LAKE WOEBEGONE REDUX
(…where everyone is…above average)

The first of a series of debates this past Wednesday, between President Obama and Governor Romney, reminded us of Garrison Kieler’s old –  Lake Woebegone – radio show, and its catch phrase…where everyone is above average.

I hadn’t planned on spending any time tuning in on that debate since, from past experience, such so-called “debates” usually had all the substance of an infomercial full of self-promoting hype and cross-zingers of….I can do anything better than you…no you can’t… yes I can…no you can’t…etc., etc., etc..

But this time I was surprised. Both these contenders for our votes in November were clearly …above average… in their misrepresentations as each impersonated knowledgeable bean counters able to throw numbers around with hardly the need for a gulp of air in between. Of the two Governor Romney was perhaps the more engaged and lively performer for that, while the President seemed somewhat muted and pained by it all, because someone had forgotten to provide him with a green eye shade to go along with that scenario.

While this was an improvement over such past events, both still avoided that big, lurking elephant in the hall…namely making no mention of the lack of any kind of serious re-thinking to re-do our existing tax code, without which no amount of rhetoric about our financial condition and reviving the economy to produce job growth had any meaning. Without really addressing that issue, business and enterprise would remain uncertain about the future, and that uncertainty, would continue to impede any incentives to invest in their expansion and growth…thus creating all those jobs everyone is crying about.

To be blunt about it, some things always have to be done first before other things can be expected to happen. So all their blather about our situation was just that…blather.

Well, at least this time it was all…above average blather.

CENTURION