American Agora

Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss has won the Georgia Senate run-off:

With 96 percent of the state’s precincts reporting in the runoff election, Mr. Chambliss had 57.5 percent of the vote, and his Democratic challenger, Jim Martin, 42.5 percent. The margin was far greater than the three percentage points that separated the two men in the Nov. 4 election, when neither won the required 50 percent. Many of the Democrats who turned out last month in enthusiastic support of Barack Obama apparently did not show up at the polls on Tuesday.

This obviously begs the question: why didn't the President -- excuse me, President-Elect -- campaign for Jim Martin in the past few weeks? What the exit polls are hinting at is exactly what the above NYT article states: Obama Dems simply didn't vote. Chambliss' victory is in no way surprising, but would Obama made a significant difference for Martin? I think absolutely. If Obama spoke for the Democratic challenger at even a handful of events, the Obama base would have rallied to his support. A vote for Martin would have been a vote for Obama, because without him, who is Jim Martin? Answer: Jim Martin. Exactly.

Thus, without a Democratic Senator from Georgia, the Blues cannot reach the targeted 60-seat filibuster-less Senate. Perhaps more importantly, this makes Al Franken's campaign almost meaningless to the Dems, who really don't need him in Congress (in two ways really: first, the magic 60 can't be reached; second: we won't have any Daily Affirmations from Stuart Smalley while a bailout bill is on the floor. Wait, that'd probably be awesome.)

Obama should've been there. Taking time out of his busy schedule wouldn't have killed his ability to formulate his National Security team. Hell, even W. made time to clear the brush while we were watching the Shock and Awe special on CNN.

-- A.S. Noel

Michael Arrington thinks outside the box.

-Andrew

In one of the most recent Planet Money podcast from NPR. My new favorite economist, Niall Ferguson, dissects the question that I had when this all started: Where did all the money go? His interview is from ~5:30 to 14:30 in the podcast.

-Andrew

From this week's GPS:

[I]t turns out that all that wonderful European regulation didn't prevent European banks becoming even more leveraged than American banks. In fact, the ratios are higher in Europe.

That was Niall Ferguson, Professor of History and Finance at Harvard. As Obama steps into office, remember, we need good (great?) regulation, not just more regulation.

-Andrew

Peter Schiff has been predicting this economic crapshoot for quite some time now (he claims since 2004). Here is a collection of people laughing at him for his predictions (which turned out to be spot-on):




Here is Peter on NPR this past Friday discussing the current situation.


His basic argument is that our consumption (house improvements, TVs, cars) / service (retail) economy is/was not sustainable. At the peak, the American economy was nearly two-thirds consumption. Instead of investing in manufacturing (ie, products other countries would buy), we were investing in consumer goods with little real value (TVs, cars) or inflated value (houses). Thus, the American economy was accumulating debt lent to us via foreign nations (China!) to pay for things that our lenders (the Chinese) didn't want to buy. Now, the American citizen is left with no assets of value (or less than paid for) to pay back the money.

Given that he has been fairly accurate thus far, I'm genuinely afraid of things to come.

-Andrew

From Meet the Press:

BROKAW: [W]e heard former Secretary of the Treasury Jim Baker, former secretary of state, a wise man in the Republican Party, announce today that he thinks that Barack Obama and President Bush should get together before the inauguration with some kind of a symbolic act to try to shore up confidence in this country.

CHUCK TODD: Well, it's interesting, and, and what I'll be curious to see is what Republicans will jump on that bandwagon and say let's do something. And maybe the symbolic act is what you asked him about in particular, asked Bill Daley about it, about getting Timothy Geithner [to-be Sec of Treasury] in place now. You know, don't wait until January 20th.

What sort of precedent would this set? Is it simply because Bush has no credibility left or should all president-elects exert large power over the current executive branch? I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

-Andrew

An amusing piece from the Economist:

The nostrils ran ahead, twitching like a bull in a rodeo or a frisking wild horse, hinting at danger to come

What?

-- A.S. Noel

Another Clinton in the executive! Who would've thought?

Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday.

Mr. Obama’s office told reporters on Thursday that the nomination is “on track” but this is the first word from the Clinton camp that she has decided.

“She’s ready,” the confidant said, adding that Mrs. Clinton was reassured after talking again with Mr. Obama because their first meeting in Chicago last week “was so general.” The purpose of the follow-up talk, he noted, was not to extract particular concessions but “just getting comfortable” with the idea of working together.

So much for real change in Washington, eh?

-- A.S. Noel

Reuters and the Chicago Tribune's Swamp are reporting that the former deputy attorney general Eric H. Holder, Jr., has been offered and accepted the position of America's Top Cop.

What do we know about this guy, besides the fact that he has a sweet 'stache? More details forthcoming...

-- A.S. Noel

Here's to hoping that the Stevens Machine in Alaska finds a way to send the senior Senator to Congress:

Though elections officials in Alaska may be counting additional ballots for a few more days, the updated vote tally at the end of the day on Tuesday could move the contested race between Senator Ted Stevens and Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich closer to conclusion. The Division of Elections plans to count 24,000 absentee and questioned ballots from Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula, and other areas of southern Alaska today, and Wednesday is the deadline for overseas ballots to arrive.

Think of it this way, folks: Stevens gets elected by whatever means necessary, gets kicked out of Congress because an elected official cannot hold office, and there is a special run-off for the seat! I wonder who would win that?

-- A.S. Noel