Only Gore can help calm the economy

I’m no economist, but judging from economic indicators since Vice
President Al Gore began his legal assault to steal the presidential
election after Nov. 7, it’s clear only he can bring the current market
and economic instability under control.

How? He can best serve U.S. economic interests by conceding his loss
to George W. Bush now.

Last week, after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan finally
acknowledged this quarter’s dismal market performances and hinted he may
support lowering interest rates, the Dow Jones industrial average and
the Nasdaq composite index responded with some their biggest gains in
history. Both soared on the news.

But then, the next day — and the day after — the markets started
heading south again, as this election mess continued to drag on and, I’m
convinced, drag on the markets.

Then on Friday the U.S. Department of Labor noted that unemployment
figures are now starting to rise after hitting a 30-year low (when?) in
November — notably, since the Nov. 7 election has become
such an embarrassment for Americans as well as a cause for concern on
Wall Street.

Throw into this volatile economic mix the spiking price of heating
oil and natural gas, along with the most populous state in the union —
California, the nation’s high-technology center — being hit with
chronic power shortages, and clearly the U.S. has all the makings of at
least a moderate economic disaster.

In fact,

even Asian economists are worried about a potential
“hard” economic landing in the United States, just three years after Asia’s economic fiasco. Asia exports most of its goods to the U.S.; if our economy so much as hiccups, it will be felt throughout the region and, for that matter, the world.

Finally — though the markets closed up on Friday — for the year, Bloomberg News said, the Nasdaq has lost 29 percent, the S&P 500 has dropped 7 percent and the Dow has fallen 7 percent.

Despite these worrying economic trends, the vice president — as of Friday — had not conceded his defeat to Bush, which means he still plans more court battles that will produce more uncertainty — the very thing Wall Street detests. This, even though Democrats lost a pair of lower Florida court rulings; lawyers instead decided to appeal. Big surprise.

Though there have been a few Democrats of late to call for Gore’s concession, there are simply not enough of them in key positions doing so to cause much consideration of same in Gore’s campaign.

Personally, I couldn’t care less if the entirety of the Democratic Party ceases to exist; and politically speaking, Democrats will suffer from our economic downturn — not Republicans — if liberals cannot convince their own standard-bearer to back off and stand down.

One of the major reasons Bill Clinton managed to stick out two scandal-filled terms, we are told, is because he was fortunate enough to have come to power just as former President Bush was saddled with a small recession and just as the high technology industry began producing record profits and tax revenues. Clinton had nothing to do with either; both events were simply a matter of timing.

However, if there were even a hint of the economic trends we’re seeing now during the 1996 presidential election campaign, it’s likely Americans would never have been persuaded to give Clinton four more years. Republicans would have managed to turn the tide against the president for economic reasons just as Clinton managed to do to Bush four years earlier.

It’s unfortunate that politicians feel compelled to use the decaying portfolios of millions of Americans for their own selfish, political ends, but it’s becoming obvious that is precisely what Gore is doing by refusing to concede and causing so much anxiety in our economy.

True, tens of millions of Americans couldn’t care less who ends up winning the White House. But U.S. industry cannot abide such apathy; policies, decisions, regulations and trade rules all affect the profitability of U.S. companies, so they need to know who is going to be in charge and what kind of policies they will have to anticipate.

So, as long as leading Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt prefer to grandstand on behalf of Gore and whine about “power-sharing” arrangements with the GOP that they will never get, it will be the Democrats — not Bush and the Republicans — who will pay the political price.

But real Americans will pay the ultimate economic price.

As I said, I am enthused by the possibility of seeing socialist Democrats savaged by American voters because of their incessant, manic and selfish power plays on behalf of the vice president.

But as a matter of principle, and because I understand just how hard it is to make a living in this over-taxed, over-regulated nation of ours, I would much rather bypass the opportunity to politically marginalize Democrats in favor of seeing Gore do the right thing for Americans — and our economy — by conceding ASAP.

We’ll see if Gore and the Democrats have enough conscience, compassion and selflessness to do the right thing. The ball’s in their court.