9 posts tagged “voter”
The end is near!!! The end of this horrible election and here comes the storm before the calm. Has everyone lost their minds collectively?
There is a letter with the state logo of Virginia (boy have Virginia Republicans been in the negative news recently) on it that is trying to tell Republicans to vote on day and Democrats to vote on another. The day noted for Republicans is election day and the day for Democratic voters is a day late. Apparently assuming that Senator Obama supporters may not be as educated and informed about the voting process (ideas often associated with minority voters who area registering in droves to vote this election).
In Philadelphia a letter (clearly targeting the same demographic) says that if you have unpaid tickets or outstanding warrants. Many in the minority communities don’t trust our legal system and would be fearful of such threats even if not guilty of any crimes.
What about the videos warning of he evils of Muslims (hinting to the made up rumors of a mentally unstable gentleman who got rich writing an attacking book with nothing to support what he said) that were sent all over the country.
The problem is that there is a Muslim population in our country that feels as American as anybody else and hates the terrorists just like anyone else. At least they felt as American as anyone else until this election. I suppose that racist or bigoted remarks such as the hinting that Senator Obama could not be qualified for president if he were a Muslim might pass us by as okay if you ignore this fact, but they offend a group of patriotic Americans who have every right not to bear the brunt of the attacks of this campaign as anyone else.
The First Amendment allows for freedom of speech, but I also have the freedom to vote. As these stories come out the candidate that seems to be suffering the most is the candidate that most of these things seems to be attempting to help. It would seem that many are offended by such tactics especially when we are all struggling to make ends meet.
The Republican Party (much of it is the membership and not the leadership, but there have been egregious acts performed by the leadership of the party also) playbook seems to be to make one segment of the nation scared to vote for Senator Obama and the other segments (mostly minorities) afraid to vote or not to vote. The Democrats just want to flood the media with campaign pitches (which would normally be annoying), but relative to what we have been seeing from the Republican party this suddenly doesn’t seem so bad.
The fact that Senator Obama can make a half an hour presentation with no attacks on his opponent and no offensive statements clearly shows shy a person so far to the Left (in voting record) can get so many middle and Right Wing votes (at least in the polls). I have said it again and again it is about how terrible the McCain campaign is being run compounded by the fact that the party has done so much craziness in the name of it’s candidate that is a testament to how shaky Senator Obama’s support is that it is not a landslide in his favor.
Senator Obama is not winning Senator McCain is losing with the help of the crazies he and Governor Palin have rallied into a frenzy at the campaign rallies.
The good news is that if the Republican’s lose as much as the polls indicate they will this election we might see the end of the Republican party as it is today and will get to see the dawning of a new day for the party. Hopefully a better and stronger Republican party that will not stand for such things at any cost.
Apparently the Republicageddon will be televised in a half-hour infomercial paid for by contributions to the Obama campaign.
The Presidential race is rolling on, the economy is in the tank, we are still at war in two places and there are several places that we could be at war with at any minute and what happens next seems to rest on the shoulders of some folks known as independent voters. Who are these people?
Here is how I have been shown the basic makeup of our political system…
Social &..................... Economic..........................Economic..................Social &
Economic...................Conservatives......................Liberals.....................Economic
Liberals.......................Social...............................Social........................Conservatives
...................................Liberals.............................Conservatives...............................
LEFT <------------------------------------{*}--------------------------------------> RIGHT
Democrats ..............(Libertarians)........................................................... Republicans
The key to understanding the middle is the two groups located near the middle of this chart. The assumption in many people’s estimation is that we all neatly fit into either extreme or we are somehow not as educated or understanding of politics for some reason. In reality what you have is a difference of opinion on what is truly important from either extreme.
Because we tend to view American politics as a two party system the groups near the middle tend to not associate themselves to a party fully bet most often vote to the side that they appear on above. The social aspects of our society and thee social viewpoints of the voter, tend to drive the side they choose when voting on an issue or for a candidate. Thus, Social Liberals tend to the left and Social Conservatives tend to the right.
