Prosperity

If "people vote their pocketbooks," as political folk wisdom holds, then George Bush should win the presidency in a cakewalk. By most conventional measures - plentiful jobs, steady growth, a low inflation rate - Bush's Republicans can claim to have delivered prosperity in the Reagan-Bush era. And claim it they do. "The focus of our campaign is, we've done a good job," said Mark Goodin, a Bush campaign spokesman. "We delivered on a record we can be proud of. " In 1988, the politics of prosperity are not that simple, of course.

Situated as we are, adjacent to a metropolitan area with two main highways, we have, literally, acres of diamonds. - Harry L. Cranmer, Delaware Township committeeman, April 1942. A few months after the United States entered World War II, leaders in this sleepy residential community were salivating over the future. Cranmer and his contemporaries forecast a great development wave heading straight toward them from Philadelphia and Camden. They envisioned the town's peach orchards, dairy farms and wheat fields giving rise to a velvety, tree- lined suburb and a thriving commercial district.

IN AMY POLLACK'S op-ed piece on family planning as a key to freedom for Afghan women (Nov. 28), she cites Bangladesh as a success story. With contraception, she argues, women have fewer children, incomes go up, and women have better lives. She has it exactly backward. Economic development comes first. More money means better health care, and infant mortality drops. Since more children survive, women have fewer of them. Voluntarily. This is what happened in the U.S. and Europe, and more recently, in Bangladesh.

Prosperity has come to the Preston Diner. The double-wide vintage 1966 dining car is bathed in a warm pink glow as patrons jam into red upholstered booths. They plop onto counter stools, slurp homemade soup and watch the truck traffic rumble by on Route 291 outside the homey diner's window. In the middle of it all sits Trina Canzanese, the owner. Well-dressed and bejeweled, Canzanese, 51, is the picture of cautious prosperity these days. Business is good, she says. As well it should be. The Preston Diner sits smack in the middle of Tinicum Township, just over the rise from the Route 420 interchange on Interstate 95. Down the road, the new Airport Business Center office complex is 60 percent leased.

Like just about everyone who pontificates for a living, I have been trying to figure out how Michael S. Dukakis has fallen so far so fast in his bid to be president. In just over a month he has blown a 17-point lead over Vice President Bush and is now, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, 8 points behind. That kind of free fall might be understandable if the guy had committed a calamitous error, like picking an unseasoned draft dodger as his running mate. But the worst that can be said about Dukakis is that he has been overly cautious - like a basketball team that loses its rhythm by trying to sit on a big lead.

Lou Dobbs was a central and almost constant presence at CNN from its founding in 1980 until his departure in November 2009. By then, he had become more outspoken and his views more openly political - even confrontational. His closing statement on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight left many observers believing he might run for president. Dobbs returned to television last week with an hourlong weeknight program, also called Lou Dobbs Tonight , on Fox Business Network. He continues his nationally syndicated Lou Dobbs Show on radio (heard in Philadelphia on WNPV-AM 1440)

"You are about to begin your journey into relaxation. It will be your own unique experience, just like you are taking a wonderful vacation. You will decide where you want to go and what you want to do. I will merely be your guide," crooned Noma Sigel as her passengers settled in for their trip. No seat belts required; goggles, headphones and a soft blue blanket were the only gear needed for this journey, the destination being the inner mind. All for $10 for a half-hour. Welcome to Brainwaves Inc., the mauve, lavender and blue home of the area's first public Synchro-Energizer, a $50,000, 32-person device that combines patterns of light with sound to stimulate the brain, reduce tension and stress, and improve mood and memory.

The year was 1984. Bob Rapp, a 42-year-old Democrat, was running in the Ninth District State Senate race against Republican incumbent Clarence D. Bell. At 70, Bell had already served seven terms. Rapp stressed in his campaign that the demands of the job were too great for a person of Bell's age. "Politics, unfortunately, has become a young man's sport," he told a reporter. Bell went on to win handily. Now, 10 years and two election victories later, he is still a state senator, and still busy proving Rapp and other critics wrong.

Why do we insist on listening to predictions that time and again turn out to be wrong? For example: How many pundits said Bob Dole would pick Jack Kemp as his running mate? I sure don't remember any. Bad political forecasts are a way of life in Washington. Political experts missed the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional elections. Similarly, many economic forecasts turn out to be ridiculous. The main reason that experts are wrong so much is simply that the future is unknowable.

Pastor Stephen Hecht believes that almost any problem can be solved by trust in God. Medical problem? Cast away all doubt. Financial troubles? Have faith. Marital strife? God can, and will, deliver. Hecht, pastor of the Zoe Christian Fellowship in Warrington, is an area member of the Word-Faith Movement, a religious doctrine that holds that the Bible is, in many ways, a catalogue of promises made by God to humanity. Followers of the Word-Faith Movement believe that by knowing what those promises are, and believing fervently in them, they can assure that God will deliver.

