John: A few weeks back, a local right-wing radio commentator was actually defending Al Gore's record vis-a-vis the Internet. Kind of shocked me. While "invented" might be too strong of a word, Gore's contribution to fostering the widespread popularity and growth of the Internet cannot be overlooked. Al Gore was a major player in the Internet and the resulting surge in the Nasdaq that resulted.
Obviously, several factors, working in concert, brought about the economic boom of the '90s. A year from now, when the Dow is sitting at 9,000 and the Naz at 2,100, Joe Voter isn't going to be telling his wife, "Boy, we need a much stronger Republican Congress to move up those averages in my 401(k) at work." No, he's going to be looking back to to 1988 and noting that nothing happened between '88 and '92, a lot happened between '92 and '00, and that not much has happened in the last year. The common denominator in all of this is that whenever a Bush is in the White House, not much happens on the economic front. Proof's in the pudding. |
