Cognitive dissonance everywhere ...

On the national side: Barack Obama says we need to grow up. We need to stop acting childish and trying to spend our way to prosperity. But when the Republicans push more tax cuts as the answer to our problems, what do the Democrats say? Well, people might only save the few extra pennies per paycheck in reduced payroll taxes, and where’s the stimulus in that? I guess we are supposed to stop spending tomorrow, meanwhile just like Bush said after 9/11, it is our patriotic duty to keeping spending.

On the other side from the Democrats, Michael Steele says the jobs the government pays for are not real jobs and only temporary. Um, I assume this recession is supposed to only be temporary too.

Locally, Doug Shields looked at the recent history of local races for Mayor, his own history in city wide races, Ravenstahl’s war chest and his own, and decided that staying President of Council is not such a bad move. I remember a few months ago Ravenstahl accused Shields of being the race, and Shields said “hunh?” (I paraphrase). Pat Dowd has yet to announce he is in the race for sure or not, he has only said he is thinking about it.

We in the Burghosphere want someone to run. Dowd would be a good candidate for us because he has tried to do the populist thing, running and winning first school board and then a Council seat by knocking on doors and talking to people. I know personally he was willing to talk about issues, I suspect if I had tried to talk about potholes he would have given me a mix of practical advice (here’s who you call) and some policy stuff about the city’s debt and smart ways to fill potholes.

But there are a couple of limitations. First, has Dowd done a good job in Council? The fact I can ask the question at all is sort of a problem. Second, do the qualities of a good legislator translate into those of a good city executive? We mostly don’t think (in the Burgosphere) that Ravenstahl is a good Mayor, but would Pat Dowd be? Thirdly (and kind of importantly), how hard do we want to fight this? I myself have argued that someone running against Ravenstahl needs to go for the jugular, needs to highlight all the Mayor’s indiscretions, all the sweetheart deals, and pound the lack of progress on dealing with the City’s real problems. But doing that puts the Mayor’s supporters in a bad light. It makes the ACDC look bad for endorsing him, all the politicians at the City, County and State level who support him look kind of bad. How are City Democratic voters going to feel about a bloody fight? Maybe if Dowd runs (kind of dirty) as a sacrificial lamb, and then the Republican candidate finishes the job. Then we might decide Luke wasn’t so bad after all, compared to a Republican.

Then again, I have to say I think the only influence the Burghospere has is with maybe a small part of the local progressive blob. We have even less influence than the PG.

I thought stuff was supposed to get better after Obama got elected. And I didn’t even say anything Geithner apparently having his voice crack at his bailout rollout, or how he was apparently laughed at.