Monday, October 27, 2008

Five Things President Obama Can do to Keep the Fox Guys Off His Back



Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The then freshly elected President Clinton had barely dropped his arm after taking the oath of office in January 1993 before they started in on him. The “they” was Rush Limbaugh (Remember his “Day one of America held hostage” daily rant), packs of radio shock jocks, legions of Christian broadcasters, and, of course, the Fox Network. Clinton was allegedly too pro abortion, too pro big government, too pro tax and spend, too unpatriotic, too personally sleazy, and too married to Hillary. But his greatest crime was he was a Democrat. The Fox holy crusade against him didn’t end until he closed the door for the last time on his way out of the White House.
Now it’s Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama’s turn. The cast of the anti-Clinton holy crusade warriors remains unchanged. They are gnashing their teeth in horror while rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of a President Obama. They’ll soon likely get their wish and when they do they’ll dust off the Clinton bash script with all the same “too” hits that were leveled against him. Some may even be tempted to sneakily toss the race card into the script.

Obama won’t be able to keep the wolves totally at bay. He’s a centrist Democrat like Clinton. For the hardcore conservatives that alone is enough to send red flags shooting to the top of the pole and keep them there. The added plus is that an anti-Obama feeding frenzy is a potential ratings bonanza for Fox.
There are five things then that Obama can do to damp down the yelps against him.
1. The economic mess. He’s not Houdini and he can’t magically make it go away. It will be tough if not impossible to deliver on the ritual debate and campaign stump promise he made to virtually cut taxes for everyone while keeping tax increases to the bare minimum. That defies fiscal logic.

He can though arm twist banks to renegotiate, impose a moratorium on, delay payments, or repackage loans for thousands of foreclosed challenged homeowners. There’s even some talk about government intervention to use some of the bailout money to create a homeowner foreclosure relief fund to provide government guaranteed loans to directly aid those in most immediate danger of losing their homes. He can prod Congress to use some bailout money to help these severely distressed homeowners. He can act on the proposal to create a government sponsored small business credit fund to make readily available loans and lines of credit to credit worthy small and medium sized businesses that have been refused loans by banks.
Infrastructure Stimulus. Obama can take the Senate up on its offer to call a lame duck special session after the elections to pass an economic stimulus bill which includes more than 10 to 16 billion dollars for the federal-aid highway program, transit, and airport capital improvement projects. It’s not exactly the second coming of the old Roosevelt Great Depression job creation WPA but it will stimulate business, contractors, and suppliers, create thousands of jobs, and potentially ramp up tax revenues for cash strapped cities and counties.
Rein in Wall Street. He can push and prod the Fed to better monitor and enforce provisions that clamp a lid on dubious trading, lending practices, and investments by some banks and brokerage houses. That includes imposing severe penalties for those who break the rules.
The Iraq war. He can’t end the war in the six months as he promised when he was a middle of the pack Democratic presidential contender and then backpedaled from that promise when he became the lone Democratic presidential contender with a real shot at the presidency. But he can beef up Iraqi’s security forces and then conduct a phased withdrawal of American troops. This is a good faith step toward winding down the war without compromising Iraqi security and American troop safety.

Neutralize Fox News. In an off the cuff quip in mid October, Obama said he’d be much better off if Fox News didn’t dog him mercilessly. Obama’s pique at Fox was understandable since he’s been their number one punching bag for months.
But Obama can and should turn the tables on Fox. Carping and complaining about their legendary anti-Democratic Party bias, or trying to pretend they don’t exist isn’t going to change Fox, let alone make it go away. Instead, keep Fox in the loop. Obama should talk to the Fox guys like he routinely talks to the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN. That won’t make them sheath their daggers. It might though make them pull them out a tad slower.
These five things are time and cost effective doables. They will do much to help smooth out some of the bumps in President Obama’s road ahead, Fox notwithstanding.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jason Fullam
US Law Enforcement Park Ranger
Dept. Of The Interior
National Park Service
made these comments about President Obama in the policelink.com website

"I dont think it should come as any surprise to anyone that the POTUS will turn his back on Israel. Remember ALL muslims must answer the Jihad.
Just saying........"

http://policelink.monster.com/topics/81961-obama-tells-israel-to-go-back-to-1967-borders/posts?page=1This

梁爵 said...