The truth is however that the groups near the middle always feel that they have sacrificed some ideal for another one in the interest of the greater good no matter how they decide to vote.
The problem comes when a subject such as the economy plays a big role in the picture. Now these people near the middle have to look to the other side of the chart to satisfy their feelings on the economy while attempting to close their eyes to what is normally their main concern, the social agenda.
Why is all of this important to this election? I think this might demonstrate a very simple reason behind why the pools are so slanted in Senator Obama’s favor. The Republican Presidential and Vice-presidential candidates have been speaking the language of Social and Economic Conservatives (also known as Republicans) with a fervor seldom seen in campaigns.
They have basically ignored the group (really groups) that all along have been described as the ones that will make or break this election year and may have alienated the “Economic Liberals Social Conservatives” group in manner that may have them leaning to left for a while to come.
The Obama Campaign has done a good job of finding ways to appeal to these middle groups and to unify the more left leaning voters. The key being that a candidate does not have to satisfy everything a person in one of the groups in the middle wants just whatever those groups find to be the most important at the time.
The only surprise in all of this is that the “Economic Conservatives Social Liberals” group is not gravitating to the right with Senator McCain. I would have to say that the tying of Senator McCain to the largely unpopular Bush administration coupled with the dislike a person who is a social liberal would have for many of the campaign tactics and attacks of the McCain camp have driven these people to stay with the group that they tend to run with anyhow.
I am an Economic Liberal Social Conservative type of guy and would normally be a McCain supporter, but have been driven away by the terrible nature of the campaign and the insanity that is Republican politics in 2008. I am not sure there is time left for the Republican ticket, but I am absolutely convinced that the damage to the republican party (particularly with voters in these middle groups) is massive and will be lasting. I hope Republicans can look at this and regroup or we will be stuck with a one-sided, left-leaning government for years until things get so out of hand that the pendulum swings the other direction.
Can we seriously be have gotten so behind John McCain as our saviour and prophet of God (the person who speaks God's will to us) or as messenger of God, that we have come to the point that we imply that a person who is Muslim cannot be saved according to the doctrine of Christianity. I understand the serious nature of why many of us are a little concerned about policy issues and how God views these things, but seriously - "irrevocable" because Islamic Law says so. Does that not imply that Islamic law trumps what Jesus, Paul and others stated.
- Challenged The idea that any person who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour is saved (even if that person doesn't properly understand God's desires (as of yet)
- You have implied that somehow Islamic Law has more authority than what is outlined in the Bible ("according to Islamic Law he is a Muslim." your exact words in opposition to his statement to the contrary)
- You have demonstrated that somehow a person who has a disagreement with another professing Christian's interpretation of scripture (correct or incorrect) has the right and authority to publicly question that person's salvation.
- You have called upon the fear of those in Islam to convince us that somehow Senator John McCain is the Godly choice for our nation effectively putting all of God's eggs in the McCain basket - what happens if he becomes president and is nowhere as Godly as we make him out to be (history shows that this could most likely be the case) the church again looks collectively crazy and sets the stage for loosing more political influence than ever before (winning the battle at the expense of losing the war)
- You have used a page and a half of scary statements to take the worst most evil doctrines of Islam, tie them to a person who proclaims himself to be Christian, and manipulate those easily influenced by such tactics to believe that God wants them to vote for John McCain as God's messenger for the next four years.
“A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.”
“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”
“Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.”
“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.”
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
“It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.”
“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.”
“The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.”
“The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.”
‘When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer "Present" or "Not guilty."’
“THE THINGS THAT WILL DESTROY AMERICA ARE PROSPERITY-AT-ANY-PRICE, PEACE-AT-ANY-PRICE, SAFETY-FIRST INSTEAD OF DUTY-FIRST, THE LOVE OF SOFT LIVING, AND THE GET-RICH-QUICK THEORY OF LIFE.”
The person quoted here is my favorite president of all time…Theodore Roosevelt. Strength, intelligence and straight forward, while also a man of honor and integrity and decency. (the decency is the biggest thing missing from all of the presidential campaigns of recent years.
