'Indispensable Mayor' or Grim Fairy Tale

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided that he is indispensable and must run for a third term to save the City from economic disaster.

That is a fairy tale.

Let me give you some reasons why.

In the first place his term does not come up until next year, by which time he may not be needed to save us. In the second place, the buddies he pals around with and usually hand picks for appointments come from Real estate, Banking, and Wall Street. These are the very people who got us into this mess with the help of our Congress.

They decided at the behest of President Bush and the Republican party and some Democrats that there was no need for a watchdog in the economy, that the Real Estate , Banking and Wall Street people were of such a high caliber that they could and would police the industry.

What they did with this trust is have a party at our expense. Enormous bonuses were paid to undeserving Executives. Then they gave tremendous golden parachutes to departing Executives. If a golden parachute was not enough they bribed the executive with a platinum one.

All this was done on Mayor Bloomberg's watch. His office is not too far from Wall Street, and his company's ticker tape showed the market trends, yet he could not see what was coming. So how can he help us.

Think about it. Would you keep a shortstop on your team who kept making errors, simply because he had experience.

If Mayor Bloomberg really wants to prove his value, he should convene an expert group of economists - people like Paul Krugman, Tom Friedman, Robert Rubin and even Alan Greenspan to work on the problem with him. If they are successful, then he could retire as the Statesman he deserves to be.

A Bronx Cheer for a Cheerleader

I watched the vice president's debate the other night and came away with this thought: I do not know which debate the Conservatives who gave Sarah Palin rave reviews were watching. After all she was debating to prove that she and John McCain could do the job of making our economy stronger and changing the Washington work ethic. She did nothing to allay my fears about either, because she never explained what her plans to do so were. I could definitely agree with her about changing the tone in Washington. We need to get rid of some Democrats along with some Republicans. I would also have liked to hear an explanation about how we get rid of the Lobbyist power structure. At least Joe Biden gave some figures about the votes of John McCain that can be fact-checked. Palin said little "wrong" because she said so little.

What I finally decided is that Sarah wins hand down on perkiness? Which reminds me of the famous line in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," when Lou Grant says to Mary, "You are perky. But I don't like perky."

The economy is more important than perkiness.

Sarah's smiling and winking led me to the conclusion that if we need a cheerleader for our country, I would
definitely hire her. She should apply for the job of National Cheerleader.