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<DIV class=timestamp>October 29, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">Pizzas and
Pessimism</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By <A class=meta-per title="More Articles by Frank Bruni"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/frank_bruni/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
rel=author>FRANK BRUNI</A></H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>BEING surprised by something nutty from Herman Cain’s presidential campaign
is like balking at an autopsy in a “CSI” episode: certain things go with the
territory. Still, you had to pause and peel your jaw off the ground after
watching an <A title=Politico.
href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66769.html">Internet ad</A> for
Cain that prompted considerable conversation last week. </P>
<P>In it Cain’s chief of staff, who comes across mostly as an untidy
salt-and-pepper mustache with a rumpled politico attached, delivers the needless
reminder that Cain has “run a campaign like nobody’s ever seen.” To prove the
point he glowers meaningfully at the camera while sucking manfully on a
cigarette. Alligators as border-patrol agents and nicotine for all: that’s the
Cain agenda. The candidate appears in close-up at the end of the commercial,
flashing a grin that’s two parts demented to one part demonic. Were there a
thought bubble attached, it would say, “In my wildest dreams I never thought you
people would actually buy this pizza.” </P>
<P>Meanwhile Rick Perry, who would trade his five best pairs of custom-made
cowboy boots for just one of Cain’s percentage points in the polls, tried to
steal the dubious thunder of the Herminator’s 9-9-9 tax hallucination by
announcing an either-or, multiple-choice tax <A title="WSJ piece."
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204777904576651330270547222.html">phantasm
of his own</A>. It would compel you to hire an accountant to figure out whether
you’re best served by the existing code or by a 20 percent flat tax designed to
spare you the accountant. If you go the 20 percent route, Perry said, you can
file your returns on a postcard. I think he should add a deduction for taxpayers
whose postcards promote national pride. I’ll pick one with the Statue of
Liberty. You can do Mount Rushmore or the Washington Monument. </P>
<P>In the midst of all this, two attention-commanding sets of numbers were
released. One, from the Congressional Budget Office, <A title="Times piece."
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/us/politics/top-earners-doubled-share-of-nations-income-cbo-says.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Top%20Earners%20Doubled%20Share%20of%20Nation%E2%80%99s%20Income,%20Study%20Finds&st=cse">confirmed</A>
an increasingly uneven distribution of wealth in this country, noting that the
inflation-adjusted incomes of the most affluent Americans had grown much, much
faster over the last three decades than the incomes of the middle class. The
other, from a New York Times/CBS News poll, <A title=Times.
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/us/politics/poll-finds-anxiety-on-the-economy-fuels-volatility-in-the-2012-race.html">showed</A>
that 74 percent of Americans think the country is on the wrong track and 89
percent do not trust that government will do the right thing. </P>
<P>That’s a chilling and extraordinary pessimism, grafted onto a 9.1 percent
unemployment rate and projections of a grim economy for some time to come. And
it makes the kookiness of the Republican primaries all the more disquieting. As
the (later disputed) story goes, Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Cain’s chief of
staff smokes while the citizenry smolders. </P>
<P>The disconnect between the seriousness of our angst and the silliness of our
politics — between how big our problems are and how hopeless or just plain stuck
the people who are supposed to address them seem — defies belief. Right now the
system isn’t working, and a recognition of that is one of the ties that bind
Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party. They don’t identify the same villains or
promote the same solutions. But they’re flowers of a shared frustration. </P>
<P>And neither movement is a marginal, renegade phenomenon. A recent Time
magazine <A title="Time poll. "
href="http://swampland.time.com/full-results-of-oct-9-10-2011-time-poll/">poll</A>
found that 54 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Occupy Wall Street,
while 27 percent have a favorable view of the Tea Party. Even assuming some
overlap, that translates into a great many people supportive of movements
railing against the status quo. These Americans have lost faith in business as
usual and government as usual. Small wonder, then, that the Times/CBS poll
showed an approval rating for Congress now at 9 percent. <EM>Nine percent</EM>.
I bet a higher percentage of Americans believe that Elvis and Michael Jackson
are still alive and honeymooning on Lake Como after a wedding — to each other —
in upstate New York. </P>
<P>REGARD for Congress isn’t likely to rise over the 12 months until the
election, given that Republicans and Democrats have largely slipped into
campaign mode. For a while, over the summer, President Obama seemed to resist
that, and came across as cool-headed and big-minded, his desire to legislate
keener than his itch to agitate. But his newly frequent trips outside Washington
and newly fiery rhetoric suggest that he has partly given up. In terms of real
progress on jobs creation, infrastructure and other matters central to our
economic predicament, we could be looking at a solid year of nothingness, and
therein lies another of the moment’s disconnects. Our need is urgent, but the
possibility that it will be meaningfully addressed is remote. </P>
<P>The Congressional supercommittee charged with whittling down the national
debt will hold a public hearing Tuesday. The heart beats faster. Already there
are reports of a Democratic insistence on significant new taxes and a Republican
opposition to same, which basically brings us back to where Obama and John
Boehner left off. We’re looking at an interminable November. </P>
<P>At least we’ll have the Republican presidential candidates to marvel at. And
Perry had a marvelous week, in the strict sense of the word. He revived
questions about Obama’s birth certificate. He also blamed his wretched debate
performances on formats that denied candidates adequate time to “lay out your
ideas and concepts.” </P>
<P>Was it your impression that all he needed was a few more acres of oratorical
stamping grounds and eloquence would be his? It was my impression that
short-form or long-, Perry is to oratory what Weird Al Yankovic is to balladry.
Only the humor isn’t intentional. </P>
<P>Elsewhere in the Republican field, Jon Huntsman, the former ambassador to
China, told a <A title=Politico.
href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66786.html">Chinese-food
joke</A> of questionable taste; Michele Bachmann started peddling <A
title=HuffPost.
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/michele-bachmann-campaign-fleece-jacket_n_1048649.html">Bachmann-campaign
fleeces</A> in exchange for $75 donations; and the Cain campaign announced that
even without promises of commemorative clothing, it <A title=Cnn.
href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/27/cain-campaign-reports-more-than-3-million-raised-in-october/">had
raised</A> $3 million this month. Cain was in a <A
href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/most-republican-primary-voters-remain-uncommitted/">statistical
dead heat</A> with Mitt Romney, according to the Times/CBS News poll. </P>
<P>Some observers say that the absurdity of that is indeed a mirror of our
distress — that Americans are grasping at simplistic straws. But Cain’s support
won’t last or turn out to have been all that meaningful. The poll’s more
consequential findings were that 6 in 10 Republican primary voters weren’t
paying close attention yet and 8 in 10 said it was too early to decide on a
candidate. </P>
<P>What worries me isn’t the Cain surge or the Bachmann boomlet before it, but
the likelihood that when Americans do focus, more and more will see nothing
hopeful happening and a motley crew of politicians who are merely blowing smoke.
</P>
<P>What happens then? </P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>__________________________________</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
href="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com">wayne.a.fox@gmail.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>