I received this in an email and felt the need to respond...
Revelations Chapter 13 tells us it is 42 months and you know what that is.
Almost a four-year term to a Presidency. All I can say is Lord Have Mercy on
us! According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is: The anti-Christ
will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations
with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the
prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will
promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy
everything..
Is it OBAMA??
There are absolutely no statements in revelation that say the “anti-Christ” will be from any country, any age these ideas come from Daniel and have been interpreted to say all kinds of things. I remember when Ronald Reagan was president there was this trip going around that he was the anti-Christ because of the amount of letters in his name. I actually remember his middle name because of the amount of times it came up. Ronald Wilson Reagan the number of man three times 666 (six letters each name). And we wonder why people who are not Christian think we are all crazy. It is not even if this man is or isn’t the antichrist that is in question at this point, it is that we will twist the Bible to support our arguments.
The Pharisees and Scribes knew the Bible and what it said, but would stretch everything to adjust what it said to fit how they felt about issues. In my lifetime (I noticed this more before I was saved) I have heard so many ideas about someone (usually someone unpopular with American churches) that tried to tell me this person was the anti-Christ that if the real anti-Christ came and sat down to dinner with me I probably would no longer have any way of even considering that he was the anti-Christ. The church has cried wolf (anti-Christ far too many times to suit their own needs of the time.
I am saying this to help us consider this fact. The truth is that Barack Obama is simple a terrible candidate for president on many levels. John McCain is not only a terrible candidate, but he is terrible at picking people for his political regime (he has several people that other presidential candidates including Ronald Reagan fired because of the level of attacking and dirty campaigning they were doing). Here we are looking at such things.
I make it a point to try to look at both sides of any political argument, but this campaign has had people at McCain rallies screaming racial epithets out loud, screaming things like “kill him” etc. without a word from the McCain campaign to stop it. There is a pastor who stands In front of the entire nation this weekend and says that if Barack Obama wins it would somehow show other that God is not powerful and their gods are more powerful. A man last week, from the McCain campaign in Virginia wrote an article (click here to see the actual article) which I was personally offended by. I am perplexed by the idea that several people have tried to put before me that the McCain campaign is somehow a move of God (seriously, does God really move like that) against the evil of Barack Hussein Obama.
It is also amazing to me that suddenly the guy who lost his mind berating Christians in the media in 2000 is suddenly the great hope for God and Christianity all of a sudden.
I have a unique view of this election for several reasons – I am very into politics, I am an independent, I am of mixed race and comfortable with both African American folks and Caucasian folks, I feel I have a pretty good working knowledge of the Bible, I am in the middle class (not the rich that McCain seems to tend towards and not the poor that Obama seems to tend toward), I have a home bought during the questionable period, and I am very worried about healthcare and my retirement.
I think both parties have become outright silly. For me race will not choose a president, neither person even remotely has God’s best interests in mind (unless you are of the opinion that the only thing that will matter to you and your family over the next four years is the possibility of having an abortion), neither candidate is going to help me out financially according to the plans they have outlined so far, and neither has a plan that will help my family out at all.
They are both absolutely terrible candidates but only one has the audacity to assault and insult my ability to reason with repeated attacks on the other that are designed to raise fear in me and make me think that my only hope is to vote for him (the technical term is manipulation). If we are relying on anything that has anything to do with either of these candidates to determine our relationship to God and how close we are to the end of the world there is good news. We can stop worrying about health care and retirement plans because we won’t be needing them.
My favorite president of all time, Theodore Roosevelt once said; “Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.” (another way to say this is that every tree has it’s fruits and nuts) I deeply wish to be a part of the reform of our nation but not on the lunatic fringe. The one thing I will do however is let somebody use things I hold dear to me to manipulate me, particularly letting a candidate manipulate my belief in God to force me to vote for them. That goes double for rumors based on statements made in a book written by someone who is literally insane whose statements have no basis (Read about it by clicking here).
