Reader D.M. writes in about this Thomas Sowell Column:
Sowell writes as follows:
"According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, in 2000 median income in the United States reached `the highest level ever recorded' up to that time. This included black and Hispanic incomes that `hit new all-time highs' for these groups. But did you hear the news reported in the media amid all the gloom and doom?"
Later in the column Sowell writes:
"One undeniable accomplishment of Bill Clinton's presidency: it kept Jimmy Carter from being the worst U.S. President in history."
Thus, Mr. Sowell apparently believes that Bill Clinton was the worst president in history. That is a remarkable position from a senior fellow at the HOOVER Institute.
At the time Mr. Hoover left office, the world was becoming a much more dangerous place. Hitler had been installed as Chancellor in Germany. Mussolini in Italy, Stalin in Russia. Japan was intent on the conquest of Manchuria and had announced its withdrawal from the League of Nations. Issues of massive International debt were festering. See Freedom From Fear, The American People in Depression and War 1929 -1945 by David M. Kennedy, Oxford University Press 1999.
On the domestic front, things were ominous. There had been 5,000 bank failures in the previous 3 years. By the time Roosevelt took office, banks were closed by Government proclamation in 32 states. In Texas banks were open but depositors were prohibited from withdrawing more than $10 per day. From 1929 until 1933 $7 billion of depositor's money was lost through bank failures. Thirteen hundred cities and towns had defaulted on their debt obligations. GDP in 1933 was 1/2 of 1929 GDP. Residential construction declined by 4/5. Automobile production fell to 1/3 of 1929 levels. Three fourths of the assets of the 1929 stock market had evaporated.
Per capita income in Mississippi was $117 per year in 1933 after 4 years in office by the president for whom Mr. Sowell's institute was named. Unemployment was at 25%. Unemployment rolls for blacks were at levels roughly twice their representation in the population. Id.
Mr. Sowell ignores that record and proclaims Mr. Clinton to have been the worst president in the very column in which he writes that median income hit all time highs after 8 years of Mr. Clinton's stewardship. While i personally think that Warren G. Harding was the worst U.S. president, it would not take long to get to the name "Herbert Hoover" when that roll was called. Apparently Mr. Sowell does not think that peace and prosperity are important factors in evaluating a president.
Mr. Sowell ask the questions as to whether or not the news of the Clinton prosperity and rising wages "was reported in the media amid all the gloom and doom?" The short answer is that those facts were reported but one had to listen very carefully to hear them. The next question is why during the 2000 election was that? The media had plenty of time and inclination to report on Al Gore's wardrobe. Brian Williams, sartorially resplendent on CNBC, reported Mr. Gore's choice of apparel on many many occasions. Chris Mathews kept repeating that Mr. Gore reminded him of a waiter.
The press had plenty of time and space to report falsely on the discovery of the Love Canal pollution, the basis for the characters in a popular book and movie (Love Story), the prescription drug requirements of canines, the development of the internet and many other items. The media was seemingly obsessed with the number of sighs in a debate, the monies paid to Naomi Wolfe, whether or not Mr. Clinton's penis angeled to the side, the bowling of oranges down the aisle of an airplane, whether or not they had been nicknamed and various other maters both inane and banal. Why could the press not have spent a fair amount of its energies reporting the news Mr. Sowell highlights. Must be the liberal media at work.
