Morning Joe 7/19/2012 -- Government, heal thyself

There was more substance on Morning Joe today. Whatever was going on behind the scenes appears to be resolved. Scarborough was back and Sam Stein, Andrea Mitchell, Tom Friedman, David Ignatius, Barney Frank and a few others were on as guests. The first topic was  new polls showing Obama's unfavorability number at an all-time low. The crew wondered if all the Bain smears are back-firing. It seems like just yesterday that polls showed Obama making progress destroying Romney through the Bain attacks -- I think it was yesterday.

The confusion in the political class comes from a changing private sector they don't understand. The movers and shakers in DC are trying to guide this election but it's just not working. The American people, so far, appear to resist the manipulations and ignore the propaganda. The campaign ads are obviously skewed and untruthful -- the speeches sound canned -- there is very little substance in political debates on news shows -- the political class acts like they are fighting one another, but it all comes across as a staged production -- practically every pundit is desperately defending the State and asking for more money and more stimulus, yet no one seems to believe the same government that created this mess will fix it with more money and more stimulus.

Scarborough says that we need an Ike-like effort to improve education and research and to build roads. Tom Friedman correctly identified one of our challenges as the global market and our relationship to the global market, but he still thinks that government should lead the way and develope the plan. Then the crew looked back ar other down times in America, and they said we will pull through like we always do -- oh well, then, why worry? Yes, America will magically rebound, no matter if government continues to intervene and place obstacles in the way, America will do what it always does, overcome. Well, we've been going down hill for a long time, and we've been propped up by the Fed and spending generated bubbles -- we're at a different place, and there's no gaurantee we'll bounce back.

No one talked about limiting government and allowing a free market -- not one person. Barney Frank talked about ending the Cold War practices of maintaining military bases around the world, and I agree, but he wants to use the savings to increase government spending in other areas. The panel agreed that we need to stop intervening in other countries, so why aren't they demanding that Obama get out of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and every other country in which we send troops or CIA or drones or whatever? Frank was wrong when he called hypocrites those who call for a strong military yet say government spending should be cut. Yes, military spending can be cut drastically without hurting our military, but spending on military is spending on one legitimate purpose of government, so in this respect Frank is wrong. Government should protect our borders -- it's one of the reasons for a government -- and we should have a capable military. But government is doing many other things that government shouldn't do, and it's these things that need to be eliminated.

Not one person called for government to get out of the way and allow the private sector to adjust to supply and demand, to allow investment and innovation, to allow freedom of choice. Not one person on Morning Joe suggested, as Reagan said years ago, that government is not the solution but the problem.