Three Up; three Down

By The News Virginian Staff

Published: November 28, 2008

THREE UP

Bill Clinton just won’t go. The long list of former members of his administration occupying office space on Pennsylvania Avenue in January will make it feel like it’s 1995 all over again. Except for the trifling difference in the economy. President-elect Barack Obama is filling his staff with Clintonistas, perhaps hoping for a revival of those years. He hopes, perhaps, for too much.
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Augusta County Sheriff Randy Fisher and his wife, Liz, lost almost all of their material possessions when the home the sheriff built burned earlier this year. But the couple never have complained. Instead, they have praised firefighters for their response and preached the insight they’ve gained into what matters. Their good sense and resolve amid adversity is instructive and inspiring.
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Obama has been studying — and to some extent, modeling — President Lincoln. After mentioning on “60 Minutes” that he’s been reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Lincoln tome, “Team of Rivals,” Obama tapped his team of Clintonites, including Hillary, and Robert Gates to stay on as secretary of defense.

THREE DOWN

It’s been a bad year for fat cats. Now President-elect Barack Obama, in a demonstration of audacity, wants to slash farm subsidies for the wealthy. Novel idea that, as the Wall Street Journal points out, “Senator Obama” viewed differently. Thousands of millionaires have cashed in on farm subsidies, with the support of Democrats, including Obama. Better late than never to find farm subsidy religion.
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The burgeoning recession put new meaning into Black Friday. Retailers entered the holiday season with excess inventories in the range of 15 to 20 percent, forcing them to either sell at bargain-basement prices or to simply liquidate. With consumer confidence plunging by the second, this year’s Christmas season promises for department stores to be the kind only the Grinch could love.
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President George W. Bush can hardly be blamed for desiring to make haste for Crawford. After all, hasn’t the guy done enough already? But Dubya appears to have hung up his boots more than a month early. The world may be ready for Bush to go and Obama to step in, but there’s still a country to be run.