This is the 150th post since "Original Face" started on May 13th. Thank you for reading and giving me feedback. If there is something you like, once again, I urge you to let me know. Likewise, if there is something that you would, you know, prefer I did differently, keep that to yourself.
Couple of quick follow ups to some previous columns:
Hillary Clinton as well as Carl Levin have been the latest Democrats to acknowledge that the "surge" is succeeding. If this keeps up, the war may not be the issue that defines the 2008 election. Also, the poll results for the President and the Democratic Congress are heading in very different directions. Gallup is reporting the lowest numbers for Congressional approval in the 35 years of asking. At under 18% the number is below that recorded during the height of the House banking scandal in the early 1990s. Bush's numbers are rising as the surge's effectiveness is beginning to
sink into the public's awareness and the cost of regular gasoline has
been falling. (I have held that the correlation between regular gas prices and Bush's approval polls is quite positive.) So despite the reports of the media, it is not, at this point in the cycle, the Republicans that should be worried about the 2008 general elections.
It may be the economy that sets the tone for 2008 unless the subprime mortgage issue is worked out of the credit markets soon. Already businesses have encountered a tightening of their credit lines and access to debt to be more expensive. If this continues, capital goods orders will fall and the economy could slide into a stall, if not an outright recession. The Fed's decision to lower the interest rate and infuse more cash may be enough to re-establish stability, but it is shaky at this point. One good point to consider, however: there is now a huge deal of cash that is sitting on the sidelines and it will need to find homes in financial instruments soon. Remember always that the market slides between states of fear or greed. Which is the most prominent now?
Russia's decision to resume their strategic bombing sortees is being followed by an announcement that the entire military apparatus is being upgraded. Russia is also increasing the tough talk to its former client states in Eastern Europe over the NATO defensive radar shield that is being installed in their countrysides.
OK, that enough follow up for tonight. On to the next 150.
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