Stalemate Optimism?

My daughter and I were watching the news this morning when it was announced that Sen. George Allen (R-VA) appeared to be conceeding the race to challenger Jim Webb, she said to me, "does that mean the Democrats won both the House and the Senate?" I answered yes and she said, "thank God for checks and balances." When it comes to politics, I have my kids fairly well trained.

It appears the Stock Market is taking a very similar view to my daughter, closing at a record high yesterday. This didn't happen because they were necessarily happy about the Congress going back to the Democrats, but simply remember how little government did during the Clinton years because of Republican majorities in the Congress. They see those as the "good old days."

It is true, and I discussed in yesterday's blog, that we can expect very little to be accomplished between now and '08 and I consider this to actually be a good thing in many respects (allowing the market to manage itself). But there are a few areas -- like the mentioned built in tax increases in yesterday's article -- that will make things rocky over the next few years, in my opinion.

I have to mention, as an aside, that I was part of a Yahoo Group supporting George Allen as a possible candidate for President in 2008. He was on the short list of serious Republican candidates because he was a former Governor (very important in modern Presidential politics), Conservative, from the South (also very important), and extremely popular. Well it appears the last point is now suspect. That demonstrates how big of a fall from grace the Republicans appeared to have had. I guess he might start to remind people that Jimmy Carter was defeated as Governor before he ran for President, but, then again, who wants to compare themselves to Jimmy Carter?

It appears the President could have served himself better by accepting Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld resignation before November 7th (every president requires such from each Cabinet member and senior staff when they begin their service). I'm sure it would have helped improve election results. But we have no time to dwell on yesterday, it is now time to focus on tomorrow.

On the domestic front, I join Wall Street in hoping that the next two years results in a whole lot of nothing. That is our best bet for economic opportunity and growth.