Saturday, March 01, 2008

Random thoughts on the election

- Obama's answer to every charge from either John McCain or Hillary Clinton seems to be to refer to the fact that he was right and they were wrong on Iraq. While that is an effective counter when used sparingly and appropriately, it's getting to the point where he's using it to answer everything. At some point, it becomes tiresome. And more importantly, it becomes evident that it's all he's running on.

- John McCain seems to be the target of more unfair attacks on the internet than any other candidate. Fortunately, his team has an excellent response time to unfair attacks that actually get printed. Unfortunately, they don't anticipate blunders like getting John Hagee's endorsement.

- Is it just me, or has Hillary Clinton run the most dishonest, desperate campaign in history? Does she have entitlement issues or what?

- It seems to me that as long as the campaign stays positive and uplifting, Barack Obama will win the Presidency. But if the election becomes a series of attacks on the two candidates, I think McCain will win. Despite his faults, you won't find anyone cleaner in politics. While that doesn't mean he is without skeletons, there is no way that going over both candidates' records with fine tooth combs will benefit Obama. There are too many connections between waste of taxpayer dollars and campaign contributions to Obama, and none for McCain. The best the lefty blogs can do is say that he helped expedite decisions with the FCC for Paxson. A case in which he didn't even put pressure on them to make a particular decision.

- This country hasn't elected a protectionist President since Herbert Hoover. There's a reason for that. Clinton and Obama's scare tactics on trade are damaging relations with our allies, at a time when both have talked about rebuilding relations with our allies and ending unilateralism. I guess that doesn't apply to trade.

- Democrats are often known as tax and spenders while Republicans are often known as borrow and spenders. Obama's economic plan seems to incorporate the worst of both worlds. It's tax, borrow, spend, and reduce trade. I don't know how the economists on his team look in the mirror every morning. Apparently, Austin Goolsbee, a renowned economist on the Obama team, has been reassuring Canada that Obama doesn't really mean what he says about trade. I find myself in the unhappy position of hoping a candidate is lying.

- On the other hand, Obama's health care plan is the most well thought out of any of the remaining candidates. If only he had a way to pay for it...

- My prediction of a McCain general election win still stands. On the most important issues of the day, McCain is within the American mainstream while Obama is far off to the left. This is true even of Iraq, where Americans trust McCain over Obama according to an LA Times poll. If Obama can't beat McCain on Iraq, he can't beat McCain, period.

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