Archive Page 4 of 9
August 27, 2008 3:39PM
By Adam Shapiro
The phone conversation, I imagine, will go something like this.
“Hello, Kiss and Make Up Florist, how may I help you?”
“Hi Susan, its Barack. I need to order 4,860,000 bouquets of roses.”
“No problem Mr. O… Red or white?”
“Both. Got any blue?”
“Certainly sir, you still in trouble with Michelle over that Access Hollywood interview with the girls?”
“No, far worse. You know those 18,000,000 men and women who voted for Hillary?”
“Yup.”
“Well, there’s this CNN/Opinion poll that says 27% of them may vote for McCain and it’s not the only poll to indicate that.”
“Even after that great speech she gave Tuesday telling the sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits that they need to vote for you.”
“I’m afraid so. Her speech was good, perhaps too good. I mean some people are starting to second guess my nomination and worse my choice for VP. The latest Gallup daily tracking poll shows me neck and neck with McCain and I can’t take any chances. I’ve got to make nice with the sisterhood so please, I need 4,860,000 bouquets of roses and they have to go out fast.”
“Mr. Obama, I can save you some money if you cut men out of the order.”
“No, no, no I’m counting on that. You see there are a lot of guys married to members of the sisterhood in that 18,000,000, guys like Dion Guthrie from Baltimore. He’s a Clinton delegate at the convention but has decided to vote for me. His wife Dianna however, man is she pissed! Dianna told this good-looking smart reporter from Fox Business that she’s angry about me getting the nomination; so angry that she intends to write Hillary’s name on the ballot in November instead of voting for me.”
“That seems foolish to me Mr. O. I mean, if she’s a Democrat and wants her party to win the White House why would she do that?”
“Beats me.”
“Maybe she thinks you’re inexperienced?”
“No.”
“Or that you haven’t paid your dues?”
“Are you kidding? I’ve been working toward this since I was a community activist back in 1985.”
“That was before you graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law right?
“Yes, and you know I am no political light weight. I survived eight years in the Illinois State Senate without one indictment. I mean Illinois, they sent the governor to jail, but I’m clean”
“Yah, I heard Mr. Biden say that. But Mr. O, you just got to Washington in 2004, Mrs. C has been there since 1993 and by her own admission she wasn’t exactly baking cookies.”
“But that’s exactly why we need change Susan. Mrs. C is the old guard, she’s too D.C.-directed and I really caught on with the youngsters who are fed up with business as usual.”
“Yah, I understand all that Mr. O. but my older sister Nancy, she’s waited her whole life to see a strong intelligent woman like Mrs. C win the presidency and ever since Nancy beat cancer, health care has been her top issue.”
“Mine too. That’s part of the reason I need to send these flowers. I have to show people like your sister and that Dianna woman that I’m their gal, I mean man. I have to show them I have new ideas, original, fresh ideas; that I feel their pain.”
“Oh I like that… should we put that on the cards?”
“Yes, yes please do.”
“Okay Mr. O will that be cash or credit?”
“Charge it.”
“Sure, I’ll add it to the $3.6 trillion tab the Tax Policy Center says your budget plan will add to the debt if you become president.”
“Ouch, that is a bit steep.”
“No worries. Mr. McCain just ordered some flowers for his evangelical friends and his tab is $4.6 trillion.”
“Wow. How is Johnny boy going to pay for that?”
“I suspect the same way you will Mr. O — borrow it. I’ve got some Chinese customers who are loaded and just looking to drop a ton of cash.”
“I like how you think Susan, but please hurry. I’ve only got about two months to get those flowers out.”
“No problem Mr. O. Sorry to cut this short but the other line is ringing. Best to Michelle.”
“Sure, Susan thanks.”
“Hello, Kiss and Make Up Florist how may I help you? Oh hi, Mr. Edwards.”
August 26, 2008 6:05AM
By Adam Shapiro
“I am a Yellow Dog Democrat,” 87-year-old Charles Johnson boasted proudly in his rich southern drawl along with a warm southern smile. “Yellow Dog Democrat?” I asked. “Yes,” Charles replied. “I’d rather vote for a Yellow Dog Democrat than a Republican.” Charles is from North Carolina, and, as they might say in is home state, he ain’t alone.
