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ForsythOpinion This opinions may others. is not a Signed reflect page of the of columns writers our opinion views. and and — artists, ours, cartoons yours and are they and the
Sunday, January 29, 2012
One economic
forecast we can
feel good about
It's nice sometimes to
be reminded that the
proverbial glass not only
isn't half empty, it's
more than half full and
rising.
That's the message
Frank Norton delivered
to Forsyth County last
week.
A real estate and insur¬
ance executive, Norton
has for 25 years present¬
ed an annual review of
economic and financial
conditions in the north
Georgia area entitled
Native Intelligence. In a
presentation of his latest
report on Tuesday,
Norton reminded us all
that Forsyth County con¬
tinues to have a dynamic
and growing economic
engine and is poised to
be a leader for all of
Georgia for years to
come.
His words serve as an
optimistic reminder that
despite the economic
doldrums of recent years
we continue to be in
much better shape than
most other communities.
“Last year I told you
[Forsyth County] was
different, this year I'm
telling you it’s a leader,"
Norton said to an audi¬
ence of about 2(X) peo
pie.
He went on to note
that while home con¬
struction in most of
metro Atlanta is at a
standstill, building con¬
tinues in Forsyth County.
He said foreclosures in
the county were lower
than elsewhere, and that
job growth for Forsyth
and Hall counties out¬
paces the rest of north¬
Letter policy
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Mail letters to the Forsyth County News,
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(770) 889-6017 or e-mail to editor@forsyth
news.com.
Unlike president, GOP field serious about governing
You know politicians
are serious when they
move from campaigning
to governing. Something
like that may be happen¬
ing on the Republican
campaign trail — but,
unfortunately, not at the
Obama White House.
Campaigning clearly
carried the day for Newt
Gingrich in South
Carolina, where he beat
Mitt Romney by a 40 per¬
cent to 28 percent margin.
It’s generally agreed that
Gingrich clinched the
race when he reacted
angrily to questions by
Fox News’s Juan
Williams and CNN’s
John King.
Both times Gingrich
got standing ovations. But
not for how he’d govern.
His platform can be
summed up in a bumper
sticker a Washington law¬
yer printed to buck up
George H.W. Bush’s hap¬
less 1992 campaign:
“Annoy the media — vote
for Bush." It was fun but
didn’t win many votes.
South Carolina
Republicans got a charge
out of imagining how
Send a letter to the editor to P.O. Box 210 Cumming, GA 30028; fax it to (770) 889-6017; or e-mail it to editor@forsythnews.com.
east Georgia.
None of the metro
Atlanta counties are
enjoying the boom times
of a few years ago. but
it's hard to argue that
Forsyth hasn't weath¬
ered the storm better
than most, and there are
plenty of indicators that
suggest things are get¬
ting better.
Norton said the hous¬
ing market recovery will
follow new jobs, which
again is promising for
Forsyth.
The economic prog¬
nosticator also noted
another trend that txxles
w ell not just for Forsyth
County but for the state
and nation - a grassroot
movement toward buy¬
ing local and buying
American.
“If every American
family spent just $3.92
more a year on
American-made goods,
it could create K).(XX)
jobs," Norton said. In his
annual report, he notes
that there seems to be a
growing sentiment
toward buying gcxxls
prtxluced in America,
and encourages consum¬
ers to pay more attention
to the origin of the goods
they consume.
He also notes that not
only is it important to
buy American, but at the
county level to spend
dollars in local stores,
where local taxes are
collected that have a
direct impact on local
quality of life.
If Forsyth residents
will heed that adv ice, the
proverbial glass will fill
up a lot quicker.
t
MICHAEL BARONE
Columnist
Gingrich would rebuke
Barack Obama in the
Lincoln-Douglas debates
he’s been proposing.
Except of course Obama
would never agree to that
format.
In the Monday debate
at Tampa, Fla., Romney
came back hard at
Gingrich, saying that he
had been ousted as speak¬
er by his own party and
that he had to resign “in
disgrace.”
Gingrich complained
afterward about the ban
on applause and said he
might not show up for
later debates with a simi¬
lar ban (although it is
imposed in the fall
debates).
What’s important here
is that Romney went
Gingrich for the way he
governed. Gingrich cites,
with a little exaggeration,
significant things he
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Obama content to do nothing
Toward the end of his
State of the Union
speech. President Barack
Obama observed that
Washington politicians
should learn from the
example of the U.S. mil¬
itary: “When you’re
marching into battle, you
look out for the person
next to you, or the mis¬
sion fails.”
Obama recalled the
successful Navy SEAL
mission that, under his
watch, took out Osama
bin Laden and observed,
"The mission only suc¬
ceeded because every
member of that unit
trusted each other —
because you can’t charge
up those stairs, into
darkness and danger,
unless you know that
there’s someone behind
you, watching your
back.”
At first blush, it
seemed like a stirring
call to action. But when
you look at the speech as
a whole — and in con¬
text — it was a sad
admission. Obama con¬
stantly carps about his
lack of support from the
Republican-led House. 1
think the president has
decided that he cannot
succeed in the face of
achieved as speaker —
welfare reform, holding
spending down, tax cuts.
But his quibbling with
Romney over the timeline
of his ouster as speaker
misses the point. Many
former colleagues,
including Rick Santorum
in the last two debates,
have criticized him as an
erratic and unsteady lead¬
er. These conservatives
are troubled by the way
he governed.
