15 Minutes Decides the Election

The curtain set last night on debate season and John McCain FINALLY began articulating Barack Obama's many half-truths on economic policy. Joe the plumber got me so excited during the first 30 minutes I thought with glee, "Finally, John is proving why even more jobs are going to be killed if you tax the very people who actually have the money to pay us." I was actually excited about his determination in explaining core conservative economic principles.

But, then IT happened and sadness returned to the very depths of my political soul. Comments on Bill Ayers and Acorn reared its ugly head and will go down as the 15 minutes which finally put McCain away. While I totally agree Ayers-Obama, as well as many other Obama associations, speak directly to the heart of the man's character this was not the time to discuss them. Most people don't care who Obama associates with if they are convinced the rich are evil and he will be the Robin Hood to middle class America at the expense of job creators. McCain looked bad discussing this and the Obama camp knew they could play up the ‘personal attack’ aspect to this. Conservatives like me already agree Barack is an anti-American sympathizer, so he has my vote already. The critical women's vote needed to see John's empathy for their situation, not further discussion about Barack Obama singing kumbaya with Bill Ayers.

Barack adeptly redirected the conversation back to checkbook balances and it resonated beautifully with 'the folks' who've witnessed a 40% drop in their 401K's. Obama successfully personalized his false message to the people. McCain talked truthful facts to the camera. Therein lies his fatal downfall. In those 15 minutes McCain allowed Obama to insert 'terrorist' and 'kill him' into the dialog without explaining that a person who is sworn to protect us from terrorists shouldn't be associated with one. It would’ve been a neutral draw, but instead from that point on, McCain fell back and all momentum was lost.

The debate switched to health care and Barack began his heart wrenching tale (which I agree is a very terrible situation) about two women in their 50's with no health insurance who are fretful about their fate if they became sick. Instead of asking Barack who was going to pay for these 2 women's (and frankly the other 47 million Obama promises to cover) insurance policies, McCain started trying to explain his health care tax credit. Barack personalized the issue and McCain talked theory.
This was clearly McCain's strongest performance yet but Barack is too much style and it doesn't matter what the substance is. To pull decisively ahead McCain need to have both. While I'm quite sure Joe the plumber is going to be all over YouTube the next several weeks, in the end, free health care and redistribution of wealth are just too appealing to voters.

If you are a McCain fan, don't give up. These are just my opinions and I hope for our country's sake we don't end up down the same path Europe has already has gone. Don't stay at home or do some write-in protest vote that really is a vote for Obama-Biden. We cannot afford higher taxes on the very people who can get us out of this mess. We cannot afford secular progressive policies aimed squarely at our government deciding who should and should not keep their hard earned money. We cannot afford appeasement to every people and ethnic group who has a grievance against us. We cannot afford liberal Supreme Court judges intent on making up laws to further their radical social agenda. We cannot afford putting more people into office who give more value to criminals by opposing the death penalty than to protecting babies who are innocent. We cannot afford socialist ideals at the highest level of our government if we care about our long term position as leader of the free world. We cannot afford Barack.

Personal Attacks, Really?

I'm so tired of hearing about the McCain campaign's personal attacks simply because he is pointing out Barack Obama’s associations with some seedy characters. I thought personal attacks were statements about another which are untrue, unfair, or simply not relevant to the decision making process? Pointing out inconsistencies in candidates' statements is not an attack. For the last time, advertisements rebutting your opponent’s false claims are not negative. Pointing out who your opponent’s close associates are is not a personal attack.

When Obama claims to be tough on terrorism, his cozy relationship with an unrepentant bomber on US soil seems relevant to me. I don’t care if this man was protesting a perceived unjust war or not. When Obama claims undying love for his country, his relationship with a spiritual mentor who blames America for 9/11 and uses god's name and America’s name in vain seems relevant to me. When Obama keeps bashing Bush for our increasing deficit (and he is partially right on this), but then proposes new spending totaling $1 trillion dollars, I want to know about it. When Joe Biden talks about a restaurant he frequents, but it has been closed for 20 years, this speaks to truth of his statements. When Mr. Biden says FDR gave speeches in 1929 on television after the Great Depression and FDR wasn’t president nor television invented yet, I care about it. When Obama says we need to insure 47 million Americans that the heartless Bush administration doesn’t care about, but doesn’t tell you at least 12 million of these are illegal immigrants, this speaks to the substance of his rhetoric.

