McCain--the economy and dirty politics
Originally published at An experimental life. You can comment here or there.
Karl Rove says McCain is lying, and McCain on the economy? Well... read for yourself. Stranger than anything I could come up with.
Karl Rove criticizes McCain ads
When Karl Rove admits that a member of his own party--especially one running for president--isn't telling the truth, one should stand up and take notice. Especially when even FOX, long known for its lack of journalistic standards and for kowtowing to the far right, and for whom Rove currently works--airs it!
For those who have been living under a rock for the past eight years or so, Karl Rove helped with the smear ads, reality-spin, and disinformation tactics used to get Bush elected, and is considered by many to be the poster boy for dirty politics.
See and hear Rove's comments about the McCain campaign here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNdtZGqZA2Y
McCain on the economy
Hm. So a guy who has accepted donations and perks from lobbyists his entire political career, and who has consistently voted against more regulation (to keep government "out of the private sector"), now pretends to have been in favor of stricter regulation all along. Hell, just as recently as a few weeks ago McCain said he was against regulation.
Oh, and claims that Senator Obama was taking money from lobbyists.
Of course, this is the guy who can't decide whether or not he knows anything about the economy to begin with, or whether it is broken. He says on film and on national television that he doesn't really know about the economy, then claims he never said those things. And who, although he admits to being computer-illiterate, is supposedly responsible for our progress in wireless internet connectivity because of his period chairing the Commerce Committee. When he left the Commerce Committee, we were something like fifteenth in the world as far as wireless coverage goes.
I suppose, though, that in the spirit of Dubya's (who endorses McCain, and with whom McCain has voted with over 90 percent of the time over the last few years) statement that, "When we talk about war, we're really talking about peace," maybe the case is that, "When we talk about progress, we're really talking about stagnation."
Another joke? McCain doesn't know what the committee he chaired actually does, claiming it oversees "every part of our economy." Wrong. It has nothing to do with the institutions involved in the current crisis. That would be the Banking Committee. There are other committees (i.e., the Finance Committee) which oversee other parts of the economy, as well. And yet, McCain's period of chairing a committee whose responsibilities he doesn't understand supposedly gives him the experience needed to fix the current economic crisis.
More evidence that McCain doesn't understand the economy
McCain also apparently thinks that we all make over $250,000 a year.
Here's how I come to that conclusion: Obama announces that he wants to cut taxes for low-income Americans while removing the recent tax breaks for those making over $250,000 a year. McCain says that Obama wants to raise taxes across the board.
Ergo, if we take McCain at his word, he thinks we all make $250,000 dollars or more a year.
Another example: Senator Obama wants to give tax breaks to companies who keep jobs in the U.S. McCain claims that Obama's corporate tax policies will send more jobs overseas. Therefore, according to McCain logic, giving tax breaks to companies who keeps jobs here will encourage them to send jobs overseas.
Oh, and according to McCain, the blame for the current situation is shared by both parties. Really, Mr. McCain? Explain to me how those--largely Democrats--who voted against the disastrous policies (pushed by you and your cronies) that led to the recent crisis are at fault, as is letting lobbyists run Washington.
This coming from a man who has regularly accepted money and perks from lobbyists, and just coincidentally voted in such a way that their interests were served.
And according to Palin, McCain's sidekick? We have to simultaneously revamp economic regulation and completely remove it. Huh?
Perhaps, in the far right's tradition of double-speak, we should take McCain's promises to fix the economy as a promise to run it into the ground.