By now, millions are lusting for the debates. My guess is that the first one will break records for viewership. Another guess is that Hillary Clinton is already practicing how to handle insults. She probably has aides flinging every insult they can think of at her. She is rehearsing her replies. Given Donald Trump’s history, […]
Get Instant Access to This Article
Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
- Critical Central New York business news and analysis updated daily.
- Immediate access to all subscriber-only content on our website.
- Get a year's worth of the Print Edition of The Central New York Business Journal.
- Special Feature Publications such as the Book of Lists and Revitalize Greater Binghamton, Mohawk Valley, and Syracuse Magazines
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
By now, millions are lusting for the debates. My guess is that the first one will break records for viewership.
Another guess is that Hillary Clinton is already practicing how to handle insults. She probably has aides flinging every insult they can think of at her. She is rehearsing her replies.
Given Donald Trump’s history, this makes sense. He may well call her a crook and a liar. He may well demand that she answers nasty questions about corruption. No matter what questions the moderators pose, he might snap, “Instead of answering this, let us get to the real issue here. Mrs. Clinton lies constantly. The American people want to know why,” or “The Clinton Foundation is nothing more than a political slush fund. You use it to sell favors. You say it is a charity. You lie.”
She has had months to prepare. A good question is whether The Donald will come up with something outrageous she has overlooked and not prepared for fully. Meanwhile, she will attack him just as viciously. We are told he never preps for debates. If true this time, he may regret that.
The campaign coverage from the big networks has been biased as usual. The Media Research Center has staff watch and evaluate networks for bias. They have had their hands full.
Their findings on convention coverage were typical of what they have found for decades.
Each party produces videos they show at their conventions. Networks can choose to let their viewers see them. CNN allowed three Republican videos to be screened. They ignored a dozen more. They switched to chatter from the network’s commentators. The videos they skipped included ones covering the Benghazi mess and the Fast and Furious scandal.
When the Democratic convention arrived, CNN showed 18 of that party’s videos. They allowed 62 minutes of Democrat videos versus 14 minutes of Republican videos.
In 63 instances, their commentators scolded Republicans for negative statements. They did the same for Democrats only five times.
Countless monitors have presented evidence of media bias toward Democrats over the years.
Political mouthpieces move back and forth. From networks to jobs within the Democrat machine and to jobs in Democrat administrations. It shows in the coverage they present to us. The words objectivity and balance don’t belong in the same sentence with ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN. (Note I refer to news coverage, not opinion programs.) The American public deserves better than this.
A final thought is about tax cuts. Hillary promises a number of tax increases. I don’t take them seriously. For a few reasons.
First, the economy is slowing. We have already had a dismal recovery from our bad recession. The president can spin this 50 ways from Sunday. It doesn’t wash. The economy has never come close to hitting full stride in eight years.
Jobs figures are lousy. Nowhere near enough new jobs. New-business numbers are horrible. New businesses and small businesses produce most of our new jobs. Meanwhile, new investment by big business is also sluggish. And profits are shrinking for many big businesses. There are innumerable signs we may be headed toward a recession. There are precious few signs the economy is going to catch fire any time soon.
The economy desperately needs some thoughtful tax cuts.
Back to Hillary as president. She could easily face a recession. If she then pushed for tax increases, the new House — likely to still be Republican — will fight her big time. It may push for tax cuts instead.
She might create a do-si-do with them. She might cave to tax cuts for some piece of legislation in return. She could say the nasty Republicans forced her to accept tax cuts. And that a deteriorating economy forced her to abandon her tax-raising promises.
Whatever happens, I cannot imagine politicians whacking this fragile economy with more tax increases. Yes, I know they often act foolishly, but…
From Tom…as in Morgan.
Tom Morgan writes about political, financial and other subjects from his home near Oneonta. Several upstate radio stations carry his daily commentary, Tom Morgan’s Money Talk. Contact him at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com