No surprise that Time’s Person of the Year is Barack Obama, the incoming 44th president of the United States and the first African-American to hold the job. It’s difficult to think of a bigger newsmaker than Obama, with the possible exception of some nameless Wall Street crook. Time’s runners-up were Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Zhang Yimou, the filmmaker behind the Beijing Olympics’ amazing opening ceremonies. Apparently when Time asked for public nominations via YouTube, the biggest response came from supporters of Ron Paul. Maybe next year.
Any forecasts for 2009?
A loophole in the $700 billion financial bailout effectively means that participating firms can pay their executives exorbitantly after all. “The flimsy executive-compensation restrictions in the original bill are now all but gone,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa. Shouldn’t shame be enough to keep CEOs from cashing in on a taxpayer bailout?
I’m with Time’s Joe Klein in his discomfort with Caroline Kennedy’s nervy grasping for the Senate seat left open by Hillary Clinton’s job change, as if New York Gov. David Paterson had no exemplary candidates to consider. Declaring the “era of big strange political families” to be over, Klein writes: “Kennedy’s play seems very much of a moment recently passed – the dynasty years of American politics, when Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes (and other, less obtrusive dynasties – Udalls, Cuomos) cluttered our public life. There is nothing new about this. We’ve had our Adamses and Roosevelts in epochs past. But the combination of dynasty and celebrity in a too-hot media age has proved a diversion from good governance.”
Impatience can be a virtue, too, which is why it was heartening to see most of the Wichita City Council members so eager Tuesday to get the fate of the Wichita Boathouse resolved within a matter of weeks. Many Wichitans would agree with council member Sharon Fearey that “this is getting ridiculous,” especially because of concerns over the idle building’s condition. That said, the council’s approval of the updated WaterWalk plan will further complicate the negotiations between the city and Boathouse donor Bill Koch, who wants to see the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame relocated to the facility. Many Wichitans also would agree with Koch’s view that his Jayhawk yacht should not be displaced by an elaborate “waltzing waters” fountain, as the plan calls for. The decision making will need to be handled with great care, but at least the council wants to get on with it.
Pardons aren’t illegitimate. They’re constitutional (Article II, Section 2). They’re also compassionate. We need more of them. Who should get pardoned? Contrary to myth, there aren’t a lot of innocent people on death row. But there are quite a few guilty people who ought to be forgiven. For example, President Bush pardoned a 50-year-old Missouri farmer named Leslie Owen Collier. In 1995, Collier accidentally poisoned three bald eagles. An indisputably solid citizen, Collier was horrified by the birds’ death. Some self-aggrandizing prosecutor went after him anyway, and he wound up a felon. There are thousands of Leslie Colliers out there. The trick is bringing them to the attention of the White House. That’s not easy. – Tucker Carlson, the Daily Beast
The president of the United States should not be able to unilaterally pardon people for crimes they have committed, or for crimes they may be charged with committing. This archaic practice flies in the face of the justice system and should be abolished. Thousands of petitions for pardons are sent for presidential review every year. This takes time and energy away from a person who should be focused on innovation and leadership, not favors and forgiveness. Why, oh, why, should one individual be able to gain favor (and freedom) over another in a democratic system such as ours? The pardon system should be done away with, and along with it the ethical controversy that it portends. – Thomas Kostigen, MarketWatch.com
No surprise that Time’s Person of the Year is Barack Obama, the incoming 44th president of the United States and the first African-American to hold the job. It’s difficult to think of a bigger newsmaker than Obama, with the possible exception of some nameless Wall Street crook. Time’s runners-up were Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Zhang Yimou, the filmmaker behind the Beijing Olympics’ amazing opening ceremonies. Apparently when Time asked for public nominations via YouTube, the biggest response came from supporters of Ron Paul. Maybe next year.