The worst part is that the statistics are showing that I am not the only person that is offended by all of this attack campaigning, but we are still seeing it. Obama is not winning the campaign; these ungodly tactics are losing it for Senator McCain. And these tactics are the type of underhanded tactics I want to see from our president.
Over the past couple of weeks my blogs have often been pretty much anger at the McCain campaign for running such a poor campaign and doing such a disservice to Senator McCain and Governor Palin while also not allowing us to have real choices for president (keeping in mind that the person ultimately responsible for the campaign is the candidate).
I have just watched footage on several channels of the McCain campaign trail with both angry Republican voters and angry speeches about forcing the media to discuss the items that the McCain camp is talking about. There was also angry discussion of how they are mystified at why Barack Obama is doing so well. One very angry gentleman, rambling loudly about having our heads examined because of the mere existence of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.
I am one of those undecided independent voters everyone keeps talking about. I am a moderate social conservative and a moderate economic liberal (probably in the economic center) so I am a true independent that tends to lean ever so slightly Republican. I quite honestly cannot remember the last Democratic presidential candidate I have voted for (but I have voted for several Democrats as well as Republicans in other areas).
The last month and a half have not drawn me to either major candidate, but the last month and a half has definitely been driving me away from one campaign (which translates to away from one candidate).
The McCain campaign includes officials that were let go from previous Republican campaigns because of the negative campaign tactics, so the tone of what is going on is not surprising. Let me help this man and others with this question understand how at least a segment of those of us who call ourselves independents are thinking.
I have just watched and listened to the topic that has overpowered the drastic drop in the markets all over the world including ours. That topic is……too much detail in a close-up picture of Sarah Palin. I was struck by the audacity of the far right to interrupt reality with such stupidity. One woman, in trying to defend this, spent several minutes arguing that any woman would be angered by this Newsweek cover because one can see her blackheads, pimples, and mustache. How dare these people waste all of our time with such stupidity and at the same time say the media is favoring Barack Obama. If this garbage is what the Far Right is going to do with media coverage, please find some way to ensure that they get no more.
For the past few days, there have been reports of angry McCain supporters at Sarah Palin rallies doing things like:
- Yelling out “Kill him!”
- Yelling out “Off with his head!”
- Yelling racial epithets at an African American camera man
The big problem is not simply the fact that these are the people that are supporting Senator McCain. The biggest problem is that these, over the top, comments and activities were occurring and Governor Sarah Palin just took it all in stride as if these sorts of activities were okay as long as it is something negative about Senator Obama.
What would we do if we were all watching the television, President Bush is speaking, and a spectator screams out, you should kill the n*$$@*. Would we not be astonished if he did not say something about the comments?
The astonishing thing is that the extreme right wing does not realize that the response that diehard Republicans have at negative rhetoric from Senator McCain, Governor Palin, and Senator McCain’s wife will not have the same effect on those of us who everyone thinks are really going to make the difference (the independent voters).
I just heard a clip of one guy begging Senator McCain to step up the attacks and revisit the Reverend Wright issue and step up attacks on the Bill Ayers issue.
Then there are the clips of Sarah Palin asking the far right to try to force the media to participate by discussing these same negative topics more and more.
The McCain campaign is getting pummeled in the polls, and this nonsense has not even caught traction much less been successful yet and seems to be hurting more than helping. All of us know he is loosing and we know it is the usual time for the trailing candidate to ratchet up the attacks. But, these attacks if perceived to be over the top run the risk of making the attacker look like the desperate flailing of a drowning person. It is an odd phenomenon how many of those who are drowning accidently try to drown the very ones who would save them while they are flailing to save themselves. The flailing of the McCain camp may be an accidental attack on the very people who could save his chances.
Let spell it out for at least a segment of us undecided, independent voters.
We do not like it and will not vote for you under any circumstances if it continues much longer!
As McCain is finally finding a way to connect with the extreme of his party, he is distancing himself more and more from the voters most experts are going to make the difference. That means these tactics are distancing him more and more from the presidency.
People like myself remember the public outbursts of Senator McCain in the past and if he is trying to distance himself from all of that, crowds of angry people yelling things like “kill him” about the other candidate is probably not the best way to do that.