The McCain campaign is highlighting the character of Barack Obama. Character matters when difficulty arises (and it always does). But, it seems these days the only important thing for most voters is how much money they have or will have. Or, how much money THE OTHER GUY HAS. The Left will say McCain is talking character because they can’t talk about the economy without losing. That is true. You can’t match Barack’s class envy rhetoric when class envy does, in fact, exist. How can you argue with somebody promising free health care for all when everybody wants lower medical costs? How can you argue against the rich paying more taxes when middle and lower class America feels squeezed by high energy and utility costs? How can you argue the Bush administration shouldering the blame for the mortgage mess and declining stock portfolios instead of asking individual taxpayers to shoulder some of the blame for bad decision making? They don’t want to hear it. So, Barack is right, McCain can’t fight on the economy. Barack Obama has the upper hand when it comes to class envy.

Arguing economic facts is a vain pursuit these days because the age of reason is dead. Voters say they want facts, but then call you negative if you recite ones they don’t like. You can tell liberals that decreasing tax rates actually increases government revenue and it doesn’t matter. Send them to the IRS site proving your fact, and they ignore it by shifting the discussion to ‘the deficit’ created by Republicans which has more to do with out of control spending then tax receipts. You can tell liberals the bottom 40% of American taxpayers already don’t pay income tax at all, and it will not matter to them. They will still tell you Republicans are for the rich. You can tell a liberal all day long that Barney Frank and his cronies were warned about the seriousness of Fannie/Freddie’s situation back in 2005 by Republicans and they still blame George Bush.

Character matters. Outlining the other candidate’s positions on issues or rebutting their false claims is not a personal attack. Barack Obama might be promising the moon, but can he deliver? I’m sorry Obama campaign that must have been a personal attack. Please forgive me.

Advice to McCain

Time is running out for the Maverick campaign. Today we learned Obama-Biden won the first two debates against McCain-Palin by 50%-29%. It is time for them to stop playing up John's call for the successful surge in Iraq, and start defining why Barack Obama's policies are going to put the nail in our economic coffin. In a time when every one's focus is on their wallet, and the media reminds us daily of our economy's imminent collapse, people have tunnel vision and your message much be targeted to that vision.

When running against someone who's playbook includes 'patriotic' tax increases for people, you must come to the fight with concrete reasons why pilfering money from job creators ultimately hurts everybody. The class warfare argument plays well until people understand how they actually get hurt in the long term beyond the handouts given them in the short term. I offer up some useful dialogue for McCain's sprint to November.

*Ask the everyday folks this simple question. "All other things equal, would you work for a company charging you $2,000 for health insurance or $7,000 for the same insurance"? This simple decision is no different for companies choosing to locate in countries charging 10% versus our 35%. Companies will keep jobs in the U.S. when tax policy is more favorable to them.

*Economies are not built from the bottom up. Jobs are not created from the bottom up. Risk taking should be rewarded in life when a person succeeds. Inactivity (failing to take risks) should be discouraged.

*Lowering taxes actually increases revenue to the government. Out of control entitlement spending is the major cause of our $9 trillion national debt.

*Our current falling stock market and credit crisis are not the fault of deregulation as our media and Democrats would have you believe. Much of the fault lies with Democratic regulators IGNORING Republican calls for MORE REGULATION back in 2004 & 2005. When government mandates shaky loans to folks who can't afford it, all in the name of fairness and building the economy from the bottom up, this is what happens.

*Personal responsibility still matters. Gov. Palin began to touch on this at the beginning of the debate last week and McCain needs to continue the dialog. McCain needs to spread the blame where it actually belongs instead of on the Bush administration who had nothing to do with people's mortgage defaults. Blame the Federal Reserve for keeping interest rates artificially low solely to keep investors happy. Blame Barney Frank and his friends for being in bed with Fannie & Freddie executives instead of regulating them. Blame Republicans and Democrats in congress for spending our money recklessly. Finally, pointedly indicate those folks who took out loans they obviously couldn't afford are at fault as well.

I've said, since the beginning of my blog, McCain needed someone like Newt Gingerich or Mitt Romney who could clearly articulate these salient points to the American people. Believe me, Barack Obama couldn't dance with Mitt Romney on the economy and Mitt understands it much better than John McCain. When Republicans are in office, the media always makes our economy the defining issue, and the McCain camp should have been smart enough to figure that one out. War records gain respect, but fat wallets get votes.