for statements and interviews from the President, the Vice President and campaign consultants as well as those who have been calling the shots from the White House during this mid-term.

 

            From all the polling --  more of it this year than ever before – it appears the usual mid-term election losses the winning candiate’s party takes as the first election cycle after a major victory takes place may increase by exponential factors. Some predict  as many as 100 House Seats could change hands – which happened in President Coolidge’s election. Plus there are significant bets that even the Senate could change hands as it did in 1994.

 

Therefore it would seem since the size of the tidal-wave of change that *could* come ashore this fall -- it isn’t the wisest choice to make that looks like he’s “hiding out” overseas as the chickens come home.  This President does not easily suffer major changes in “his” vision of how things *ought* to happen.  Going out of the country for ten days in the wake of a major, or even a strong upset, doesn’t impress me as a stroke of genius.

 

            In fact, given the current dent’s in the President’s current suit of armor and looking at a difficult ‘lame-duck’ session just ahead loaded with in the way of ‘emergency’ or ‘disaster avoiding’ legislation that *should* be of concern – it would seem the President’s whiz kids are thinking they can “thumb their nose” toward public opinion. Not a healthy sign.

 

            Well, there are still a lot of ‘tales to be told’ between now and Nov. 2^nd – let’s get buckled in.

 

            Cordially, IN HIM

            Jack & Barbara

 

Delayed audio link:

 

http://www.wmuu.com/blog/category/audio/just-a-minute/

 

 

“JUST A MINUTE”

WHAT’S THE BIG HURRY TO GET OUT OF TOWN?

Just a Minute: -- Friday the White House released an announcement the President will leave Washington two days early on an Asian tour November 4^{th --}  Which will be right after voters have rendered a decision, a reaction to his first two years in office.  He will return November 14th.

News sources in India say the President originally planned to leave Washington two days later but the trip was moved up so he can be in Mumbai to pay homage to those who died in last year’s terrorist attack. 

John Fund, lead writer for the Dow Jones Opinion Journal, wrote: “The American people will have rendered a key judgment on his presidency in America’s mid-term elections.”  Fund speculated on the reason given by the White House: “No doubt that's true, but it will also mean the president will be outside the country and all the more able to avoid painful phone conversations with defeated Democrats or answer questions about his role in the party's losses and the prospects for his post-election agenda in what's likely to be a more Republican Congress.”

<> I’m Jack Buttram.

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