Because I am often traveling on the days we vote I get absentee ballots. I have mine sitting in front of me right now. I have everything filled out except my choice for president. I have been put off so much by the McCain camp over the past few weeks (particularly the past two) that I am giving him until next Wednesday to change all of this. I think even though I have been so put off, personally angered, personally offended, disgusted, and embarrassed (the whole planet is watching us) I feel this is a fair cooling off period for me. He has one week to stop shooting himself in the foot or at least one vote will have officially gone the other way.
I feel if he is this distant from reality as a candidate, he will be distant from reality as president.
P.S. I understand the Reverend Wright thing and the Bill Ayers thing and although I am not happy about these things, I am really not all that interested in hearing about the same nonsense over and over again and again. It just looks angry and “same old Washington” and actually angers me with all that is going on.
It is not my fault, the media’s fault, or Barack Obama’s fault that Senator McCain told the planet the economy is not his strength right before every economy worldwide collapsed.
Yup, I’m back. The voice of the independent, Christian, voter of mixed race.
What a year. Never have there been two candidates for anything where the both less represent what I believe in as this presidential race. They are however, both pretty adept at talking a pretty good game.
There is good news on the horizon (other than the fact that all of this is almost over). This election may not be the total waste I had once thought it was inevitably going to be.
Over the past few weeks, the usual attack ads and ongoing verbal attacks from the person falling behind have be at or near an all time high. Palin, McCain, the McCain campaign and so on are dangerously close to going nuclear in their assault on everything Obama.
At this point in the campaign season the American public begins its normal ranting and carrying on about how much they hate this kind of politics and wish the candidates would stick to the issues and other such complaints. The funny thing is that this usually works in spite of all of the complaining.
This year much of how campaigns are run (particularly presidential campaigns) is evolving right before our eyes. The most impacting change I am seeing (and I hope I continue to see) is the immediate expression of dislike of the attack technique in polls, discussions, and those funny little button things on CNN during the debates.
Whenever the attacking starts, the little CNN graph drops faster than a Mike Tyson opponent in the early part of his boxing career. The stronger the attacks in “Tall Hall Meetings” and on the campaign trail, the larger the gap grows between the candidates.
The surprise for me is that in spite of this, the McCain campaign has decided to continue to run the campaign as if Senator McCain was running for president in the late sixties (sort of Nixonesque with a touch of George W.). The hurrahs of the unwavering party faithful seem to be blinding the McCain camp to the fact that the “undecided” voters, are getting far more of that in the news than anything else from his camp. The truth is, it is far ore interesting news, but at this point in history terrible campaigning.
Have they forgotten that he is fighting the image of the elderly, grumpy guy who has outburst of anger and randomly votes for stuff that makes no sense? Are they sure that twenty-four hours of news with clips of him, barely holding back the fact he cannot stand Senator Barack Obama, with barely harnessed intensity (bordering on anger) saying negative things about the man. For many I have spoken to even many that are leaning his direction, he is starting to look a little scary.
I am not a campaign manager nor a rocket scientist, but I think Guy McIntyre (formerly with the San Francisco 49ers) one said: “If something is not working, you should do less of it.” I would have to say I agree totally.
As one of those independent voters, I am nowhere near being convinced that Senator Obama is ready to be president. But the way things are going, I would have to say that the poor judgment of the McCain campaign as directed by Senator John McCain is drifting towards being what I see as grossly negligent. If the people he has selected to run his campaign are doing such a poor job of responding to the changing times and he has not changed the course in the face of impending disaster, what does that say about his potential presidency and those he will appoint to important positions?
I personally, as an undecided, independent voter, am not likely to vote for Senator Obama, but I am getting more and more likely to vote against the entire McCain campaign.
