There's a Lesson to be Learned Here....

There is a lesson to be learned from the current Paula Deen debacle, but I.m not sure I like it.  The lesson seems to be it's quite important to lie under oath.

Bill Clinton already proved that lesson to be true. He lied under oath.  That's what his Impeachment was all about.  But Clinton's defenders said his lies were A-OK because they were about sex and everybody lies about sex.  Today Bill Clinton is our most beloved President.

But Paula Deen took a different approach.  When asked if she ever used the infamous "N-Word" she admitted she had in a private conversation with her husband, 27 years ago.

Curiously she has been attacked as violently and as aggressively as if she used it on Twitter last night in the midst of a racist diatribe.  Oh, no wait, that was Alec Baldwin and it was homophobic, not racist.  And Baldwin, a New Yorker, won't be fired.  But I digress.

Deen was fired.  And worse.  She lost her Food Network Television Show and her products, books and foods have been effectively banned from Walmart, Target, Home Depot, the QVC Channel and Sears/K-Mart.

And, in the final straw today, Deen's publisher cancelled her upcoming #1 Bestselling book.  Pre-sales on Amazon were skyrocketing.

The real question is "Why?"

No one I've read or seen quoted believes Deen is a racist today. Deen was a vocal and financial supporter of President Barack Obama in both of the last two elections.

But she is "Southern" and that is an unforgivable sin among the media elite.

I'm not a Deen fan and I've never seen her television show or read her cookbooks.  It's reported she has made millions from her books, endorsements and appearances and is in no financial trouble.  I'll lose no sleep over this tonight.

But why are major corporations attacking her financially so aggressively?  What's happening to Deen seems to make no sense.  It feels like group think.

On the flip side of the coin I note with great interest that she has a huge following on Facebook and Twitter.  The comments I read are 99 to 1 in favor of Deen.  Even those who are Deen agnostics like me feel the punishment here does not fit the crime.

Group think.  The CEO of Sears must have said, "Did you see Walmart dropped Deen, we better do it too."  And so on down the line.

I personally guarantee that every single CEO, every single Board Member and most of the Senior Management of every single company dropping Deen used the "N-Word" 27 years ago. I guarantee they did.  But if deposed they will learn from the Deen experience.  They will lie.

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Another excellent post on this subject can be found over at FREEDOM EDEN: Alec Baldwin Get a Pass, Paula Deen Gets Punished

It's Not Morning In America, Part 2

It was good to hear former President Bill Clinton echo my earlier observation that President Obama is too terribly negative in his speeches and conversations with the American people. President Obama is very articulate, but he is not inspirational.

I believe our President is doing everything he can to help the economy and the country. He seems to be working at breakneck speed and with great organization and effort. But his efforts seem to lack optimism or, in the iconic single word symbol of his campaign, "Hope."

Bill Clinton makes exactly the same observation in his interview on ABC NEWS:

"I like [that President Obama is] trying to educate the American people about the dimensions and scope of this economic crisis," Clinton said. "I just would like him to end by saying that he is hopeful and completely convinced we're gonna come through this." "I think you will see some good economic news from the stimulus fairly soon," Clinton said. "I think you'll start to see people express gratitude for getting the unemployment benefits, the tax cuts and the food stamps. And you'll see the money flowing through the economy. Then I think you'll see every state be able to quantify how much better shape they're in, because of the education and health money."

I made the point earlier that a huge part of President Reagan's success in pulling America out of the economic mess at the end of the Carter era was Reagan's electric optimism. We all believed it was "Morning in America."

This doesn't mean you sugar coat the facts. But Obama is now slipping in the polls (down 9 percentage points in one month) and support for his stimulus package has now fallen below 50%. Now there are some very serious problems with the stimulus plan, as I've discussed in several recent posts and will discuss further in the future.

But President Obama can start to improve both his ratings and his efforts by following the advice offered by Clinton, one of the finest communicators in recent times.