U.S. INVESTORS KNOW WHAT GEORGE LACKS
by Mark Scheinbaum
American Reporter Columnist

BOCA RATON, FLA (July 10, 2002)--Harry S Truman and Dwight D.
Eisenhower once had it, but Bill Clinton and George W. never did.
John McCain and Bill Bradley, and even Ronald Reagan had one, but Franklin
D. Roosevelt and Al Gore Jr. never did.
Still guessing?
Well, in the wake of Wall Street's non-response to the President's "too
little, too late" declaration of Now We Get Tough on Crooked Bosses, I
thought I'd let you guess what some of us already know.
Ready to try again?
Okay, play along.
John F. Kennedy--in fact most of the Kennedys--never really had one,
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Grandpa George certainly never had one, but Jesse
Ventura, Ross Perot, and Michael Dell had one.
Bill Gates never really had one.
Real estate magnate Donald Trump never had one, but Virgin Atlantic
founder Sir Richard Branson had quite a few.
Estee Lauder, Mary Kay, Martha Stewart, and Oprah had one. Even Hillary
Clinton had one. Steve Forbes, Warren Buffet, and Al Capone never really had
one.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson used to have one, but forgot about it.
Answer: A Grown Up Job.
A Grown Up Job allows a boss, political, or religious leader to have some
connection with decency and experiences of the average Joe.
This does not mean that occasionally, a trust fund zillionaire such as
Felix Rohayton of Lazard Freres, cannot service magnificently for $1 per
year as MTA Chairman.
It does not mean that FDR, born with a whole set of sterling service in
his mouth, having worked as a governor and Navy secretary, never had a Grown
Up Job. A Grown Up Job is a job you really need to feed yourself or a
family. People who once had a Grown Up Job know when it's time to let loose
the Army Air Corps on German concentration camps.
Professional students-turned-politicans such as Bill Clinton never had a
Grown Up Job because they always sucked at the public teat.
American dynasty babies like the Bush Babies make believe they had Grown
Up Jobs, but we know better. Dubya may or may not have fudged the paperwork
on a 200,000 share stock trade in 1990. What is not disputed, according to
the Wall Street Journal is that the shares were "given" to the novice oil man
while daddy was in the White House. The company, Harken Energy, apparently
had financing and ties to Saudi Arabia. As the political philosopher Gomer
Pyle once noted, "Surr-priiiise! Surrprise!"
When Michael Dell starts a computer business from scratch in is dorm
room, he built an empire out of a Grown Up Job.
When the brilliant, innovative, and skillful Bill Gates launched a
company, it was while millionaire mommy and daddy were shilling to
billionaire venture capitalists to help sonny boy.
It's also easy for The Donald to tell everyone what a great "self-made"
man he is, especially when Pop--one of the three largest private real estate
developers in New York--started him out with about a $30 million stake.
The Florida Governor Bush, was set up in the office of Cuban-American
political hack and lobbyist Jorge Mas Canosa Sr. and suddenly became a "real
estate executive." While he stumped the state and shook hands with school
kids, he built a distinguished business resume made of smoke, mirrors, and
campaign contributions.
You see folks, rich people aren't bad. In fact lots of them create jobs
and are good for the nation. It's just that some rich folks who got that way
by never really holding a Grown Up Job shouldn't be running our lives.
The President Bush who won the Gulf War but didn;t know that scanners
were used at the grocery check out line, was un-elected.
The President Bush who just named a lawyer who defended Georgia Pacific
from tax evasion charges (Deputy Attorney Gen. Larry Thompson) to head the
new Fraud Task Force, may be looking for a Grown Up Job in two years.
--
Mark Scheinbaum, chief investment strategist at Kaplan & Co. Securities,
actually voted for George W.