林森北路的日式酒店,聽說早期有600多間,不過不要小看裡頭的提供酒店打工小姐,她們必須集各種才華於一身,不僅要學日文、高爾夫、插花,連茶道也要有概念,「媽媽桑」席耶娜在日式酒店做了15年酒店上班,自稱是日式酒店的末代小姐,來到Podcast節目《沒大沒小の喇吉歐》,告訴你各種日式酒店的秘密。席耶娜表示,日式酒店風光的時期,是在80、90年代,當時的條通,計程車根本不敢開進去,而且客人是排隊在門口等著進去喝酒。因為日據時代,那邊是日本高官住的地方,戰後美軍也在附近的雙城街開美式酒吧,所以從長安東到南京東,中山北到新生北這一塊都叫「條通」,有600多家日式酒店。加上又是日本經濟起飛的時候,很多日本人在這裡開公司設辦公處,所以出沒的日本人比較多,而服務日本客人的規矩,就需要細緻一點。
所謂「日式酒店酒店應徵」,50%以上的來客都是日本人,跟「台式酒店」較隨興的台灣客不一樣。日本客人重視細節,連廁所都要整理得非常仔細,裡頭不但有漱口水、牙線、香水、擦手毛巾,還必須插鮮花,席耶娜說:「每一個客人上完化妝室,少爺都會進去把洗手台的水漬擦過一次,捲筒式衛生紙前端也一定要尖尖的,連酒店工作小姐自己上完廁所,都要把所有東西整理一次,所以我們進去不是只有脫褲子尿尿,還要巡一下廁所有沒有乾淨?」
日式酒店連裝潢都很特別,譬如入口一定會有二道門,免得那些喝醉的人誤闖進去。當第一道門打開時,酒店內沙發後面的燈就會發亮,讓酒店工作小姐知道第一道門打開了,接著大家一起喊「歡迎」(日文),隨即小姐們就到第二道門那邊去迎接,而且第二道門是,酒店工作小姐要從裡面推才推得開的門,外面客人是推不進來的。
因此,要是打開第一道門看到的是不認識的客人,她們酒店公關就會小心詢問其目的,所以像《華燈初上》那樣,有一大堆大學生走進去,實際在日式酒店是不可能發生的,因為會在第一道門口就被擋掉了。另外,客人入座之後也有一定的SOP流程:客人進來幫他換好拖鞋,接過他的包包和外套掛起來,冬天給熱毛巾、夏天給冰毛巾,每一家日式酒店甚至都有一台洗衣機,專門洗這些毛巾。而且日式酒店是「公檯制」,台式酒店是「私檯制」。私檯制是像錢櫃那樣有很多小包廂,客人坐進去之後,酒店小姐會排排站讓你選,你點越多小姐、坐的時間越多,買單的金額就越高。但「公檯制」是坐下來算桌面使用費的,也就是「人頭費」,你只要一坐下來就是1200元,酒是另外算,5000元起跳,買單兩個人的話,就是2400+5000元,所以不能不點酒。
席耶娜說:「因此你只要開始喝酒,酒店小姐們就會輪流陪你聊天,如果今天有7個小姐,她們都會輪流坐在你座位5分鐘,所以小姐們的自我介紹必須有趣一點,才能讓客人記住妳。」
「由於大部分的日本客人,都是頂著公司名譽來台灣工作的,所以公司不會派菜鳥出差,都是派有點資歷的人出差到台灣,因此他們不太會為了一個小姐,引起兩國的外交問題,或讓公司知道你在這邊性騷擾小姐之類,搞到警察都來了,那很有可能會丟掉工作,所以喝酒醉打小姐或做不規矩的事情,也比較少發生,日本客來酒店比較是紓壓的。」席耶娜透露,她們跟客人的互動,比較傾向於賣曖昧為主,「我們賣的是一種氛圍,透過酒精讓這些客人覺得,白天有什麼不順心的事,有人站在他們那邊。而賣曖昧又因人而異,像我認識新的客人,可以在30分鐘之內,決定他是戀愛客或朋友客,從眼神和肢體運用,可以看出他有沒有感覺來做分辨。」
因此日式酒店的小姐,跟日本客談戀愛算滿多的,畢竟來的都是日本公司各行各業的菁英,賣曖昧之後,很容易發展出戀情。

梁爵 said...

是否酒店打工冥冥之中你我注定沒有結果為何還要飛蛾撲火是為情所困是為愛蹉跎酒店工作是傻是對還是錯也許緣分注定你我只能擦肩而過既然如此何必難過酒店公關看花謝花開 看潮起潮落看酒店上班世間悲歡離合往事隨風我隨往事漂泊越逃避就越受折磨舊日如夢我被舊日淹沒 除了酒店應徵回憶還剩什麼。曾經酒店小姐恩恩愛愛 卿卿我我 如今酒店上班孤孤單單 只剩寂寞 什麼緣分已盡想一個人過 難道 這就是你給的承諾酒店經紀曾經 風風雨雨 一起走過 如今孤孤單單淚眼滂沱怎麼 愛的越深 付出就越多既然你要自由 我無話可說是否冥冥之中你我注定沒有結果。我犯过最大的错不是我爱上了坐檯小姐而是我误以为你也爱我 我还在没有结果的结果中寻找结果最后选择了一错再错 我犯过最大的错不是我爱上酒店上班的你 而是我自以为那些幸福都是真的 抱着过期的承诺拼命的飞蛾扑火 你只是路过而我却遵守了承诺。