Idol Chatter

Black Friday 2008 has now come and gone.  With much trepidation many retail stores and, frankly, economists will be counting the numbers.  Is Black Friday a good barameter of the Holiday spending totals?  Or could it be that with all the hype about how dramatic the deals were going to be and how much price slashing would be evidient, customers were left feeling a bit disappointed?

If that’s the case, if Black Friday becomes Bleak Friday, there is still a modicum of hope.  The fact is that Christmas will come and some level of buying always happens.  Christmas 2008 is already fated to go down on the records as one of no growth and probable retraction of sales volumes that have been achieved in prior years.

And the real story about Christmas 2008 will be told after Christmas as some retailers just won’t be able to make it.  There’s no jolly in that thought.  But the US economy is one driven by the consumer.  Consumers are fearful.  There have been many job layoffs already announced and as folks reduce spending in fear that their jobs may be next, they actually promote the very outcome they seek to avoid.  Ironic isn’t it?

In a day or two we’ll all be told how it went.  In the meantime, perhaps I’ll make a trip to the mall or better yet wait until Cyber Monday and buy something online.

Will Preseident elect Obama select Senator Clinton for Head of State?  This is the subject getting a fair amount of attention as Obama talked with both Clinton and Governor Richards about the post.

I am reminded of the old saying “keep your friends close and your enemies even closer”.  Obama does not seem to like Clinton much depsite the acclaimed speech she gave at the DNC and her campaign stumping she did for Obama after he had won the party’s nod for Democratic nominee.

The news pundits are also wondering how Vice President Elect Joe Biden might factor in any foreign policy role.  However, no matter who is offered and accepts the HOS role, he or she isn’t going to want Biden ‘helping’ out.  The HOS must have a firm command of international relations and Biden, unless serving for some humanitarian type of endeavor is likely to just be in the way and potentially undermining the HOS position.

Today regular programming was interupted to bring us breaking news.  What happened?  Was the US attacked?  Did another major financial institution declare bankruptcy?  Did some notworthy public persona commit some unspeakable crime or at least some significant gaffe?

Truth is none of these events happened.  Nope.  What as so important was that the President Elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle made their first trip to the White House.

Are you kidding me?  This is considered news?

Why I needed to see the President elect and his wife enter the White House in real time is totally beyond me.  Why I needed to know that they have a $100,000 budget to redecorate the private quarters and the oval office is also totally beyond me.

With all that is going on in the current environment one would hope that we could actually concentrate on real news.  Leave the President elect and his lovely family alone for just a day.  I’m sure they would enjoy that as much as I would.

Looking a little worse for wear, President Elect Obama held his first press conference yesterday.  In a discussion that seemed halting at times and certainly not the smooth delivery we’ve grown accustomed to, the Obama basically admitted that fixing the economy was going to be a difficult job and require a lot of time.  Like we didn’t know that already.

And Obama clearly made a gaffe when he said in relation to talking to past presidents that “I’ve spoken to all of them,” he said, after a pause adding, “… that are living. I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any seances.”  That required an apology when someone pointed out to him that while Nancy Reagan was into astrology she did not hold seances.

The only time Obama seemed to lighten up was when the conversation turned to what kind of dog would the Obama family be taking to the White House.  I’m not sure America really cares much about this subject but then again, you gotta love puppies!

The election is over and for some of us, not a moment too soon.  The most important element of election night after, of course, the announcement of Barack Obama as our 44th president was the gracious nature of the speaches made by both McCain and Obama that evening.

After the last six months of negative ad after negative ad – from both parties – one began to wonder if we had any civility left in us.  Tuesday evening fortunately gave us reason for hope in that regard.  Both men praised each other and as they delivered their praise it seemed to this writer that both honestly meant every word of it.

This turn moves us as a nation to a higher standard, a higher moral ground that cannot help but restore our confidence in ourselves and have the rest of the world more grateful for the more meaningful, intelligent discourse.

Thank goodness… and thank you to both honorable men.