Senator McCain’s gambit of labeling Senator Obama a socialist by redistributing the wealth obscures his own insidious redistribution of wealth. Basically, Obama is taking from the rich and giving to the middle class. He believes that the economy should be grown from the bottom up. Middle class consumer spending will bolster the economy. Basically, McCain is taking from the middle class and giving to the rich. He believes that the economy should be grown from the top down. The rich creating jobs with their money will bolster the economy.
Senator McCain is redistributing the wealth by not giving tax breaks to those less able to afford taxes, instead giving it to those more able to afford taxes. He is redistributing wealth by sending it upward from the middle class to the wealthy class. McCain believes in the trickle down theory where the wealthy let the wealth trickle down to the middle class. It has trickled for 8 years leaving the middle class struggling.
Barack Obama has a different plan: Let the wealth trickle up. Give breaks to the middle class and let us grow the economy while the corporations and financial institutions pay us back some of our $700 billion.
Senator McCain sucks on the issues. Even his “new” idea in debate #2 for the feds to renegotiate mortgages sucks. Here’s why: It’s not new, but part of the bailout bill. Those mortgages would be bought by the feds at their original value, not face value. The banks are made whole by this overpayment. The taxpayers would foot the bill for this classically inane business transaction. His own right wing base hates it. While the latter would usually be a good enough reason for me to support it, not in this case.
So what to do, what to do? Down and sinking in the polls, looking just a bit silly wandering around the debate platform, what is Senator McCain to do? Simple. Attack Barack Obama’s character with innuendo and fear mongering. Barack Obama was born with the middle name “Hussein”. He’d have that name whether he was a garage mechanic or presidential candidate. And what of it? It’s Arab and sounds just a tad “terrorist-ish”. OK, so McCain surrogates now include his middle name when referring to him. Maybe that will attract more enthusiastic McCain supporters screaming “Kill the terrorist!”
Raising the idiotic issue of Obama’s association with a 1960’s domestic terrorist turned college professor is, sadly, the best McCain has right now. That’s his best?! That’s what he has Sarah “6 Pack” Palin shouting about?! Good luck with that one.
Apparently, according to a recently released study, the 1982 based “Bradley Effect” has not plagued Barack Obama – not in the presidential primaries or his races in Illinois. Basically, the Bradley effect is in play when voters tell pollsters one thing and do the opposite in the privacy of the voting booth. Nonetheless, McCain can hope for it to play a role in the election, so how about pushing the Black thing? Remind voters that Barack Obama is a big scary Black man. Appeal to the basest instincts of a slice of the American electorate and hope that racism will turn the election your way. Isn’t that a charming strategy for one seeking to be our next president?!
If it quacks like “same old – same old” it probably is. McCain’s been doing a lot of frenetic quacking.
John McCain’s stunning designation of Sarah Palin as his running mate has appeased the religious right, tantalized the press and created a Republican rock star. Despite best attempts or none at all to be objective, you know the media is loving this. They’re loving it despite being denied access to Palin until this week’s appearance on ABC News with Charles Gibson. With blogs and emails circulating information about Palin during the media’s exclusion, Gibson should have a mountain of questions from which to choose. The media will not avoid asking tough questions of a candidate whose public record belies her rhetoric.
Until then, however, the McCain campaign will wring as much mileage out of her celebrity as possible. During this period of cloistered mileage wringing, she has traveled with McCain as not to get into trouble out on her own. There’s plenty of time for that when the media has at her. Will format restrain Joe Biden from shredding Sarah Palin in the VP debate? Hmm… I think not.
With complete impunity except in cyber-world, the McCain campaign has featured Governor Sarah as the women’s candidate, the reform candidate, the maverick candidate and the candidate for change. One has the feeling that all but the first will be dispelled as soon as the media gets the facts out to the electorate. As Barack Obama said today, you just can’t go out there and lie. Well, you can but you’re caught as the lies form on your lips. The media is licking its chops.
As to the women’s vote, one must first understand that there is no monolithic “woman” whose votes are being wooed. Comprising more than half our population there are as many if not more types of female voters as there are types of male voters. There are, nonetheless, generic blocs of women voters. Women of the Republican base will vote for McCain with Palin as will their male counterparts. After all, it was the religious right to which McCain pandered by choosing Sarah Palin. Undecided women will choose based on issues and/or personality. On the issues Palin is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Obama, Biden, Kennedy and Clinton – everything for which the Democratic Party stands. So go choose – the choices are clear. Personality is a crapshoot. You like your candidate honest (for a politician), forthright and charismatic? Charisma’s on both sides of this election, especially one side :-) Whether Palin is enough of a breath of fresh air for women to override even a cursory glance at her honesty, frankness and stands on issues affecting women will be determined as the media gains access to the candidate. Once that door is open McCain cannot shut it, hence the post-convention period of cloistered tandem campaigning.
Whether Palin fulfills McCain’s wildest dreams and draws droves of disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters depends on one factor: How stupid are those Hillary supporters? That too will be answered as the campaign moves toward November 4th. But, in case one of those stupid Hillary supporters has read this far, please read this:
Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are similar in only one way. Each has a vagina.
Our nation’s media has always had a critical function in fostering integrity in our government. Our founding fathers wisely anticipated the watchdog role of the media by guaranteeing freedom of speech and thus freedom of the press in the First Amendment of our Constitution. Once again in this 2008 presidential campaign, it is the media which will come to the aid of our government by educating the electorate on the propaganda, lies and sleights of hand foisted upon it by those unable to stand on their records.
One final note applicable here and to future entries in my blog using the generic word “media”. At no time does the generic word “media” include Fox News. OK, now we’re done.
Associated Press
updated 12:03 a.m. ET, Thurs., Sept. 11, 2008
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will spend much of the next few weeks campaigning with Sen. John McCain, a move that not only capitalizes on the Republican enthusiasm for the vice presidential nominee but also limits her exposure to the news media.
