Jack Kemp, the former Representative from Buffalo who championed supply-side economics and tax credits as a way of boosting economic growth, died Saturday. I am not a fan of Kemp's legacy of lower taxes and constant pressure for more tax cuts. All of us want lower taxes, and cutting taxes may have made sense back in the late 70's, early 80's. But the side effect - or maybe direct effect - of those tax cuts was to make it very difficult to balance the budget, and very easy to be dismissive of budget deficits. We are still paying the price of that idea, and we will be paying it for decades.
But I always liked Jack Kemp as a person. Besides seeming to be a genuinely nice guy, he was a "bleeding heart conservative," a man who campaigned among African-Americans when he was the GOP VP candidate in 1996. He really believed that the Republican party could successfully reach out to African-Americans. This compassion came from - of all places - football, and his experience as a quarterback.
He wanted the VP nomination in 1988, but George H. W. Bush chose Quayle. I don't know why Bush passed on Kemp, but I can speculate - Kemp probably would have overshadowed Bush, and he was a rival for the nomination in '88. Democrats should probably be thankful that Bush didn't choose him, because if Kemp had been Bush's VP, he would have been the frontrunner for the nomination in '96, and Dole most likely would not have been the nominee. So Kemp would have been #1 on the ticket, instead of #2, and he would have given Clinton a stronger race, even with Ross Perot in the race.
I didn't know that Kemp was originally from LA until I read his obit. I also didn't realize that he went to Occidental, same as Obama. Must be something good about that place.
You have to respect a Republican who accepted the job of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and then actually took it seriously. He was one of a kind.
Showing posts with label George H. W. Bush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George H. W. Bush. Show all posts
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Where the Bushes live
There are a couple of media mentions today of where the George Bush's, Jr. and Sr., live. Kos thinks that Jr. will be leaving Crawford as soon as he doesn't need it as a campaign prop. That sounds eminently plausible to me. How much of a ranch hand is Bush, really?
Meanwhile, back at the original Bush family stomping grounds, New England, John McCain stopped by Kennebunkport and visited the President Bush that even some Democrats miss, George H. W.
George H. W. Bush had a semi-legitimate reason for claiming to be from Texas: he moved there, built a business there, represented part of it in Congress. But was he ever really a Texan? Culturally? I'm not in a position to judge, not being from the Lone Star state, but somehow I just don't see him in a ten-gallon hat or even on a horse. But it was a convenient antidote to being a preppy elitist. Ironically, he lost his two Senate races in part because he was a carpetbagger preppy northeastern elitist.
One detail of W.'s life that I have always found amusing is that he went to Harvard for business school partially because he was rejected by the University of Texas Law School (PBS has an excellent chronology of his life here). W. has a more legitimate claim to being a Texan than his father - the family moved there when he was 1. But they sent him back East for high school (Andover), and he went to college there (Yale) and grad school (Harvard).
So now the father is back in Maine, now that he no longer needs to pretend not to be a prepster, and the son will probably be at least leaving the homestead in Crawford (although Laura is a Midland native, so they might stay in Texas itself).
Sort of like the Clintons left Arkansas for good a long time ago. And the wonder of it all is that, if W. does sell the spread in Crawford, some people might actually be surprised.
Meanwhile, back at the original Bush family stomping grounds, New England, John McCain stopped by Kennebunkport and visited the President Bush that even some Democrats miss, George H. W.
The first President Bush and the former first lady, Barbara Bush, opened their large shingled home on a dramatic promontory in the Atlantic Ocean for a brunch and tour for contributors to Mr. McCain.George & Laura have 1,600 acres, but the ranch is in the sweltering summer Texas heat. Meanwhile, Dad, having abandoned any pretense of being a resident of Texas, enjoys a view of the ocean in Maine. Personally, I, too, would take the northern climate right about now. But of course I don't have the option of picking up and moving wherever I want to.
George H. W. Bush had a semi-legitimate reason for claiming to be from Texas: he moved there, built a business there, represented part of it in Congress. But was he ever really a Texan? Culturally? I'm not in a position to judge, not being from the Lone Star state, but somehow I just don't see him in a ten-gallon hat or even on a horse. But it was a convenient antidote to being a preppy elitist. Ironically, he lost his two Senate races in part because he was a carpetbagger preppy northeastern elitist.
One detail of W.'s life that I have always found amusing is that he went to Harvard for business school partially because he was rejected by the University of Texas Law School (PBS has an excellent chronology of his life here). W. has a more legitimate claim to being a Texan than his father - the family moved there when he was 1. But they sent him back East for high school (Andover), and he went to college there (Yale) and grad school (Harvard).
So now the father is back in Maine, now that he no longer needs to pretend not to be a prepster, and the son will probably be at least leaving the homestead in Crawford (although Laura is a Midland native, so they might stay in Texas itself).
Sort of like the Clintons left Arkansas for good a long time ago. And the wonder of it all is that, if W. does sell the spread in Crawford, some people might actually be surprised.
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