Opinion: In today’s pages: Polar bear plight, tax cut pleas
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Radio commentator Rob Long shares his mixed emotions over the scheduled destruction of the Tower Records on Sunset, and Foreign Policy editor Moisés Naím wonders if the world can survive an exploding global middle class. Ronald Brownstein watches the two Democratic contenders try to assemble a winning coalition, and cartoonist Nick Anderson finds out where John McCain’s conservative critics have holed up. Joel Stein can’t help but join the Obama fan club, but wonders: Why can’t it be a little less lame?
You are embarrassing yourselves. With your ‘Yes We Can’ music video, your ‘Fired Up, Ready to Go’ song, your endless chatter about how he’s the first one to inspire you, to make you really feel something -- it’s as if you’re tacking photos of Barack Obama to your locker, secretly slipping him little notes that read, ‘Do you like me? Check yes or no.’ Some of you even cry at his speeches. If I were Obama, and you voted for me, I would so never call you again.
The editorial board scoffs at President Bush’s plea to make his tax cuts permanent, and thanks Mercury Insurance for its donation to the LAPD -- but hopes it won’t become a habit. The board also sees the polar bear’s plight as a chance to heat up the debate on climate change:
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is nearly a month overdue in making a decision on whether to list the polar bear as a threatened species. Though there’s reason to view the delay with cynicism -- it gave the government time to lease prime polar-bear habitat for oil exploration -- this is a decision with far-reaching and potentially unintended consequences.
Readers react to Bush’s budget. Wolfram Wolz asks:
Concerning that proposed budget, two questions come to mind: How can such incredible sums of money be made available to be spent at the request of a president? How can such incredible sums of money ever be repaid? It must be clear that such use of huge amounts must result sooner or later in a huge financial disaster.