Prez O reported kickstarting highspeed rail by WSJ, others jumpstarting (MEDIA CLICHES)

Christopher Conkey transportation reporter for the Wall Street Journal has broken from the pack. He reports today that a Obama stimulus program is "designed to kickstart" highspeed rail. Most of his colleagues - New York Timers, Washington Posties, AP, ABC - have settled on "jumpstart".

Conkey risks being ostracized for this odd, what is it, motorcycle metaphor.

This clearly diminishes President O's vision for the nation's future mobility when everyone else in the press gang has agreed that highspeed rail needs an electrical metaphor.

Not that it's a very complimentary metaphor, come to think of it.

HSR a clunker

Don't they call vehicles needing jumpstarts "clunkers", and pay you to trash them.

Actually that's rather apt.

Highspeed rail a clunker!

Robert Samuelson economics columnist at Washington Post just wrote of highspeed rail:

"It's Amtrak writ large: the triumph of fantasy over fact. The same false arguments used to justify Amtrak (less congestion, pollution, etc.) are recycled. Evidence and experience count for little.

"Obama and Biden pander to popular prejudices instead of recognizing past failure.

"Boondoggles become respectable. A White House so frivolous in embracing dubious spending cannot be believed when it professes concern about future taxes and budget deficits."

Samuelson's full column:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/23/AR2009082302037_pf.html

The dissident motorcycle metaphor:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125115017812354935.html

TOLLROADSnews 2009-08-25