“I’m looking to be amazed,” 19-year-old Brett Carmical told me. Brett, who is from Missouri, is missing his first week of college to attend the Democratic National Convention. And although he is almost 70 years younger than Charles, these two men, born at different ends of the past century, have something in common that often gets men of all ages in trouble: a woman. In this case, a woman young enough to be Charles’ daughter and old enough to be Brett’s mom, (in either case in vitro would not be necessary): Hillary Clinton. Charles and Brett are Hillary Clinton delegates.
“Having Hillary as a nominee would have been a slam dunk,” says Brett. He can’t understand why Barack Obama picked Joe Biden to be his running mate and says other Clinton supporters are equally upset. “A lot of them don’t understand why. She got 18 million votes.” (Remember that number — 18 million – because you’re going to hear it repeated from now until the election in November.) Brett is still upset that his nominee won’t get the nomination. “I was frustrated but I kinda got over it,” he said.
So did Charles, who says he thinks Hillary’s got the stuff, but Obama? “We Democrats are going to give him the stuff if he doesn’t have it,” he said. It sounds like a threat, but Charles is a pretty nice guy, so it’s more of an offer to Mr. Obama for on-the-job training if he wins the election, and Clinton supporters like Charles and Brett are counting on it.
Charles and Brett will both vote for Obama; maybe with a smile, maybe not, but they’ll do it. Charles because he’s a Yellow Dog Democrat and Brett…well, he’s barely old enough to own a yellow dog or one of any other color, but he is old enough to vote and smart enough to know that plenty of other Clinton supporters will do the exact same thing, despite what you read about bitter feelings and tension between the Obama and Clinton camps.
“The healing begins when Hillary speaks Tuesday night,” according to Brett. (News flash: It started Monday, thanks to another woman, Michelle Obama.
Did you catch the not-so-subtle, let’s-kiss-and-make-up gesture directed at Clinton supporters in Michelle Obama’s speech Monday night? “The only limit to the height of your achievement is the reach of your dreams.” She was talking about people who don’t give up. “People like Hillary Clinton. Eighteen million cracks in that glass ceiling so our daughters could aim a little higher.” Michelle Obama and Team Obama believe that the Democrats have to make nice to 18 million Hillary Clinton supporters because 18 million voters (see why you need to remember that number?) with say 20 or 30 percent voting the wrong way, is more than enough to lose an election. Guess what? Recent polls show anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of Hillary Clinton supporters have yet to buy the goods on Mr. Obama. John McCain’s people are counting on it, but they should be careful about counting their chickens before they hatch, or their dogs, as in yellow dogs, before they learn new tricks or some stupid cliche like that because here’s another news flash: What if the Democrats don’t need to heal any wounds? Think about it. What would you do if you were a Hillary Clinton supporter come November?
Brett and Charles understand something more important than making nice — they understand loyalty. They don’t need the hollow kiss and make up syrupy sweet gestures that will pour off the podium inside the Pepsi Center to try and persuade Clinton supporters that the Democrats are one big happy family. That kind of fairly tale only exists on TV, and (surprise!) political conventions are 100 percent television. Making decisions based on loyalty and sucking it up so that your agenda wins, that’s what being a Yellow Dog Democrat is all about. Brett and Charles are willing to put their personal preferences aside to do what they believe is necessary to put their party and the preferences they share back in the White House. They also suspect most Hillary Clinton supporters will do the same. Why? Because being a Yellow Dog Democrat in the White House, says Charles “is better than being a Hillary supporter in the dog house.”
August 25, 2008 6:08AM
By Adam Shapiro
“Stop misleading the country you a—holes” screamed a young, sweaty, lanky, long-haired protestor Sunday outside Denver’s Pepsi Center. “Where you from” I asked? “F— off” he said. Welcome to the 2008 Democratic National Convention!
The protestor was yelling at police officers and reporters during a demonstration Sunday that shut down the main entrance to the Democrats’ (Use your best Ed Sullivan voice if you are over 30 and get the cultural reference) “really big show.” They were protesting the war in Iraq, U.S. immigration policy, free trade, U.S. labor laws, and I am sure somewhere in the crowd someone was protesting the nomination of Britney Spears “Piece of Me” video for MTV’s video of the year award. We really do live in troubled times! Not that this 20-something who reeked of patchouli oil, (for the record I haven’t smelled this much patchouli oil in one location since I covered a Grateful Dead concert in the 1990s at Deer Creek outside Indianapolis), represented the majority of protestors. They were mostly sincere citizens who want the issues important to them addressed by the Democrats when the gavel falls Monday to open their 45th quadrennial convention, and by convention I mean blow out party! Of course they will address real issues at this convention and that’s important to Denver Citizen David Hite.
