Day: January 10, 2010

Ehrlich(s) to speak in Salisbury

It’s become an early February tradition around these parts, and once again the Wicomico County GOP delivers.

Our annual Lincoln Day Dinner will be held in the Bistro Dining Room of the Guerrieri Center (aka the Commons) at Salisbury University on Saturday, February 6th, with dinner served at 7 p.m. – the cash bar opens at 6:30. Tickets are $40 for individual, with couples at $75 and students $25. Sponsorships are also available and range from $15 to $50.

Featured guest speakers will, as noted in the title, be Bob and Kendal Ehrlich.

For information or tickets, contact Bob Laun at (410) 543-2116 – reservations must be made by January 27th and tickets are limited, so they’re sure to go fast!

That’s pretty much the extent of the “official” information. Now I can let you in on some inside stuff.

The Bistro has a listed capacity of 250, but normally we don’t set the room for quite that many since we need a little space for podium and presentation, plus a side table for campaign literature. And with this being an election year, many of the statewide candidates (such as Andy Harris) will buy themselves a block of tickets for their staff so it makes tickets just a bit more valuable. However, we also secure a larger room so it has the opportunity to even out in the end.

If you’re looking for a blow-by-blow account of the Lincoln Day Dinner, I’ve covered the last four so you can have some idea of who gets to speak. But before and after they speak you have the advantage of a limited group of competitors for their attention so it’s an opportunity to meet up close and personal the person who could be (or already is) your Delegate, Senator, or represent you in the halls of Washington. Obviously they’re present to impress upon those who care enough to attend because chances are this is the pool of leaders and volunteers they’ll draw upon as the campaign wears on.

Plus this year you may have the opportunity to hear an exciting announcement. Governor Ehrlich may decide prior to our dinner to jump into the fray for Governor, but then again he may be holding out to tell us as part of an announcement tour…you never know.

GOP political junkies would be well advised to attend. I’m writing my check tomorrow.

2009: The year of Obama

Given the fact that the weeks leading up to Christmas and New Year’s Day are typically a dead zone for newsworthy items, it’s probable that whatever headlines aren’t made by the continuing battle over health care in Washington and feel-good holiday stories will be dedicated to a continuing series of year-end wrap-ups. The editorial page is seldom different, so this column takes a look at the year’s accomplishments of our nation’s most prominent news figure, President Barack Obama. (You were expecting Tiger Woods?)

When the President makes his State of the Union speech next month it’s likely he’ll point to the passage of his health care plan as his major victory. Most odd about this, though, is that he never actually had a health care reform plan, instead leaving Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders in charge of crafting the bill which made it through the House while Harry Reid and assorted Democratic minions in the Senate came up with a completely separate proposal. By splitting the duty of health care reform, not only did the plan have to deal with constantly shifting aspects like the in-again, out-again “public option” but it also lost the “transparency” Obama promised when he took office.

Transparency was the least of the Obama’s problems, though. He had a raft of economic issues to address, most of which he adroitly blamed on his predecessor and “the last eight years.” And for putting up $787 billion in a stimulus program, the promise was that unemployment wouldn’t rise past 8 percent. Perhaps it’s because a large chunk of stimulus money went to propping up various state budgets instead of the “shovel ready” jobs originally slated for funding, but unemployment eventually jumped to 10.2 percent in October before easing slightly to a round 10 percent in November. The stimulus has been so successful that Newsweek glowing predicted high unemployment to be the “new norm.”

Yet unemployment isn’t such a problem at businesses the President deems “too big to fail.” By expertly revamping the concept of paying creditors in a bankruptcy, General Motors and Chrysler went from publicly-owned businesses to enterprises bailed out by government funding and turned over in large part to the United Auto Workers. In response, sales at Ford have been the lone bright spot for Detroit.

But the auto industry in general was aided by $3 billion spent on the “Cash for Clunkers” program, which paid Americans to buy over 700,000 new cars. Never mind that new car sales plummeted immediately after the program ended and having the old clunkers rendered unusable all but destroyed the used car and parts markets – the program is still considered a success.

Perhaps the biggest triumph of Obama’s year, though, was avoidance of a foreign policy mistake. In fact, not only did Obama not have “an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test (his) mettle,” as Vice-President Biden warned, but based on a scant few months in office he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps it was a tribute to Obama’s charisma that he received the prize despite ramping up a war in Afghanistan by sending over 30,000 more troops, but it’s more likely that his deliberation in taking months to decide on that number was the factor that sealed the deal.

Or maybe he bowed to the right people. Whatever the reason, it’s certain that President Obama can consider this year a success; after all, he gave himself a B-plus.

And to think – America has three more years to see if he can get to an A.

Michael Swartz is a Liberty Features Syndicated writer.

This op-ed cleared on December 23rd and was featured in the Walterboro (SC) Press and Standard December 31st. Had they done it a couple days earlier I could have bought the paper on my way back from Florida!