Canthook

Faculty politics, they say, is often bitter because the stakes are so small. I think about that aphorism often as I listen to news programs.

Tonight, on MSNBC, after the results were in from the Wisconsin primary, they had representatives from both Senator Obama''s and Senator Clinton''s campaign. After they each gave their spin, Chris Matthews turned to the Obama representative, Texas state senator Kirk Watson, and asked for an itemization of Barack''s legislative accomplishments. Watson couldn''t list any, and when he demanded that Clinton''s legislative accomplishments be accomplished, Chris Matthews refused to do so.

That's why they call it "Hardball", Matthews crowed - and Keith Olberman remarked that they were broadcasting election returns, not Matthews'' "Hardball" program. Matthews brushed that aside, saying that it was still a good question to ask.

So what are their legislative accomplishments?

It''s pretty thin for Hillary. Her "35 years of experience" amount to a bill to increase nurse recruitment, one to aid respite time for Alzheimer’s caregivers and a third to expand veterans health benefits. Oh, and she got a courthouse renamed for Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Barack''s crowning legislative accomplishment, on the other hand, was a law requiring that police interrogations be videotaped. He was concerned that many people believe confessions are coerced by police; with videotape records of the interrogations, people can trust that police are doing their job properly. Despite the fact that such records are no hindrance to good cops, Barack had to fight the opposition of the other party, of the governor, of the police themselves.

Sounds like a pretty important piece of legislation. If the post office were to disappear, UPS and FedEx have shown that commercial organizations can handle delivery. Toll roads have shown that private enterprise can handle the highways. There are many private schools and hospitals, and many charities taking care of the needy. The essential elements of government are war and justice - defending the republic from enemies both foreign and domestic.

So I''ll rate a bill to improve the justice system as significantly more important than increasing nurse recruitment or giving respite for Alzheimer caregivers, as worthy as those goals may be.

Years ago, we used to complain that there was no difference between Republican and Democratic candidates - they were Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Then we started seeing significant differences between the two parties, but both parties offered highly objectionable candidates.

This year, it appears that we''ll choose between McCain and Obama. We could do a lot worse. Obama is too liberal for my tastes, and McCain is too much of a hawk to suit me - but they are both men who are worthy of respect.

They say Barack is a great speaker. Listening to him on the television, it''s hard to disagree.

Tonight, though, I heard Michele on the stump for the first time.

She was speaking at the Capitol Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin, and they carried it on C-SPAN. There''s a webcast of her speech available. (It requires RealPlayer, and runs 1:05:15). I recommend it highly, if for no other reason than to learn how more about speechifying.

My lord, that woman can deliver a speech. I''m a conservative, and I''m probably going to vote for Ron Paul when we finally get to vote, here in Pennsylvania, but wow! Mrs. Obama talks from the heart. She''s utterly sincere, and devastatingly effective. I like her husband quite a bit, but I''d like to vote for her.

Some men hate to be outdone by their wife, but not the men who marry extraordinary women. (I speak from experience; both my late first wife and my present wife have been extraordinarily capable.)

In response to of Mrs. Obama''s statement that "Let me tell you something — for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change," Mrs. McCain said, "I am proud of my country. I don’t know about you, if you heard those words earlier — I am very proud of my country.”\r\n\r\nYes, ma''am, but what makes you really proud?

I''m usually proud of my country, in general, although I wasn''t really proud when we burned a hundred innocent citizens to death in Waco, Texas, and I wasn''t really proud of my country when I found out about My Lai, and I wasn''t really proud that we were torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. On the other hand, I was really proud when the Amish forgave a madman who slaughtered their daughters at Nickel Mines School, and offered prayers and financial assistance to his widow - and then again, when lily-white states voted in massive numbers for a mulatto presidential candidate.

It’s pretty easy to look at horse and buggies, the steamship, and the arrival of an inexpensive, lightweight gasoline engine, and predict the first automobiles. It was invented, over and over, almost simultaneously, in a myriad places. It’s the consequence of the invention that’s hard to predict. The rumble seat fired the first shot in the sexual revolution.

The future will arrive in, oh, wait, the truck is already half unloaded. While all the prophets of doom were decrying the "hollow corporation", entrepreneurs were setting up virtual corporations left and right - and often prospering beyond any conventional expectation.

The multinational corporation arose because mass production allowed cheap goods to be created for a world hungry for anything at all. The huge organizations bought innovative small companies that were capital-starved, and automated their production, making everyone a little bit wealthier in the process, and a few owners considerably wealthier.

Today''s consumer isn''t starved for the slightest little bit of anything, and the companies that are thriving aren''t mass-producing cheap goods. The winners in today''s economy are those who are producing high-value products, often custom products - and they don''t need a lot of land, and a lot of expensive machinery to do it. Instead, they''re using on their brains.

And that''s a highly democratic notion, because with the exception of [insert occupation here] and people from [insert locality here], just about everyone has a brain.

Use yours, and you can share in the bonanza.

Sixty years ago, the smart thing to do was to get a job working for a big corporation, and stayed there for life, with relatively high wages, and excellent benefits. Thirty years ago, the big corporations started shedding themselves of those workers. Today, it''s almost impossible to get hired with one of those companies, because they''ve either transformed themselves, or they have ceased to exist. Millions of displaced workers are angry, and the politicians are figuring out ways to retrain these workers for new jobs.

But if politicians don''t solve problems; they subsidize them. We can''t retrain all those workers for new jobs, because the concept of a job is rapidly becoming obsolete. Instead of steel mills employing several thousand workers, new mills may employ hundreds, and tomorrow''s mills may employ only a few dozen. \r\n\r\nInstead, we need to teach people how to be self-employed.

It’s pretty easy to look at horse and buggies, the steamship, and the arrival of an inexpensive, lightweight gasoline engine, and predict the first automobiles. It was invented, over and over, almost simultaneously, in a myriad places. It’s the consequence of the invention that’s hard to predict. The rumble seat fired the first shot in the sexual revolution.