Homeward Bound
Which candidate has the right cards to ease Las Vegas's economic jitters?
Like conventioneers, presidential candidates blew through Las Vegas in search of the big score—not at the gaming tables, but in Nevada's presidential caucuses. As the candidates worked the crowds, they heard vivid stories of the human cost of the country's reckless bet on real estate. One of America's fastest-growing metro areas, Las Vegas is now also the leader in mortgage foreclosures. A city built on faith in luck suddenly feels a little scared, as the dream of cheap loans for homes vanishes for the hotel employees who make up the aspiring middle class. "The economy overshadows everything," says D. Taylor, who runs the city's 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union. "It's the issue."
Who has the right cards to deal with it? Among Republicans, Mitt Romney proves his business savvy every time he dips into the pile of cash he made in the corporate world. He had a golden touch (but less so as governor of Massachusetts, where growth numbers were not impressive). As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee produced good figures in a poor, rural state, but his advocacy of a national sales tax is problematic—probably the wrong idea at a time when consumer confidence is so low. John McCain can argue that he opposed some of President Bush's tax cuts, but might not be eager to do so when many think that putting more money in the hands of consumers is the priority.
On the Democratic side, if life (and campaigns) were fair, the political beneficiary would be former senator John Edwards. From the beginning, he has had the tightest focus on those struggling to make ends meet and offered the earliest and most sweeping plan to meet the home-mortgage crisis: a seven-year moratorium on rate increases and a new, court-enforceable mandate that lenders make a "good-faith effort" to redo onerous loans. But being first in politics rarely pays off. Having failed to win in must-win Iowa, he's struggled for attention.
Another "It's the economy, stupid" election would seem to benefit Hillary Clinton more than Barack Obama. He certainly knows how the other half lives; he was a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. He has unveiled an economic-rescue plan that focuses on pumping cash into the economy through a tax rebate and a government fund to help mortgage borrowers. But his claim to the presidency isn't based on economic know-how; it's based on his prescience in opposing the war in Iraq and a bring-us-together tone of reconciliation. Iraq is less visible now, and Democratic voters may be eager to hear more accusatory rhetoric about banks, hedge funds and Republican regulators.
Hillary has copied much of the Edwards plan, shortening the rate freeze from seven years to five. More important, she can claim to have absorbed a feel for how to deal with tough economic times by watching how her husband worked out of a recession and into the Long Boom of the '90s. But she's leery of relying on nostalgia, realizing that elections are always about the future. "You're not going to see TV ads about the 1990s," says one of her top aides, who didn't want to be named discussing strategy. To do so would require bringing Bill back to center stage. That's a gamble that Hillary isn't willing to take.
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Howard Fineman is Newsweek's Senior Washington Correspondent and Columnist, senior editor and deputy Washington bureau chief. He is the author of "Living Politics," a column that began on MSNBC.COM and Newsweek.com and that now also appears in the print magazine. An award-winning reporter and writer, Fineman also is an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, appearing regularly on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and "TODAY." The author of scores of Newsweek cover stories, Fineman's work has appeared as well in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Republic. His 2008 national best-selling book, "The Thirteen American Arguments," was released in paperback by Random House in the spring of 2009.
One of the nation's leading political reporters, Fineman has interviewed every major presidential candidate from (then-vice president) George H.W. Bush in 1985 to (then senator) Barack Obama early and often in the 2008 campaign cycle. His current work focuses on the Obama Administration and its top officials, as well as on Congress and politics throughout the country. Although based in Washington, Fineman travels widely in the U.S. and has covered politics and other events in 49 of the 50 states.
Fineman's work has produced many milestones and awards. A cover story in November 2001 featured President George W. Bush's first extensive interview after 9/11. Another cover, "Bush and God," was part of a series of articles that won the 2003 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. His reporting has helped Newsweek win many honors from the Magazine Publishers Association and the American Journalism Review. Other awards include a "Page One" from the Headliners Club of New York, a "Silver Gavel" from the American Bar Association and a "Deadline Club" from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). In 2006 he received the Alumni Award from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
As a reporter and writer, Fineman ranges widely. Besides campaign-year covers, other projects have included: race and politics, the impact of digital technology on society, the influence of Hollywood on politics, the rise of the religious right and of conservative talk radio. He has interviewed business leaders such as George Soros, Bill Gates, Steve Case and Robert Rubin and entertainment figures such as Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda and Jay Leno.
Although now under exclusive television contract to NBC, Fineman over the years has appeared on major public affairs shows, such as Nightline, Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, Larry King Live, Charlie Rose and the NewsHour. He was a regular panelist on Washington Week in Review on PBS (1983-95) and on CNN's Capital Gang Sunday (1995-98). He worked with Ted Koppel on Nightline specials, and has been a guest on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report."
A native of Pittsburgh, Fineman began his career at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, covering the environment, the coal industry and state politics before joining the newspaper's Washington bureau in 1978. He moved to Newsweek in 1980, was named chief political correspondent in 1984, deputy Washington bureau chief in 1993, senior editor in 1995 and senior Washington correspondent and columnist in 2008.
Fineman holds an A.B., Phi Beta Kappa, from Colgate, an M.S. in journalism from Columbia and a J.D. from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. His legal education included a year as a visiting student at the Georgetown University Law Center. He received Watson and Pultizer Traveling Fellowships for study in Europe, Russia and the Middle East, and has traveled to more than 40 countries, among them China, Vietnam, Japan, Ukraine, Israel, Turkey and the West Bank Palestinian Territories.
Fineman is married to Amy L. Nathan, a senior counsel at the Federal Communications Commission. They live in Washington with their two children, Meredith and Nicholas.
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