Mistakes by John and Hill

The Republicans have not run a perfect campaign. All of the GOP candidates have made gaffes. Mitt Romney suggested that by working for his campaign, his sons were serving their country just like the soldiers in Middle East. Rudy Giuliani, infamously, answered a phone call from his wife in the middle of a speech. Fred Thompson, when asked about the widely publicized Jena Six case, said that he didn't know anything about it.

But the prize for gaffes has got to go to the Democrats. To show his concerns for black youth, John Edwards said that "pretty soon", all blacks will be in prison or dead. "One of the two", which doesn't really speak very highly of his opinion of African-Americans.


Or, apparently, his perception of reality. There are four times as many blacks in college as prison. Of course, Edwards doesn't exactly have a finger on the pulse of American opinion. He is apparently under the impression that a feud with Ann Coulter will propel him into the White House.


Hillary Clinton was seized by a generous if somewhat random generous impulse. Of course, the aforementioned impulse will be payed for by our money, but still. She proposed, for no real reason, that we give every baby born five thousand dollars.

This is, of course, pure socialism. In addition, it would probably be ineffective. If everyone starts out with five thousand bucks without working for it, then inflation would probably result, and by the time the kid was eighteen, the money probably wouldn't be all that valuable.

Besides which, it would be expensive. There are four million babies born each year. Times five thousand, and you have twenty billion dollars a year. And that is just the money that goes directly to the baby. Given that most of the money we spend on welfare is absorbed by government bureaucrats, the final price tag would be far more.

As I noted above, I can forgive a few mistakes. But if the mistakes pile up, and make one wonder whether the candidate has any grasp at all on the real world, then you start to wonder if that person is ready for the Presidency.