He was stuck outside the Pepsi center during that protest and told me that protesting is “everyone’s right and this is healthy.” He is far less worried about our country’s future than the protestors who David stopped to watch during a bike ride with his friend Sherry Richardson. “I was excited about JFK and still get excited about the future. I am cautiously optimistic” he told me. This from a guy who describes himself as a moderate liberal. “Just fascinating,” said Sherry. “I am always proud of Denver but the protestors make me nervous.”
Not Charlene Fernandez. She’s a superdelegate from Yuma, Ariz., I met during the protest, and by protest I mean disorganized beatnik bash. “I worry about the middle class,” Charlene told me. For her the economy is front and center at this convention, and she’s not alone. A Fox News poll found 43% of the people surveyed list the economy and jobs as their number one concern. Just 11% list Iraq as their number one issue. (Message to protestors: You may get more mileage with the Britney Spears thing, OK?. I’m just saying.) Charlene and others worried about the economy will get a healthy dose this week of what the Democrats believe is wrong with American Capitalism, and by wrong the Democrats mean bash President Bush and the Republicans at every possible opportunity.
But Charlene and I suspect most Americans don’t want any more bashing (unless it involves free beer and booze which conventions have plenty of) and instead want solutions. Like what to do about housing and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a multi-trillion-dollar time bomb that politicians from both parties helped create. On Tuesday, the Democrats have declared their theme “Renewing America’s Promise.” Barack Obama is making a lot of promises these days. Some include raising taxes on people who earn more than 250 thousand dollars a year. People called “the rich.” He is also promising to raise the capital gains tax on anyone who cashes in an investment, not just “the rich.” Hello middle class are you paying attention? That means the stocks and mutual funds you invested in to help pay for your kids college education will be taxed at a higher rate which means less money available for Jonny or Susie to pay for a college education, and by college education I mean midnight beer bashes with their friends at campus bars.
Analysts predict Obama’s overall plan will add about three trillion dollars to the national debt! The debt today is about nine trillion. Obama’s advisors say that’s rubbish; their plan will balance out and for the record the analysts predict John McCain’s plan will add about five trillion to the national debt! I don’t see anyone protesting either candidates plan to burden us all with more debt. Not even Democratic Party strategist Donna Brazile who while rushing away from that protest told me, “This is an extraordinary political season. We will make history.”
But will the Democrats make sense? Will the 2008 Democratic National Convention layout a plan for America that people like Charlene and Dave will embrace? Will the protestors hear in that plan the kind of agenda that will convince them to stop protesting or at the very least keep MTV from awarding another honor to Britney Spears? And will someone please ban patchouli oil? That 20 something protestor who told me to f— off really smelled bad. Welcome to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
July 18, 2008 12:22PM
By Robert Ray
Americans are not rich, America is rich.
Most of the people live in rural communities, not urban bubbles.
One can drive for 500 miles in America and not hit a city with over 200,000 people.
I set out on a 1500-mile trip this past week. Chicago to Wichita, Kansas and back. My goal was to talk with Middle America, take a pulse, find out if people are changing their lifestyle because of inflated gas, food and a generally slumping economy.
For the most part, most people I meet in this country are nice. They will look a perfect stranger in the eye and answer a question. Most are honest; some embellish and in between one deciphers the truth of it all.
The Midwest is a laboratory for the thought of America.
People in the middle have a full circle of beliefs and opinions representing the entire country. There are little interior motives to the mindset in the heartland, most folks just think it and say it the way they internalize it. I suppose that is why their opinions are so valuable in presidential campaigns. But, more interesting is the economy in the rural region of America.
Rural America is not rich, not fancy and certainly not unaffected by America’s current economy. In fact, possibly more than any other group of people they are being hammered by gas prices and food inflation. And did I mention a surging series of job layoffs in the manufacturing sectors, that’s the icing.
