TKF
Last
April, I suggested the
Turkish Fund at $5.47. Three months later, in an homage to Bonomo’s
Turkish taffy, I suggested
selling half at $9.11. Now, with TKF having closed at $14.92 Friday, I’m
out. It’s likely still a relatively good value, but I am on to other
nutty speculations, as you know.
THE
SUNDAY SHOWS
Yesterday,
I got to watch Jake Tapper’s ABC
This Morning interview with President Clinton and Bob Schieffer’s Face the
Nation interview with Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown.
I
come to these biased, of course. But I wonder. Of the relatively small number
of people who even watch the Sunday shows, which voice do they find more
compelling?
The
former President was – as to me he always is (and as our current
President is, too) – so thoughtful, so incredibly well-informed, so ready
to consider other points of view, so responsible, so committed to a lifetime of
making the world better. (He had spent the weekend inspiring 950 student
leaders attending the Clinton
Global Initiative University.)
By
contrast, the new Senator was likeable and handsome and all that; but he said
pretty much nothing. On the topic of financial reform, he took the same line
the Republicans just had on health insurance reform: Of course
he’s for a bill, just not this bad bill. We need to roll up our sleeves,
get everyone in a room, solve the problems the American people sent
us to Washington to solve. The bill under consideration would hurt
small business. In short, for reasons he never specified, the legislation
on the table was the wrong approach.
And
the right approach? What we should do is to get everyone in a room
and solve the problems the American people sent us to Washington to
solve. That’s the right approach.
This
isn’t in any way to try to wrest the microphone from Scott Brown. Good
for him for running for office and making his views known. If and when he has
ideas for financial reform he wants to share, we should listen. Even now, when
his “idea” is that this is a bad bill and we sit down in a room to
work things out, we should be respectful.
My
question is simply this:
At a
time of true national and global challenge, bedeviled with complexity, which
11-minute national TV interview should have us nodding our heads: President
Clinton’s on “ABC This Week” or Senator Brown’s on “Face
the Nation”?
If
you have 11 minutes, this
is the one worth your time.