More jobs! More money! So say the people backing Gov. Corbett's plans to turn the Pennsylvania Lottery and the State Store system over to private operators. As I noted in this space in January, the lottery-sale plan - currently on hiatus - is designed so the promised jobs and revenue are added only if private managers persuade Pennsylvanians to bet more, through new games like keno (bingo, sort of) in new locations like bars and restaurants. As the pro-privatization Commonwealth Foundation said in a report last week, State Store opponents promise that: "ending the state-run monopoly will create thousands of additional jobs across the state and unleash millions of dollars in new business investment.

When the Philadelphia Electric Co. hired my father as an engineer in 1946, little did the freshly minted graduate of Tufts University and the Navy V-12 program realize that he had hit the jackpot. For the next 41 years, he and his wife would prosper from a rarity today: remarkable job stability, regular salary increases, and gold-standard benefits that enabled them - on a single "family wage" - to raise five children and send them to college. Moreover, his coveted compensation package was graced with a defined-benefit pension and health-care coverage at retirement for him and my mom, including survivor's benefits after he passed away.

Just a rocket's throw from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli desert town of Netivot has struggled for years with economic-development and safety concerns when missiles fall. Since 1997, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, under a program of U.S.-Israel community partnerships, has donated about $500,000 a year to the city of 30,000. A new link in that partnership - to be highlighted on Monday at a conference in Netivot - compounds traditional checkbook charity with innovative venture philanthropy.

When Shake Shack took over the space Dom's Shoe Repair Service had occupied since 1994, Dom's owner Leandro Montalto found a storefront down the street. The Roxborough native made very few modifications to the former dry cleaner's space. He ripped up wall-to-wall carpeting in favor of laminate hardwood flooring, and changed the color of the faux-wood wainscoting from blue to white. Why? "It's a little more appealing," Montalto says, shrugging. It's fair to say he put less thought into designing interactions with his customers than Shake Shack did. There, the order-taker asks your name before handing you a buzzer so when you go to pick up your food, the server can thank you personally.

Though it's not fashionable to look favorably on the 1950s, voters today might want to consider the choices people faced 60 years ago, the leader they elected, and the stability and prosperity that resulted. In 1952, Americans wanted change. The previous 12 years had been exhausting, marked by wars and recessions and scandals. As the Democrats were in charge, and had been for two decades, it seemed likely that the GOP would benefit from the hopes for new leadership. And with a nickname like "Mr. Republican," U.S. Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio had the edge.

He was the ultimate lawyer role model, a valiant fighter for human rights who battled against steep odds. The fondest hope of many young lawyers a generation ago was to be like the dashing Gregory Peck as he played Atticus Finch in the film To Kill a Mockingbird . Such was the case for Michael Fitts, dean of the University of Pennsylvania law school, who saw Finch as the embodiment of lawyerly ideals. To Fitts, Finch was a lawyer of incomparable decency, courage, and sure-handedness, as fine a lawyer prototype as you might want.

By James Gwartney, Robert Lawson, and Joshua Hall As the country enters the final months of the presidential election season, candidates from both parties will promise policies that they claim will improve our standards of living. While the focus of the political debate will be on short-term economic recovery and jobs, the source of long-term prosperity is economic freedom. Economic freedom means people are free to choose, trade, compete, invest, and have the fruits of their labor protected against aggressors within a legal framework of equal treatment and minimal interference from government.

Waving small plastic shovels, a crowd of 100 well-wishers broke symbolic ground Thursday on a new performing arts center for Norristown that officials hope will help bring cultural revival and economic prosperity back to the beleaguered Montgomery County seat. I'm so thrilled," said Erin Reilly, cofounder of Theatre Horizon, Norristown's professional drama company. "Today is the day when dreams come true. It's an auspicious beginning. " While the renovation to the first floor of the former Bell Telephone Building will provide permanent digs for the drama company for the first time, a lot more is riding on the $1 million project.

In proposing his state budget for the coming fiscal year, Gov. Corbett emphasized the need to "sort through the must-haves and the nice-to-haves, and compress government into its core functions. ... " He went on to note, "If we believe in society, we must accept that we have a duty to care for and protect those among us who cannot fend for themselves. " Sadly, though, the governor's budget proposal does not match this rhetoric. In fact, his spending plan would weaken the health-care safety net for the most vulnerable among us. By cutting funding for community-based services for those who have health conditions that prevent them from working or obtaining health insurance, for example, the budget would force more people to go without care or turn to hospital emergency rooms for the care they need.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - The first at-bat of the bottom of the first inning in an otherwise forgettable Grapefruit League game between the Nationals and Braves yesterday actually had longstanding connections to the Phillies' past - and possible ripple effects on the franchise's future. Gio Gonzalez took the mound for the Nationals. Michael Bourn stepped in the batter's box for the Braves. Both are former Phillies farmhands who developed into All-Stars for other clubs, and both are central figures in the National League East race this season.