And Gingrich was not
helped by the interchang¬
es on his work for
Freddie Mac, which
along with Fannie Mae
was heavily responsible
for creating the housing
bubble that dragged down
the economy when it
burst, or by the way he
defended his advocacy of
the Medicare prescription
drug program, an expan¬
sion of entitlements
opposed by many conser¬
vatives.
Romney’s critics have
hit the former governor
for not doing much to
advance the conservative
cause.
They have something
M
l_ _ A ,
DEBRA SAUNDERS
Columnist
political opposition. So
he is not charging up
those stairs.
Unless Washington
walks in lock step
behind Obama, he's not
going to try to get any¬
thing done.
Consider the White
House decision on the
Keystone XL pipeline.
Earlier this month, the
administration
announced that the presi¬
dent denied the project
because of “a rushed and
arbitrary deadline" of
Feb. 21 embedded in a
two-month extension of
the 2011 payroll tax hol¬
iday. “I’m disappointed
that Republicans in
Congress forced this
decision," the president
lamented.
Obama also lauded the
military toward the
beginning of his address.
“They focus on the mis¬
sion at hand. They work
together,” he noted.
"Imagine what we could
accomplish if we fol-
of a point.
But Romney was able
to cite a conservative fis¬
cal record in
Massachusetts despite an
85 percent Democratic
legislature. And he might
have pointed out that, if
he is elected president, he
will likely govern with a
Republican Senate and
Republican House.
Romney is now bur¬
dened with an economic
platform that has rightly
been called timid, with
only small tax cuts. But
the fiscal plans of other
candidates are subject to
attack as leading to enor¬
mous budget deficits
when scored by neutral
arbiters.
Romney’s vaguer call
for broadening the tax
base and lowering tax
rates, as in the bipartisan
1986 tax reform and as
advocated by the Bowles
Simpson commission, is
something that could
actually happen. He
hasn’t been specific, but
neither was Ronald
Reagan in the election
leading up to the 1986
law. Perhaps naively, I
lowed their example."
1 can imagine it, but
what 1 see is a president
who nixed a shovel
ready job-rich pipeline
project that had been
under review since 2008
and had passed State
Department vetting
twice — without
exhausting every effort
to approve the pipeline
or extend the deadline.
Ryan Lizza wrote an
illuminating piece on
Obama's “post-post-par¬
tisan presidency" in the
current New Yorker.
As Lizza reported, in
2(X)4 and 2(X)8 Obama
framed himself as a
Democrat who w as
above hyper-partisan¬
ship. Yet a year into his
presidency, a Gallup poll
showed Obama to be
“the most polarizing
first-year president in
history — that is, the dif¬
ference between
Democratic approval of
him and Republican dis¬
approval was the highest
ever recorded."
Lizza wrongly, I think,
concludes: “At this polit¬
ical juncture, there
appears to be only one
real model of effective
governance in
Washington: political
think Romney is thinking
seriously about govern
tng.
Barack Obama isn't,
and that’s one thing
Republican candidates
might want to bring up in
the next debates. Obama
rejected the Bowles
Simpson recommenda¬
tions out of hand, and he
seems untroubled that the
Democratic-majority
Senate hasn’t produced a
budget in 1,000 days.
That’s contrary to the
requirements of law, as is
the administration’s delay
in sending up its own
budget three years in a
row.
But this is a president
who flouts one law after
another. He made recess
appointments when the
Senate was not in recess
as required by the
Constitution, and to one
position when a law he
signed requires Senate
confirmation for the
appointee to act.
He vetoed the Keystone
XL pipeline on environ¬
mental grounds that the
law says could not be
considered. His policy on
dominance, in which a
president with large
majorities in Congress
can push through an
ambitious agenda."
Last month, deputy
press secretary Josh
Earnest told Politico that
extending the two-month
payroll tax holiday “is
essentially the last must
do item of business” the
president has with
Congress. After that, “in
terms of the president's
relationship with
Congress in 2012 ... the
president is no longer
tied to Washington,
DC."
In other words, Obama
can govern only if
Democrats control both
houses of Congress.
Until then, he has taken
his marbles and gone
home. As Steve Jobs said
— when describing his
dealings with Obama to
biographer Walter
Isaacson “the presi¬
dent is very smart. But
he kept explaining to us
reasons why things can't
get done.”
Debra J. Saunders is a
nationally syndicated col¬
umnist You may e-mail her:
dsaunders@sfchronic!e.
com.
whether religious organi¬
zations can require
employees to share their
beliefs was swatted down
by a 9-0 vote of the
Supreme Court.
What we see is a presi¬
dent in pure campaign
mode and cavalier about
the rule of law, with poli¬
cies — higher taxes, envi¬
ronmental restrictions,
more stimulus spending
— poorly suited to cur¬
rent needs.
The Republican candi¬
dates are struggling
fiercely with each other.
But a candidate who con¬
centrates less on denunci¬
ation and more on gov¬
erning could have an
advantage in the fall over
an incumbent who is
doing more denouncing
than governing himself.
Michael Barone, senior
political analyst for The
Washington Examiner
(www.washingtonexaminer.
com), is a resident fellow at
the American Enterprise
Institute, a Fox News
Channel contributor and a
co-author of The Almanac
of American Politics.
r