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• Saturday, November 29, 2008 02:28 PM

  @Morris Sheppard

  Thanks for the comment. I always enjoy corresponding with you folks. Your retorts often make me laugh.

  I agree with you that Mr. Obama is intelligent enough to be president. Like him, I finished near the top of a first tier law school (not quite Harvard, but not bad). Also did well in a challenging undergraduate program. It would be fun, for me, to match up my GPA's to Mr. Obama's in both programs, along with SAT/LSAT scores. I haven't been able to find his numbers on-line. I would also like to read either a law school Note of his, if he published one, or anything he published during his work as a part-time law school instructor, but I could not find that either. I did flip through one of his books at a bookstore, and found it o.k. as a political memoir (the standard is pretty low for such writing). Although, in all modesty, I think I could probably explain his political positions more cogently than he did. Regardless, he passed the Illinois bar, and that is an adequate foundation for future political service in my book. I think I understand where is coming from in terms of book knowledge.

  When hiring a CEO -- and let's use GM as an example -- there are at least two types. The go-along-get-along type when times are good, and the SOB when times are bad. Right now, GM needs an SOB to break the union. If the government is going to finance anything, it should finance the strike-induced operation GM will need while replacement workers are employed to leverage steep concessions.

  For the USA, another sick corporation (to use the old "Wall Street" cliche), we also need an SOB. Someone to either jawbone the country into higher taxes, or break the government equivalent of unionism -- the senior citizen entitlements. We can't get away from our $10 Trillion debt without it.

  John McCain could have been that kind of president. So could Barack Obama, but I am not seeing it so far. His pledge to borrow more than $1 Trillion to "rescue" us from the economic cycle is as silly as it is politically brilliant. The incumbacrats and incumbacans will both go along with it, because it helps them too. Borrowed money (payable well in the future) is the mother's milk of the perpetual political class.

  So, in sum, intelligence is good. Backbone is better. Time will tell whether Mr. Obama has both.

  —Readerreader Read Readerreader's other letters
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