Here’s a special original 2008 presidential campaign poetic commentary by TMV’s favorite poet, Michael Silverstein, aka Wall Street Poet.
Here’s the harsh economic truth. The recession is already here and it’s not going to be short and shallow. It’s going to be long and deep. Rate cuts and other stimulus from government are severely limited by already huge budget deficits, a sagging dollar, and dependence on foreign lenders who (this might surprise you) don’t really love us. If this analysis is correct, the new president will be less a curer of economic ills than a comforter. You may wish to vote accordingly…
Needed: A Hugger-in-Chief
White House aspirants fin’ly see
What to others has long been clear,
Though terror is a worry still,
What Americans really fear,
Is the rising cost of basics,
And jobs that are drifting away,
And nasty calls from creditors
Who threaten to garnish their pay.
Alas there’s no easy solutions
That can turn this mess around,
Make a badly skewed economy
More equitable, more sound;
The simple truth of the matter,
Though few will dare say it aloud,
Is the rich will keep most of the duties
With the help of the K Street crowd.
What then must the ’08 winner
Use for solace in his or her reign?
Not new programs, that menu is tapped out
But a show of just feeling the pain;
When you can’t fill the down trodden’s pockets,
With a speech give their tear ducts a tug;
When confronted with stories of hardship
Give the teller a comforting hug.
Copyright 2008 Michael Silverstein
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.