Andrea Batista Schlesinger

I’ve got a surprise visit for ya.

I am sick of these surprise visits. President Bush "surprised" the troops on Thanksgiving and "surprised" Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. Today, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld paid an "unannounced" visit to meet with the prime minister of Iraq. Why is a "surprise" visit more valuable than a planned one? Does it really make foreign leaders seem more credible when their appointments with the U.S. can only be made spontaneously? I mean, I think our foreign policy could benefit from a lot more planning and a lot fewer surprises.

But, if the administration is high on surprise visits, I've got a few suggestions of places to go:

How about Detroit, the poorest big city in the United States.
Maybe Mississippi, with nearly 8 percent unemployment as of March, 2006?
It might be good to "surprise" the officials in New Orleans, who seem to have some difficulty getting rebuilding on track. And right after that, swing over to Sacramento, where levees are in danger of failing, and requests for federal support are going unmet. (Thankfully, Senator Feinstein was able to add $22.3 million for repair of the California levees to an emergency spending bill focused on Iraq and Katrina). It will be like an after/before type of surprise, like a surprise party you know is being planned for you.

For guidance, you could hang out in Alabama, where the state legislature and the Republican Governor last week got together and eliminated their regressive and punishing tax on people earning less than $10,000 a year. While they haven't gone all the way, at least they are beginning the process of creating a sane tax policy that rewards work and not wealth. This may prove instructive to the President.

If you have any other suggestions of places the administration should surprise visit, please let me know. We can put them together in a little suggested itinerary package, and forward on to the White House.

In the meantime, perhaps the President will show up at an undisclosed location near you! Be prepared!

Andrea Batista Schlesinger: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 5:57 PM, Apr 26, 2006 in Employment | Federal Budget | Health Care | Hurricane Katrina | Progressive Agenda
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