McCain: Economy fundamentally strong; right, and the Tigers will win the World Series

As of today, Lehman Brothers has filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch has been sold. But try telling that to John McCain.

Democrats are pouncing on John McCain's comments at a Florida campaign rally Monday morning that the economy is “strong,” even as a major Wall Street bank filed for bankruptcy protection and another was sold to Bank of America.

Or does he really think that? Honestly, it's kind of hard to tell what he thinks.

"Today of all days, John McCain's stubborn insistence that the 'fundamentals of the economy are strong' shows that he is disturbingly out of touch with what's going in the lives of ordinary Americans," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said. "Even as his own ads try to convince him that the economy is in crisis, apparently his 26 years in Washington have left him incapable of understanding that the policies he supports have created an historic economic crisis."

Meanwhile, campaigning in Michigan for the first time since earning the nomination for Vice President, Joe Biden earns my nomination for Quote of the Day honors:

"Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, I could walk from here to Lansing, and I wouldn't run into a single person who thought our economy was doing well — unless I ran into John McCain," he also said.

At Griffin Forum, lawmakers promise pay cut, touch on 2010

I had the chance to attend the semi-annual Griffin Policy Forum, put on by the Robert and Marjorie Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government at CMU. (One Gary Peters currently holds that chair.)

This fall's Griffin Forum was titled "Now What? Managing the budget crisis while promoting a positive future for Michigan." Their panelists were Andy Dillon, Mike Bishop, Craig DeRoche, and Mark Schauer, with Tim Skubick as moderator. Seeing as how the panel consisted of four titans in Michigan politics, there was no way I was going to pass up the chance to go.

Few points were made by either side that I hadn't heard before then. Schauer discussed the uncertainty of the budget process and how that likely scared off businesses that would have otherwise invested in Michigan. Dillon called out the Repubs for not doing their jobs. DeRoche kept parroting the old GOP talking points: 'Taxes are bad!' 'We need reforms!' 'Why did I go to CMU? Go Broncos!' (Okay, he didn't use that last one.) All in all, not much besides what both sides have been saying for months now.

That said, not many of the hundreds of people in attendance had followed the budget battle as closely as I have, so for them to argue the same points was understandable.

They all agreed that extending the 6% tax on services was not a good idea; they disagreed as to where the new revenue should be replaced. Mike Bishop said he supports increasing the sales tax to 6.5%. Schauer supports retooling the new Michigan Business Tax. I'll have more on Republican tax hypocrisy in an upcoming post.

Tim Skubick seemed to take his job as a journalist seriously. Not that I haven't been unhappy with some of the things he's said and done, but props to him for giving the panelists some tough questions. After DeRoche went on about reforms, Skubick held him to account by asking, "Where were all the reforms when Engler was governor?" He's also good for a few laughs, though: "Here's the score of the game: Western 3, CMU 102." While discussing a forum on political stability which he moderated: "At the time, we were all in favor of it."

Mark this down: When asked if they would take a pay cut, all four of them said they would. Schauer and I believe one other person said they and some of their colleagues return a portion of their salary to the Treasury. (While you might think this recent proposal offers hope in that regard, this proposal affects future lawmakers, not themselves.)

Another thing to mark down: When asked if they would run for governor, Dillon, DeRoche, and Schauer all said No. Bishop's response? "You never know." Expect more definitive answers on this following next year's Presidential election.

Following the forum, Bill Ballenger, the previous Griffin Endowed Chair, congratulated Peters on a job well done. I second Ballenger's remark. For him to get these heavyweights in Michigan politics under one roof is a rare feat. Peters should be commended for helping to enhance our education at CMU by bringing these titans to Mount Pleasant.

Some Labor Day musings

Today, we celebrate many things.

We celebrate one final weekend of summer. We celebrate the fact that we do not have classes today, and that most of us do not have to work.

But have you ever thought about why today is a holiday? Why do we take today off? What does 'Labor Day' mean? Sure, Labor Day is about labor - working people - but what more is there to it than that?

As labor leader Samuel Gompers said:

"Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country. All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation."

Put simply, Labor Day is about ordinary workers - my grandfather, an UAW member who worked at the Ford factory in Dearborn; John Edwards's father, who worked in the mills; and the people who lost their lives in the mine tragedy in Utah last month.

When you think about it, this country has traditionally been about ordinary people. What was so extraordinary about Thomas Jefferson or any of the Founding Fathers? Not much, until they decided to band together and reject the tyranny of the British monarchy. Same with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony before the Women's Suffrage Movement. Or Harriet Tubman, or Cesar Chavez, or Martin Luther King and the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.

In addition to showing us that ordinary people like you and me can lead extraordinary lives, they also remind us that our country is built on the blood, sweat, and tears of ordinary people. As much as we owe our freedom to the many men and women of the United States Armed Forces, we also owe the very fact that we have food to eat, cars to drive, roads to drive them on, homes to live in, buildings to work and study in, and beds to sleep in to the people who comprise the American workforce.

Imagine a country with no janitors, no carpenters, no farmers, no factory workers.

America would be a pretty dull place without them, wouldn't they?

So as you celebrate the unofficial end of summer - which you should! - remember the people who have built this country into the economic powerhouse that it is. Not the politicians, not the celebrities, not the sports stars or the reality-TV personalities. It is, rather, the average Joe/Jane who works a 9-5 job just so (s)he can put a roof over her family's head and food on their table.

They are the ones who built this nation. Happy Labor Day!

I encourage you to read this Labor Day statement by Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean. Also, for some interesting facts on labor unions' impact on workers, see this page from the AFL-CIO.