I honestly hope he hears this message and changes the course of his campaign to something that is less akin to watching the Titanic right after it hit the iceberg. I desperately would like to feel like one of these guys could do the job and the longer this goes on the less convinced I seem to become. This current ploy of attacking Senator Obama, while it gets hoops and hollers from the “diehard” Republicans (like cheering for their favorite football team when they are loosing), the result of energizing the a Republican base will not have the same effect that it did for George W. It is the quickest way to loose.
We began our presidential primaries with a tremendous showing of how much our country has advanced. We had a female candidate, an African American candidate, a Mormon candidate, an actor as a candidate, a candidate who is advanced in years, and a bunch of other people.
But, somewhere our great nation took a left when we should have taken a right (not the revered of course).
There was the issue of Senator Barack Obama’s former pastor that brought out this huge race issue and revealed to the world that as a nation we have ignored and never closed the door on our ongoing race issues dealing with people of African heritage and/or their deep resentment of their treatment at the hands of the laws and people of this nation from it’s inception.
Then we revealed to the world that with all of our pious talk of equal opportunity for women in our country and how advanced we are in terms of gender equality there was suddenly a rush of both accusations and some demonstrations of chauvinism and hyper-feminism. This showed the world that we are clearly not as far along as we let on.
Then we decided it was time to demonstrate to the world that we had no dignity or class at all. We suddenly saw images of members of our senate who were realistic hopes for leadership of our nation using such things as bowling, taking shots in bars and chugging beer, and describing our nation as people who cling to religion and guns because we are angry used as serious campaign strategies.
On the Republican side there was this McCain fellow, another prominent member of our Senate, stating that the American people were basically on their own and the government would do nothing to help (probably not exactly what he meant, but that was what came out of his mouth) and that the solution would be a “Gas Tax Holiday” which was immediately reamed by economists and the media worldwide.
And, let us not forget the images we saw on Martin Luther Kings birthday of Senator McCain somewhere in the south in front of a largely African American crowd apologizing for having fought so diligently against any official acceptance of the Martin Luther King Holiday and trying to explain why he did with the background being a huge chorus of boos.
By this point, people the worldwide laid their only hope in the American public and the media to sort this all out.
Then the statistics and interviews started to pour out that either clearly stated or hinted to the fact that much of the population of our nation that votes, does so for the most ridiculous reasons imaginable. One of the most important positions a human being can hold on this planet and this person is chosen because he or she is: a woman, not a woman, is African American, is not African American, is like movie stars (such as Paris Hilton), is a “maverick” (which is synonymous with the word reckless in the minds of many the worldwide), a member of the party the individual is loyal to (no matter how ridiculous or idiotic the individual may be), and so on.
Now the entire planet is concerned with our election. Not only because it is definitely the best reality show on the planet, but I suspect that there is such concern because many around the world recognize the influence this position has in the world and there is a genuine concern that this years vote will be so screwed up that it may mark the beginning of the Apocalypse.
Then just when it seemed it could not get any worse, the conventions proved that to be just the beginning of the stupidity. There were great speeches and suddenly this woman shows up and describes herself as being like a pit-bull wearing lipstick (the hokey mom that said the only thing between hockey moms and pit-bulls was lipstick). Within a weekend the direction of the votes of the American people (according to the coverage) shifted into the direction of the person who is in reality only running for Vice-president.
I receive emails and responses to my blogs and from people around the world that show a deep concern and interest in our elections this year and the scary part is that the people in this nation are not that deeply concerned.
Over the last week the most important political conversation and coverage that was consistently heard had to do with putting lipstick on pit-bulls and pigs. Seriously folks, have we collectively lost our minds!
The conversations and correspondence I have had with people here has greatly discouraged and almost angers me. People here are acting like we are voting for who is the better football team. I am loyal to my team because they are from my area, they have more people like me, they have better media coverage, because they play a little dirty, they don’t play as dirty, they have better fans, etc.
Although there has been a lot of calls for the facts and less campaign nonsense the truth is when different forms of media have offered both the facts and the nonsense people have drawn in droves to the nonsense. No matter what people say as a group, the fact is that the nonsense and negative tactics have once again shown that they work as evidenced by the polls.
