Seriously

In a column over the weekend Paul Krugman stated that with the current economic crisis "Americans have rediscovered the virtue of seriousness" to the detriment of McCain's "deeply unserious" campaign. Certainly McCain's focus on the issues of triviality have been the mark of his campaign and underlined his desperation, and with this focus on the unserious comes the illumination that there is nothing there for him to run on. McCain's only hope is to keep bringing up issues that will tear Obama down, scare voters and further distract the electorate with issues that really don't affect their daily lives and muddle the issues of what should be important to them. Of course, the politics of distraction have worked before and we have to hope that this time they will not. As Krugman notes, "when the world seems to be falling apart, you don’t turn to a guy you’d like to have a beer with, you turn to someone who might actually know how to fix the situation." This is what "independent" voters should most remember when going to the polls next week. It seems here to be a good time to give kudos to Paul Krugman for his recent Nobel Prize in Economics. In these last eight years his thoughtful, insightful, brave and illuminating words from his columns, his book The Conscience of a Liberal and his blog have all been tonics for the world we have been living in. Congratulations, Paul.

More of McSame?

Interesting piece by Nicholas Kristof in today's New York Times about Somalia and Bush administration policy in regards to the intervention by Ethiopia in Somalia in recent years, an intervention that helped to create one of the world's "greatest humanitarian disaster(s)" today. One of those stories that is certainly not on many people's radars but one that should be watched carefully and that Kristof states relates directly to why a McCain administration could lead to "four more years of blindness to nuance in the Muslim world"; a result that would be "a tragedy for Americans and virtually everyone else."

Tax Relief by the Numbers, Obama Style

The Ownership Society?

As expected, right wingers are now trying to blame the latest financial mess (the mortgage aspect, at least) on poor people and government policy. Two recent pieces refute this meme entirely. According to the Boston Globe, "the subprime mortgages that have failed left and right are the antithesis of the carefully designed, well-supervised loans provided by tightly regulated banks" and are not the fault of government induced loans to poor people. Therefore, "the subsequent meltdown of the nation's entire financial system could not have happened without a huge - and entirely voluntary - inflow of money from Wall Street into a sketchy sector of the mortgage market." McClatchy reports that almost 85% of these loans during their height were made by private sector loaning institutions, and unregulated ones at that, of course. As the Globe concludes, "the current financial crisis grows out of loose regulation that gave big investors plenty of freedom to make foolish bets, and then force their losses upon the taxpayers." Such is the legacy of the "ownership society" that the Bushites loved to tout just a few short years ago. And important talking points to keep in mind when faced with the latest accusations from the right.

The Scrappy Fighter

So This article says McCain's got a new speech to fire up the masses and convince people (once again) that Obama's gonna raise taxes and yadda yadda yadda. Senator McCain, that's nothing new. You've been lying about the democrats raising taxes for months now.

Exactly who's counted you out?

Who's measuring drapes?

Is this one more indication of McCain's disconnection with reality or does he think people are going to be swayed by this redundant rhetoric?

Hopefully, McCain didn't rile up the masses so much that they've shifted into mob mentality. Because if that's the case, he's lost them and this country's going to be a dangerous place to live in if you don't agree with them.

Forget about God bless America, how about God save America?


Ed

McCainomics, Part 3

There are, of course, a myriad of issues that citizens should take into account when making their choice for president this year. One of the issues, however, that many people have at the forefront of their decision making process is that of taxes. The Republicans have always been good at misrepresenting whichever Democrat is running as a "tax increaser". One wonders if the crowds of middle Americans screaming and hollering their approval for McCain really know the numbers and the basic facts of the differences between McCain and Obama in terms of taxes. Well, here they are:

This chart published in the Washington Post from an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, says it all. As the New York Times also pointed out in an article this week about McCain's misleading statements about Obama's tax plan, "Under Mr. Obama’s tax proposal, those in the middle of the middle class — people earning $37,000 to $66,000 a year — would receive a tax cut of more than $1,000 a year, more than three times what Mr. McCain is proposing in his tax platform." Need we be any more clearer than that? The vast majority of Americans will do better under Sen. Obama's tax plan. Period. Full stop.

Stunt Man

So, last week John McCain played stunt man. "Supending" his campaign and forgoing the debate so he could rush to DC to aid in the passage of a financial bailout plan. By many accounts a plan was almost settled upon before he arrived, then once he got there it was derailed again. And then he went to the debate anyway. And then the plan failed in the House. And then....well, you know the story. A shameless political stunt if there ever was one by the 'country first' candidate.