All around America…big, medium and small businesses are treading. Men and women’s salaries are not increasing relative to the price of life.
THE PRICE OF LIFE.
Stunning that there is a price, and even more disturbing is standing in front of a person who you know is hurting…a person who has a family that just can’t find a solution or means to and end for the stress being caused by money. What an insignificant significant word.
I would venture to say that most Americans at least 3 times a month ask themselves “How the hell am I going to make this happen.”
Anyone reading this who thinks I am being negative is not the majority. You are lucky in money, but maybe not in life.
These people you watch that I interviewed are just being honest. Their word is important to deciphering the impact of America’s current economic storm. We all want money but in the end we all just need people.
July 16, 2008 7:00PM
By Robert Ray
The buzz of crickets on the prairie, the whisper of a breeze through my ears and the passing sound of a 40 story turbine cranking revolutions to the velocity of the earth’s wind….indeed, a Kansas wind farm.
We have spent the day with Pete Ferrell, a fourth generation cattle rancher, 7 thousand acres he owns here in southeastern Kansas. Pete’s a tall man, 6’4, slender, wears a cowboy hat, ripped jeans, talks with a strong command of scary western guy voice…made my forehead sweat around the edge of the hairline when we met.
Pete pulled up in front of the Beaumont Hotel on Tuesday night, about 9pm. Dusk had settled the air so his image was silhouette as he slowly cranked open the door on his pick-up truck. “Pete Ferrell, good to see you, I’m Robert Ray.”
“Robert, how are you? Tell me the game plan for tomorrow, I’m a busy rancher and I got too much to take care of”
You see, Cattle Ranchers make New Yorkers look like turtles in creepy parking lot carnival races. Pete gets the damn job done and his time is money. Pete is also a “wind evangelist” of sorts. He has been preaching the gospel of alternative energy in the form of wind power for over a decade.
Some people in these parts hate the sight of the massive white blades hovering over the prairie. Others embrace them and find beauty and hope they make waves in the battle for powering the United States. I sensed both views while in the region. On the side of I35 south were two signs. The first read “Yes to Wind Power,” the second “No, to nuke power.” This really means a lot to this region and you have to realize that the State of Kansas has their Oil Museum right here in the Flint Hills of Southeastern Kansas.
There is one certain in life; wind will never stop unless there is no Planet Earth.
Each wind turbine costs 2 million dollars to construct; not including labor after the structure is set. But, each turbine can power up to 250 homes so the return may exceed the cost.
There is no irony that Pete Ferrell is preaching wind farm gospel to America. After all, windmills were built out here in the American West in the late 19th century to promote development and economic engines…basically, business in the great American West was pushed through wind energy, not whiskey and saloon brawls, although that is the preferable and noted hooligans history of business on the Great Plains. I wish it were true.
At present time only 1 percent of America is powered by wind based mechanisms.
There are nearly 19,000 turbines in action in the United States and 93,000 worldwide.
Pete Ferrell’s ranch has 100.
The United Kingdom has a proposed plan to use offshore wind farms to generate enough power to light every home by 2020.
Cowboy Pete, an American enterpriser and guy who gets the damn job done
June 27, 2008 9:28AM
By Robert Ray
10:57 PM
Definition of Money: Money is a good that acts as a medium of exchange in transactions. Classically it is said that money acts as a unit of account, a store of value, and a medium of exchange. Most authors find that the first two are nonessential properties that follow from the third. In fact, other goods are often better than money at being intertemporal stores of value, since most monies degrade in value over time through inflation or the overthrow of governments.
Well, there it is, the definition of money.
I spent the day at the Morningstar Convention in Chicago. You may have seen our broadcast, and if you did I hope you gained insight from the dynamic interviews conducted by Dagen McDowell and Jeff Flock.
This convention/conference is all about cash and advice about cash.
At about 2pm today I thought of something, the definition of money. Before I tell you why I must ask you to pause…please look away from the screen…look at something in the room that means a lot to you…did you find it?…Ok, now that you have located your item or object, please ask yourself, is it worth a transaction that will include another person or major corporation or is it just worth something to you, only you?
A unit of account, a store of value or a medium of exchange? Which one is it?
