Free Press – October 23, 2008

Don Neuman, Bill Griffin, Investment Under the Dems GOP

Dear Friends,

Good morning. Before I get to an email from Don, my email pen pal from Coopersburg, and a chance visit with Bill Griffin, the man from Sellersville who raced up 1,576 steps of the Empire State Building in New York City in 17 minutes, here’s an item from the New York Times. It made me reconsider why I’m still a Republican?

On the Op Ed page (Oct. 14), Tommy McCall wrote this about the economy.

“Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years,” he began. “So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?

“As of Friday (Oct. 10), a $10,000 investment in the S & P stock market index would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $52,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years (versus 0.4 percent for the Republicans).”

Who would have "thunk" it?

And now to business.

Don, my pen pal, quibbled with my conclusion that racism is not only alive and well…it could cost Barrack Obama the election.

“It’s remarkable how the race factor is always considered as such a ‘one-way’ issue,” Don began.

“The Pennsylvania Democratic primary was a classic example. Mr. Obama garnered about 90 percent of the black vote in PA while Mrs. Clinton (whose husband has been venerated by blacks as the “First Black President) couldn’t crack that obviously solid black voting block. Yet, she did win the state and by implication, her victory was tainted by and attributed to all those white, racist Demos who wouldn’t vote for a black man.

“Even Democrat Governor Ed Rendell and, just recently, Democrat Congressman John Murtha have repeated this same Demo mantra…racist whites in PA won’t vote for a black man.

“Meanwhile, in the PA race for Governor, when black voters were confronted with a handsome, articulate, and a very popular, Hall-of-Fame former athlete, Mr. Swann didn’t come close to winning the black vote plurality that Mr. Obama enjoyed in the Demo PA Primary…Oh, of course…I forgot…Mr. Swann was running as a Republican!

“Now, just supposing, that Mr. Swann had run as a Demo Candidate…Hmmm?

“Seriously now, when faced with this election’s stark choice (black, liberal Demo and white conservative Republican} will not the block-solid, Demo black voters choose Mr. Obama, exceeding all previous vote counts in PA and the nation…the plurality among black Demo voters…breaking all records?

“Must we then conclude that all black Demo voters are racist?

“Nope. Only white voters can be accused of allowing race to color their ballot preferences, whether Demos or Republicans! After all, isn’t the fact that many voters consider Mr. Obama untested, too liberal, and worrisome…merely some type of racist code?”

My pen pal, with tongue firmly in cheek, makes an interesting point…but it didn’t convince me. We’ll soon find out. The election is just around the corner.

Final item.

Three years ago, I wrote a column about Bill and Pat Griffin from Sellersville and their friend, Tom Hamburger. They entered a race up the 1,576 steps of the Empire State Building and survived the heart stopper in just over 15 minutes.

But that was 36 months ago and the trio must be slowing down.

I saw Bill in Quakertown last week. He’s obviously still in excellent shape. Bill made it to the top in 17 minutes, but he couldn’t catch his wife, Janet. She ran the race too. Bill told me that the runners were divided into two groups and the women started first, followed by the men.

Bill’s wife must be swift afoot. But, isn’t that always the case? She’s 39 while he’s 43 so Bill has an excuse…sort of.

We never seem to catch up to the women.

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith