The New York Times ran an article today about Marco Rubio's personal finances. He grew up poor, incurred a lot of debt, and when he made a large sum of money on a book deal, he did what the majority of lottery winners do. He spent it all. He has remarkably little accumulated debt, a number of houses, one of which he came close to defaulting on, and a taste for boats and nice cars. Nothing that makes him stand out to the average American, many of whom may even admire him for his taste for the good life after growing up poor.
Should the POTUS be held to a higher standard? I am not one to talk. While I did buy the cheapest smallest car I could find with four wheel drive and I am mansion averse, I am not what anyone would call a genius with money. I am not running for public office though.
So, unfortunately, I turn to fiction for the best examples of what reporting and the president would ideally be like. Jed Bartlet, who was more popular than the sitting presidents during the running of The West Wing, was a Nobel Prize winning economist. That is a man who can manage finances and who understands the global consequences of monetary decisions he had to make. Then the reporting on what the fiscal policies of the government would have to be ramped up as well. Let's face it, the days of progressive journalism exposing the corruption of politics was a thing of Teddy Roosevelt's time. No one has bitten off that chunk of financial influence and tried to expose the influence and corruption that ensues. There are few Sloan Sabbith's out there to explain it to us all in terms that we can even begin to understand. Too bad television offers more compelling personalities than real life does. It will be a long political season.
No comments:
Post a Comment