At 2:04pm today I realized that the world revolves around cash. But, I know that the human spirit revolves around people, not loot. Having said that, today Crude Oil hit another all time high, the Dow Jones went south, Presidential campaign debt was mulled over, and don’t forget that people in the Midwest are still trying to figure out what in hell they are going to do with their business or farm operation that was destroyed buy the flooding.
There is not one aspect of your life that does not include cash. Not one. Even if you are naked with no clothes lying in the middle of a desert with no possessions you still had to come up with some sort of greenback to get there or get something on the way.
You may have used some of these words on your way to the desert where you are naked;
Argent, bankroll, bequest, bill, blunt, boodle, booty, brass, bread, capital, cash, cent, change, chattel, chips, clink, coin, coinage, currency, cush, dinero, dough, dump, finances, funds, gelt, gilt, gold, gratuity, greenbacks, green stuff, grig, handsel, hansel, hard cash, income, jack, jake, kale, legacy, legal tender, lettuce, livre, long green, loot, lour, lucre, mammon, mazuma, medium, mina, moola, moolah, moss, oof, ooftish, pelf, proceeds, profit, property, purse, rebate, reimbursement, resources, revenue, rhino, riches, rocks, scratch, specie, stipend, swag, tender, tin, wad, wampum, wealth, wherewithal, windfall.
Holy cripes…Have a sip, i just did.
So, when I realized that the world revolved around cash I realized the world will never be simplistic and thus I and you must find that small object in the room that means only something to us and our inner thoughts…..look at it one more time…it’s nice, especially in a society that’s kicking bucks.
June 26, 2008 10:26AM
By Robert Ray
5:53pm
From covering natural disasters in the Midwest to advice on my 401(k) plan at the Morningstar investment conference it’s been a roller coaster two weeks. Gotta tell you, this business news stuff aint so boring after all. I mean who says that business is stodgy or blah? Well, I beg to differ because you see the American Economy and people’s money will never be boring because those are two topics that will be talk points until the planet stops spinning. That’s a long time.
We have a terrific two-day of live broadcast coming from McCormick Place in Chicago.
Dagen McDowell will be anchoring and interviewing key investment advisors and Jeff Flock will roam the convention floors in search for the most interesting investment advice on the planet.
The space of the convention floor is enormous, about 5 football fields. This morning the place was totally empty and now at 6pm it is bustling with booths and people chatting a low roar. Our crew here at Fox Business Network is the best in biz, these guys have been erecting our set, lighting and camera testing, what a job! And not to mention the hard working people in the trades…the carpenters, electricians, all folks in a great business roles that make the end result shine.
So if you have the time check out the broadcast in the next couple days, and if you can’t make it to the tube you can always watch our special behind the scenes segments right here on this very website that you are staring at. Hope you enjoy one of the many media platform we will provide of this exciting conference that is all about cash. On that note, I have to go to the ATM now and check the balance in my checking account.
June 24, 2008 8:34AM
By Ashley Webster
The Jeddah Energy Meeting may not have generated any surprises, at least not the kind that woud cool down prices on the oil markets, but the city itself is surprising for a reporter who is visiting Saudi Arabia for the first time.
To be honest it reminded me of Phoenix, there’s certainly not as much fake greenery and swimming pools, but like Phoenix there’s lots of desert brown, heat and strip malls. Of course Jeddah sits on the Red Sea so the heat has some humidity thrown in as well but bottomline this Saudi City is more westernized than I had imagined. How westernized? Can you believe Chuck E. Cheese? Baskin-Robbins? Burger King and of course McDonald’s? I was amazed to see some of these great American gastronomic exports in a country so culturally different to the United States.
It is heartening to know that with so much conflict in the world we can speak the same language… namely the love of cheeseburgers and fries. Jeddah is one of the more liberal and westernized cities in Saudi Arabia, strict religious laws are slighly looser here and the local population seem to enjoy the contact with western tourists and businessman. I was stopped on several occasions and told that the Saudi people are not all bad and are not all terrorists as the western media would have everyone believe. It was a common theme and the people I talked to wanted to make sure they made that point.
As I head back to London and the cool, rainy weather I will remember both the warmth of the desert and of the people who live there. There may not be enough oil to go around but I’m happy in the knowledge that there’s a never-ending supply of cheeseburgers.
