Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President pretty much boils down to Suskind's view that Obama's incompetent management blighted his first two years in particular by causing him to blow two key decisions: he didn't put Citicorp into Chapter 11 (or even Chrysler)  and in creating the Affordable Health Care Act (AHCA) he opted for coverage instead of cost reduction.

Punishing Citicorp ( or somebody)

And the score was....Geithner 1, Volker 0.

Suskind subscribes to the moral hazard school: when something's gone wrong, someone should suffer. Perhaps even  those responsible. Somehow I'm reminded of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, but never mind.

Charlie Rose will moderate the GOP debate to be held on the Dartmouth college campus in Hanover, New Hampshire on Oct 11. Also on the panel will be Julianna Goldman, W.H. correspondent for Bloomberg Television and Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post.

This debate may be a pivotal experience for the Republican contenders because it will focus on the economy and Charlie Rose and the panel will have at their disposal a Bloomberg Terminal. For those who don't know, this terminal is a coveted, high dollar mother lode of financial information. I don't know if the screens will be viewable by the television audience, but the presence of actual facts may sober up some of the participants.

Sources tell me that Charlie Rose has agreed to moderate the upcoming Republican New Hampshire debate on the condition that the decorum of both candidates and audience can be upgraded to New England standards. While New England Republicans are fine with such language as "laying the wood to Obama" and "taking a baseball bat" to a woman legislator in New Jersey they flinch at things like booing the troops and clapping at executions, as unfortunately occurred in the Simi Valley and Orlando debates. In sympathy with the goal of higher level discourse, the Manchester Union Leader is said to be withholding a story that Romney muttered a phrase that sounded like "Frigging Canucks" when he was detained at the Canadian border for strapping a large dog to the top of his family car.

In order to raise the debate bar and minimize knee-jerk reactions, Charlie Rose has published his list of questions ahead of time. But to make sure the candidates actually prepare for the debate, questions will be assigned only at the last minute to candidates of Matthew Dowd's choosing. The questions have been geared to an audience of conservative, taciturn and frugal New Englanders and vacationing hedge fund managers.

As some of you know, I love science, and I care about the environment. Sometimes, these two interests are in conflict, as in the case of space hotels. Alas, my romantic side wants the space hotels to win, and any time my environmental, logical side speaks up about how much fuel will be required for such ventures, my romantic side punches him in the face and steals his lunch money.

According to Matthew Dowd we have a "hot" electorate and the "temperature" of candidates is important. Especially in the Tea Party dominated Republican party, "Passion" is the watchword. "Cool" Presidential contenders just don't cut it. Republicans think the time is right. They see a chance to throw Obama out of the Lincoln bedroom but on the other hand they don't want to end up getting it on with the Manchurian candidate.

So far I think each of the Republican presidential contenders have given the Republican base voters good reason to let the moment pass, change their front door locks, and sign up for another dating service. 

Take Herb Cain, as Palin called him, "the flavor of the week". His staying power is at issue. But frankly any guy who thinks he's going to get laid after giving his date pizza for dinner is a loser whether or not he owns the pizza company. Stop him at the door.

Rod Serling

I am catching, for the 30^th time (at least) Seven_Days_in_May

Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster were once again paired with Fredric-the-Fricking March in the background.

And of course this is really Twilight Zone since Rod Serling (the real voice of my generation!) wrote the screen play.

Kirk of course put the film together seeking to play the bad guy but, as usual, took a lesser (if not more important) role as the savior of democracy because Burt always got his way. hahahahaha

Despite Perry's poor debate performances and his current whipping boy status among Republican pundits as well as Fox News, I am not one who thinks this guy is out of the running for winning the Republican Primary. 

Perry's handlers made the choice to start Perry the Pitcher in a Playoff series his first week out of the minors and he has lost his first three games. It's of course 20/20 hindsight but his handlers should not have made him the immediate target of the other "contenders" but should have had him play nice with the others for a while and stick to attacking Obama until he got used to the national stage. Maybe they suspected such attacks on Perry's vulnerabilities and concluded that the Alpha Male ploy was the best shot. He certainly throws his chest out and bends his knees appropriately.