George Will and President Obama

George Will and President Obama are finally on the same page. That is; they were on the same editorial page of the Kansas City Star on Saturday May 15, 2010. They were separated physically by less than the width of a tiny white space, separated ideologically by more than a mile, but separated editorially by offers of fact versus demands of faith.

Let me summarize Obama’s three column faith based editorial-“Believe me I am making things better, says Obama.” No transparency. No how. No what. No where. No when. No specifics. Nothing really except “Believe me, after all I am the President.”


In contrast, I can not simply summarize George Will’s editorial. It was fact based and laced, as usual, with specifics on the what, the why, the where, the who and the how. George Will presents the facts. You make the choice. He supports the Conservative method - faith in an America with facts, rather than demand an America have faith with no facts.

To say George Will writes persuasively, eloquently and objectively is to elevate myself to the position of an editorial judge. A position I hold only by the unconstrained freedom of my own vivid imagination. More importantly, but still somewhat self-flattering is the factual content of Will’s editorial. He unequivocally agreed with my blog on the GM loan payback. GM used government loans to pay back other government loans. And he unequivocally agreed with my blog on the Greece bailout by the IMF.

Americans now own big slices of American companies, like GM and we own big slices of other Nations, like Greece. Ownership in this instance, however, does not convey the right to sell our stakes, but does compel us to purchase more ownership from time to time, without equal representation.

We are essentially making loans to pay interest on loans we already made. For individual taxpayers like you and I, it means borrowing more money this year from a bank to pay back last year’s bank loans; except for the fact we do not have an International Monetary Fund to broker the transaction. We pay the loan or face foreclosure. We are not too big to fail which is code for we are not ‘inconveniently connected to too many big banks.” In contrast, Greece is connected and hence the American tax payer, via the IMF, steps up to bat.

I had to finish with a baseball term, because George Will, an editorial icon to me is a major baseball fan and has written the definitive book on baseball. Google him now. Buy his books and read his editorials. You will be Willed, thrilled or both.

You may not always agree with his position. But unlike president Obama, George Will does not arrogantly ask you to agree with him on faith alone. Will risks genuine disagreement by giving you the facts. I call it a Conservative approach.

In my opinion, Will does have faith; however, he has faith, that with exposure to the facts, the American people will eventually recognize the truth and vote accordingly. I do too. You may recall though that Abe Lincoln said it first, it was something about not being able to fool “All the people all the time.”

Remember?