Barack Obama made an interesting point today as he spoke to folks in Rolla, Missouri.  Observing the truism that doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of madness, he noted that "more of the same" is exactly the economic strategy of John McCain.

McCain today pledged that he would not raise taxes ever if he's elected President.  (At least he didn't say, "Read my lips.")  Indeed, McCain intends to cut taxes even further than the Bush/Rove administration has--offering additional tax breaks to corporations (whose tax rates are at near all-time lows).

So let me see if I've got this straight--We're in an economic turndown that promises to become a full-blown recession.  We've got record deficits because of Bush's tax cuts and ill-advised (very expensive) "war" in Iraq.  McCain's solution is to cut taxes further and stay in the war.  Hmmm.

I used to like John McCain, back when he was seemed to be a genuine maverick.  But I lost about 90% of my respect for him when he became Bush's (pardon the expression) "bitch" during the '04 campaign.  Since then he's seemed to me to be flailing around, declaring over and over again that he'll change things in Washington (to try to co-opt Obama's message) while proposing policies that, if they change things at all, will only make things worse.

Want an example?  How about energy solutions.  McCain says, let's drill more in offshore oil fields and ramp up nuclear power plants.  Well, since oil rigs are at capacity, the drilling won't help.  Nuclear power is part of the interim energy solution but long-term, we need to go with renewable energy sources...not create more (and potentially bigger) problems by creating more nuclear waste.

I lost the last 10% of my respect for McCain in recent days as he went on the attack with a few anti-Obama ads.  McCain had it rough during the 2000 primary election with Rove doing push polls suggesting he had an illegitimate black child.  He's not reached that low, I'll admit.  But it's surprising that a man who claims to have such high integrity would not flinch at ads equating Obama with shallow celebrities and suggesting there's a media bias for Obama.

He accuses Obama of not being substantive while simultaneously whining about how unfair the media is and how Obama's too popular.

What is this, high school?

So how could McCain impress me?  If he looked his party of tax-cut hogs straight in the eyes and said, "You've had an awfully good ride these past 8 years.  And now it's time to pay the piper.  We have an economic crisis in this country and we can't solve it by collecting less revenue.  We can get some by cutting programs, cutting pork barrell spending, reducing expenses in Iraq.  But we can't get there without more revenue and since you got almost all of the Bush tax cuts, you'll have to shoulder a bit more of the burden with the money you've saved in taxes since 2000."

Never gonna happen.  But that would be integrity.

Leave a Reply