A proper perspective

Sunday, May 2, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Several stories last week demanded a second look — the types of stories that just don’t quite add up at face value. Adding a little perspective can change everything. For example:

• After suffering national ridicule for her insistence that people should barter for health care to reduce costs, Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden tried to blame Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. She said he and his allies were shifting the issue. And in an op-ed piece on Politico.com, she even had the gall to say Reid was “out of touch.”

Reid’s out of touch?

Let’s review: Lowden made a ridiculous statement and has since fiercely defended it. Sadly, she touts bartering as if it would really work. As late-night comedian Stephen Colbert put it:

“You can buy (a live chicken) for about eight bucks. Then when the doctor wants to charge you $40,000 to put a stent in your heart, offer him the chicken. You know he’s going to take it. All doctors go into medicine because they want to heal the sick — and because they want chicken.”

Indeed. Where do we sign up?

• Reid was also attacked by Senate Republicans last week. Politico.com reported that Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., called Reid an “idiot” during a caucus lunch, and others chimed in, with one saying that Reid was “acting like an idiot.” Republicans called him plenty of names, ironic given that they have bashed him for name-calling. But this most recent outburst is because of what Senate Republicans say is their frustration over the Wall Street regulatory reform bill.

Here’s the reality: Reid wanted to move the legislation forward, but Republicans had the votes to block it with a parliamentary maneuver. So Reid brought the matter to the floor three times over as many days. Polling shows that Americans overwhelmingly support financial regulatory reform, but Republicans stopped the measure each time. Finally, after firmly showing that they favor protecting Wall Street over Main Street, Republicans relented, letting the bill move forward after public pressure mounted.

The Republicans can grouse about Reid, but before they do, perhaps they should install a mirror in their caucus room.

• Portfolio magazine recently released its list of the nation’s 100 “most fun” cities. New York was No. 1, Chicago finished second and Las Vegas was ... No. 26.

Yes, seriously.

According to the wizards who compiled the list, Pittsburgh; Detroit; Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Cleveland; and Milwaukee are more fun than Las Vegas. Perhaps the “What happens here, stays here” ad campaign was too effective — Portfolio doesn’t seem to understand that millions of tourists from around the world come to our little hometown every year to ... have fun.

But Portfolio ranked Las Vegas 81st in shopping and 44th in a category called food and drink. A little perspective: The magazine scored Omaha, Neb.; Des Moines, Iowa; and Scranton, Pa., higher in those categories.

Go figure.

• Former and current Goldman Sachs executives arrogantly testified before the Senate, parsing words and statements to argue that they did nothing wrong. After all, they were, in the words of one internal e-mail, making “capital markets more efficient and ultimately provid(ing) the U.S. consumer with more efficient ways to leverage and finance himself.” Explain that to the millions of American workers who lost their jobs and ended up with their homes foreclosed and nothing to finance, all because the smart people on Wall Street and their “efficient ways” dragged down the economy.

The bottom line is that without perspective, the way we see the world is not quite right. Politicians twist stories, financiers try to make the ignoble respectable and people end up forgoing a Las Vegas vacation for ... Scranton.