By FRANK RICH Published: November 13, 2010
"In the aftermath of the Great Democratic Shellacking of 2010, one election night subplot quickly receded into the footnotes: the drubbing received by very wealthy Americans, most of them Republican, who tried to buy Senate seats and governor’s mansions. Americans don’t hate rich people.
They admire and often idolize success. But Californians took a hearty dislike to Meg Whitman, who sacrificed $143 million of her eBay fortune — not to mention her undocumented former housekeeper — to a gubernatorial race she lost by double digits.
Connecticut voters K.O.’d the World Wrestling groin-kicker, Linda McMahon, and West Virginians did likewise to the limestone-and-steel magnate John Raese, the senatorial hopeful who told an interviewer without apparent irony, “I made my money the old-fashioned way — I inherited it.”
To my mind, these losers deserve a salute nonetheless. They all had run businesses that actually created jobs (Raese included). They all wanted to enter public service to give back to the country that allowed them to prosper. And by losing so decisively, they gave us a ray of hope in dark times.
Their defeats reminded us that despite much recent evidence to the contrary the inmates don’t always end up running the asylum of American politics."
Not all of the billionaires were defeated in the general elections. Rick Scott, the grifter billionaire, became the governor of Florida promising 700,000 new jobs. He narrowly defeated an excellent Democratic candidate, Alex Sink.
Will Scott be able to create 700,000 new jobs in Florida? Rightardia doubts it. The Florida economy runs on retiree incomes and related services as well as tourism. The latter collapsed when gasoline prices went to $4.00 a gallon during the Bush administration and never recovered.
Florida lacks the technical-scientific-industrial base as that a state like North Carolina has. Florida doesn't just need more jobs, it needs the right kind of jobs.
Creating more job in the services, healthcare or tourism will provide a short term fix at best for Florida.
See the complete editorial at : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/opinion/14rich.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1289739667-V/ubp7m0XPLAI0yIiW71uw
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"In the aftermath of the Great Democratic Shellacking of 2010, one election night subplot quickly receded into the footnotes: the drubbing received by very wealthy Americans, most of them Republican, who tried to buy Senate seats and governor’s mansions. Americans don’t hate rich people.
They admire and often idolize success. But Californians took a hearty dislike to Meg Whitman, who sacrificed $143 million of her eBay fortune — not to mention her undocumented former housekeeper — to a gubernatorial race she lost by double digits.
Connecticut voters K.O.’d the World Wrestling groin-kicker, Linda McMahon, and West Virginians did likewise to the limestone-and-steel magnate John Raese, the senatorial hopeful who told an interviewer without apparent irony, “I made my money the old-fashioned way — I inherited it.”
To my mind, these losers deserve a salute nonetheless. They all had run businesses that actually created jobs (Raese included). They all wanted to enter public service to give back to the country that allowed them to prosper. And by losing so decisively, they gave us a ray of hope in dark times.
Their defeats reminded us that despite much recent evidence to the contrary the inmates don’t always end up running the asylum of American politics."
Not all of the billionaires were defeated in the general elections. Rick Scott, the grifter billionaire, became the governor of Florida promising 700,000 new jobs. He narrowly defeated an excellent Democratic candidate, Alex Sink.
Will Scott be able to create 700,000 new jobs in Florida? Rightardia doubts it. The Florida economy runs on retiree incomes and related services as well as tourism. The latter collapsed when gasoline prices went to $4.00 a gallon during the Bush administration and never recovered.
Florida lacks the technical-scientific-industrial base as that a state like North Carolina has. Florida doesn't just need more jobs, it needs the right kind of jobs.
Creating more job in the services, healthcare or tourism will provide a short term fix at best for Florida.
See the complete editorial at : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/opinion/14rich.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1289739667-V/ubp7m0XPLAI0yIiW71uw
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu
Netcraft rank: 8549 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
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