Used Car Sales Tactics

Barack Obama, Healthcare, Politics, Socialism

SEX. GREED. FEAR. These are the time-honored sales tactics B. Hussein is using in pushing his healthscare Obamination. Who better to vouch for Obama’s used-car sales methods than a used-car salesman entertained on Neil Cavuto’s FoxNews program? B. Hussein got top marks from Cavuto’s car guy for hyping the sex appeal of the deal (cheap, good), for baffling Boobus with the numbers, and for playing on the fears we all harbor about our own mortality, and hammering home the urgency of the “deal.”. I could not find the segment on YouTube, but Don Imus invited Cavuto on his show to talk about it. Listen here.

In last week’s column, “And Now for Something Completely Different,” I mentioned the Mayo Clinic, which, as one of our readers pointed out, Obama had confused with the Mao Clinic:

Obama—who, to paraphrase poetry critic William Logan, never runs out of things to say, only things worth saying—promised that his medical system would be a well-oiled machine much like the Mayo Clinic is. There, “experts have figured out the most effective treatments and eliminated waste and unnecessary procedures,” preached the president.

Unlike Mephisto’s Medicare, the key to Mayo—and many such private not-for-profits—is not the all-knowing, demigod experts. Mayo clinic operates as smoothly as it does because it is a private clinic, where market forces and a mission combine to motivate dedicated entrepreneurs and professionals to minimize losses and maximize profits, so as to plow these back into an organization in which all are invested.

What’s the government’s mission? To keep Americans in the missionary position?

Well, what do you know: as the Washington Times reports, this superb clinic is panning Obamacare.

Updated: Stocks Or Savings?

Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

Is America back and are the statists out? If only, says the one-and-only Peter Schiff. “The statists aren’t out; they’re here, they’re in control.” The Fed has yet to raise interest rates as it ought to. Americans have yet to begin saving in earnest. The government’s sticky paws are all over the place, prices are not being allowed to fall to reflect reality. We’re still a broke and bankrupt consumer economy.

Peter Morici, on the other hand, smells the recovery—a fourth-quarter recovery, to be precise. I wonder whether he’ll be asked back on the “Kudlow Report” when his prediction turns out to be false? Who am I kidding. Being a commentator on the “idiot’s lantern” means never having to say you’re sorry.

Update (July 21): Schiff said nothing about saving dollars. Anyone who follows his advice knows he recommends divesting of US assets. And he’s big on gold. We discussed strategizing in “Survival On the Road To serfdom.”

Updated: Cronkite Dies; News Croaked Long Ago

Celebrity, Journalism, Media, Reason

He reported the news. Nothing but the facts, ma’am. He never pulled faces to demonstrate his exquisitely politically correct sensibilities; he focused on the events, not on himself; he did not promote a brand and an annual book, he wiped a tear once in decades of reporting, and expressed an opinion with the same frequency. He became a personality by default—through the professionalism he evinced and not by cultivating a persona. His political opinions may have been unpalatable, but Walter Cronkite’s professional performance bore little resemblance to the slobbering done by the current crop of cable and TV men and women.

Anderson Cooper, grizzled “newswoman”—who crumbled when the Rev. Wright scandal broke all over his presidential candidate—and cried, “How do we make this go away?”, Don lemon, the Black-In-America disgrace of an anchor, Contessa Brewer, big-faced idiot of the childish, whiny inflection, Obama Boy Keith Olbermann, Hard-for-Obamby-Ball Chris Matthews, FoxNews cleavages for W., Barbara Walters of the “cutting edge” anti-aging reportage and colonic crusader Katie Couric—how dare they claim they are a strand of the Cronkite DNA? How dare they claim to be filling the shoes and following the example of a decent reporter?

But this is precisely what these fools have been doing since Cronkite passed away: cementing their legacy.

The procession of shameless narcissistic, self-aggrandizing and promoting hustlers—these are the news men and women of contemporary America.

Update (July 21): I’m not terribly familiar with Cronkite’s broadcasts, but from the little I’ve seen, he was professional. Those who’re condemning him for his statism and personal politics, of which I’m unaware (and you’d certainly need to know a good chunk of his oeuvre to pronounce on his opinions, as they are not manifest like David Shyster’s of MSNBC are), are in error—exhibiting some categorical confusion and feeble mindedness. For if Cronkite did journalims as one is supposed to, his politics are immaterial. Most journalists are statist. What do you want, a Mencken? But if they stick to their reportorial duties, their personal beliefs should not matter.

'Audit the Fed!'

Conservatism, Federal Reserve Bank, Founding Fathers, Inflation, Journalism, libertarianism, Republicans, Ron Paul

What I appreciate about Jack Hunter, also a Taki’s Magazine writer, is the way he marries solid principles and a pragmatic approach to politics. Unless a commentator achieves this feat in a consistent, principled manner, he is worthless. Yes, worthless! Some of our readers have been seduced by the habit so many libertarian scribblers have of vaporizing libertarian theory into the ether, while sitting on the fence and playing holier-than-thou when it comes to politics. Worthless as it is easy. Aside from the pleasant Southern lilt, Hunter has a natural knack for cleaving to reality while retaining principles. In ‘Audit the Fed!’ he narrates thus:

“While Bush and McCain were ‘abandoning free-market principles to save the free-market system’ by signing off on an $800 billion Wall Street Bailout, the Republican establishment still treated the truly free-market Ron Paul as some sort of crazy, irrelevant money crank.

It’s amazing the difference a year makes.

As of this writing, every single Republican in the House and over 60 Democrats have co-sponsored Paul’s H.R. 1207 Federal Reserve Transparency Act, which calls for an audit of the Federal Reserve. Given the current economic crisis, it turns out that many legislators are eager to see just how the Fed is able to print new money out of thin air. In the 1980’s, Paul introduced similar legislation with virtually no help from his fellow Republicans. In 2009, the entire party has lined up behind Ron Paul.”

Listen here.