Editorials & Opinion

The rumors of my imminent demise were not greatly exaggerated. I had heard them for weeks from my sources in cubicles, service corridors and super-sized offices. In an annual job-performance review many years ago, authored by a boss I would easily outlast, I was accused of being lazy and a gossip. I had objected, averring that I was, in fact, an energetic nosy Parker.

As a strategic planner, I'm wary of the "Manhattan project" mindset. In general, I find it escapist at heart -- as in, "Big government, make this problem magically disappear!" But with all this talk of a huge government stimulus package, I find myself warming to the idea. Let me tell you why.

As he has several times weekly since the onset of the financial crisis, President Bush appeared on the South Lawn of the White House to give a brief statement on the economy, taking no questions.

Talk about tall orders. When he chose Janet Napolitano to head the Department of Homeland Security, President-elect Barack Obama said, "She will be a leader who can reform a sprawling department while safeguarding our homeland."
Oh, really?

As California governor three decades ago, Jerry Brown embraced the questionable practice of allowing the Legislature to make appointments to state boards and commissions, many of whose members are paid high salaries and wield substantial powers.

Bush administration Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who has been asked and agreed to remain in place by President-elect Barack Obama, may prove particularly influential in the new regime, as he has in the one leaving office. So far at least, he has shown himself to be a man for all seasons, politically speaking.

Wonder why, in a survey reported by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, only 28 percent said they "believed all or most" of what they see on CNN?

Colleges are becoming unaffordable for many families and are themselves suddenly facing hard times and talking about government bailouts, of course. But there's another, better answer, and it goes beyond the efficient, intelligent management they have mostly been loath to substitute for the flabby model now in place.

Leave it to diet Marxists G.W. Bush, Henry Paulson, and Ben Bernanke to saddle American taxpayers with $8.347 trillion in bailout commitments, yet not spend a thin dime on incentives to revive the U.S. economy. In fact, the faintest echo of an incentive is not a Reaganite act of commission, but a Reagan-lite act of omission.

The U.S.-Iraq pact passed a key, and perhaps final, hurdle when Iraq's three-member presidential council -- a Kurd, a Sunni and a Shiite -- signed the security agreement.