Larry King has an interview out with John McCain. Watching the clips and reading through the transcripts, I would have loved to have heard McCain explain just a couple of his statements.
Anyone want to venture a guess as to what McCain is thinking? What questions would you love to have Barack Obama answer?
Question 1
KING: Did you think your vice presidential nominee would be as controversial as she is?
MCCAIN: You know, I didn't think she would be so controversial. But, I got to tell you, every time I'm around her, I'm uplifted. This is a solid, dedicated reformer. A fine governor. The most popular governor in America. She ignites crowds in a way that -- I got to be honest with you -- and I'm not a immodest person. But, I haven't seen a candidate ignite people the way that Sarah Palin has.
I love her family. And it's just been a great joy for me to be -- to have her with me.
I get this. And believe, it's pretty clear now that both Republicans and Democrats got huge boosts this election by including some non-traditional choices on the ticket. But here's my question: Didn't you spend months, and months, and months, hammering away at Barack Obama for being a super star who's primary quality was that he could bring a crowd? Aren't you now saying that you like Sarah Palin for this exact reason? This seems like a significant contradiction; please explain.
Question 2
KING: Concerning spreading the wealth, isn't the graduated income tax spreading the wealth? If you and I paid more so that Jimmy can get some for him, or pay for a welfare recipient, that's spreading the wealth.
MCCAIN: Well, that's spreading the wealth in the respect that we do have a graduated income tax. That's a far cry from taking from one group of Americans and giving to another. I mean, that's dramatically different.
Sen. Obama clearly has talked about for years, redistributive policies. And that's not the way we create wealth in America. That's not the way we grow our economy. That's not the way we create jobs.
And when small business people see that half of their income, half of the income of small businesses is going to be taxed by Sen, Obama, then they're very upset with it.
I'm pleased to see here that both Obama and McCain are on the same page - our tax system is setup to spread the wealth around. That's just how it works. Can you give me specifics how Obama plans to: "[take]from one group of Americans and giving to another. I mean, that's dramatically different."
Is this "redistributive" logic in his economic plans? Or, has he left it out of the plans, and he's effectively (a) lying to the country about this to get elected and (b) plans to pull a bait and switch when he gets into office?
This is a serious accusation to make, what specifics can you provide back this up?
Thanks,
Ben the Programmer
Nice, thoughtful post. Early on, I hammered Obama exactly as you said. I think the difference, for me, between Sen. Obama and Gov. Palin is that his education and experience in running this campaign for 18 months has shown the American public what he is capable of. He also took on the entire Democratic establishment, led by both Clintons, Mark Penn, Terry McAuliffe and others, and thoroughly beat them.
ReplyDeleteOn Feb 10, I Twittered, "Doyle now out as HRC's campaign manager, demoted. Between that, momentum and their cash crunch, this might be an Obama-McCain race"
So for me, I've been weighing this issue for months. Ultimately, I think some undecideds thought that the Palin choice was pandering to gender and race issues. "We'll see your black guy and raise you a soccer mom with a twist."
Palin didn't have months to show the American public anything, and she performed poorly in her two big moments, sounding sarcastic and mean at the convention and shallow and insubstantial at the debate.
Obama started to fall into the trap of running against Palin, but then remembered to take on McCain. This race would have truly been a national referendum on more than change if the economy hadn't tanked. To me, it's shades of 1980, and I see the Dems making a serious run at 60 seats while Obama pulls at least 300 electoral votes.