In one conversation I had, someone made a very good point: “You have to vote for someone so I guess you are going to have to do the best you can and vote for the lesser evil.”
At that point it hit me. It is like asking me to vote for the Apocalypse I would be more comfortable living through. Or maybe like the guy in the mafia movie about to be killed and asked by the guy about to kill him if he would rather be shot in the front of the head or the back.
The truth is that the entire planet is deeply interested in and can watch our government in action and we are blowing a great opportunity. I am not the only person who thinks we have a pool of the worst candidates we have ever had, there are many prominent members of the media and political community that agree. And have we all not seen the petty and childish actions that have been the basic normal operation of our government as a whole for the past few years. These things have doubled during this election.
If you are American, please take a second and imagine how all of this would look if you lived somewhere else. Is it any wonder that over the past few months all of the nations who hate us have ramped up the rhetoric and worldwide less and less people like us?
Today several respected economists came out publicly in opposition to the Gas Tax holiday proposed By Senator John McCain and later used by Senator Hillary Clinton to boost her campaign against Senator Barack Obama who opposes the idea.
Presidential hopefuls Senator John McCain and Senator Hillary Clinton have been pushing this Gas Tax Holiday in theory giving the American public a few month reprise from the High gasoline prices. The plan involves eliminating the approximately nineteen cent federal gas tax and the approximately twenty-five cent diesel tax beginning Memorial Day all the way to Labor Day.
You may remember that when this idea was first proposed I posted a blog where I stated it was a bad idea. I mention this because my view was not based on being an economist (because I am not one) but on simple common sense. The truth is that if we come up with any idea that takes millions, billions, or trillions of dollars out of the national budget, the money has to come from somewhere to replace it (in this case we are talking about somewhere in the area of ten-billion dollars). Nineteen cents is not worth some huge debt that shows up later to be paid for by taxing us. The two dollars I would personally save a week is not enough for me to be willing to create a ten-billion dollar hole in the budget.
Today two-hundred top economists, four of which are Nobel prize winners, signed a letter completely rejecting this ridiculous idea. This is the kiss of death for this stupid idea.
Hillary Clinton has been trying to say she was the candidate most likely to turn the economy around and the polls have been growing in her favor in this area. When I first heard her endorsement of this idea, I immediately knew she was not the economist she has been trying to sell herself as. When she decided to put her stamp of approval on an idea about the economy that came from a candidate that states clearly that the economy is his weak point I realized she was capable of being just as ignorant as Senator Barack Obama was in associating with a certain Mr. Wright.
Senator McCain has stated repeatedly that he is terrible with the economy (How can we take you seriously as a candidate at this point in history if this is the case?) so this is no surprise. The surprise for me is that Sen. McCain and his campaign would decide that the place for him to come out of hiding and make his big stand was going to be on the battlefield of the economy. I have to ask myself: “Who though this would turn out well?”
Sen. McCain seems to end up in trouble every time he speaks publicly and the Republican party is sinking fast because of how unpopular the current presidency is. If McCain is the current captain of the sinking Titanic why would Sen. Clinton jump on board the sinking ship.
I do not give Sen. Obama as much credit as it would seem he should get for opposing the idea. It would normally give us the idea that he is better in touch with the economy, but that is not the case.
The truth is, the reason for his knowing this was a bad idea was because in the state that he represents currently, Illinois, they tried a similar idea and it failed miserably. He simply knew it would fail because he was there the last time it failed.
Again I say that I think that none of the three of these candidates is in fact a “good” choice. I feel it is simply a matter of which one is the lesser of the evils. In the case of the “Gas Tax Holiday” I score it this way:
Senator John McCain - Minus one-half point (only a half because I already knew he was terrible in terms of the economy)
Senator Hillary Clinton – Minus two points (this was such a stupid move on her part for so many reasons I think only taking two points away is being generous in trying to be fair)
Senator Barack Obama – Plus a half point - (he didn’t have any knowledge either way about the economy, he just got lucky)
As a side note, the Democrats, as a party, are working on drafting a proposal to help individual American’s at the pump without being such a stupid idea.
