I haven't made any comments on my blog lately regarding the Presidential Race of 2008 between Obama-McCain especially since the Palin phenom as I was hoping Palin's wild ride would go away soon enough, Palin's star does seem to be fading quickly given that currently we have real issues not personality contests at stake. Now that the bank and housing crisis with oil and hurricane effects also being part of the mix is the main focus, the argument between the two Presidential contenders takes center stage as it should.Too bad it took a monumental and historic near financial crash to make people pay attention on the differences between the candidates. Obama accuses McCain of not understanding our economic situation (McCain was the one who stated in his last speech on the topic that "our fundamentals are sound". Obama rightly lays blame at McCain's Republican Party that caused the problem and then failed to challenge the lack of deregulation authority in the face which opened up the floodgate for greed speculators, fattened CEO's pockets at the expense of the average consumer, and sent most of our assets abroad as international investors and corporate entities took over our economy weakening our infrastructure. The Iraq War is another main reason I think the economy is in the dumps. If we spent a fraction of what we spent over in Iraq on American soil, we might be in much better shape and there would be a lot fewer dead people including 100.000 of Iraqis who the powers that be in an macabre sense of non decency never mention.
I don't claim to be an economic maven and I am not saying that the Democrats haven't played a part in the mess that is taking place. Lobbyists and corporate interests whose interests often do not equate with what is in the interest of the average hard working but often underpaid person in this country "own" a large segment of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and at all levels of government. I can say that the philosophy of the Democrats which I agree with believes government should play an important role in looking after the financial interests of all its citizens especially those at the middle and lower ends of the economic bracket. That is why Obama plans if he is elected to raise taxes on the wealthier classes (those making over 1/4 of a million a year per individual) and why he wants to go back to the 90's level of taxes as they affect the large corporations to counter the Bush mostly Republican practice of not fairly taxing the truly rich entities and persons in this country.
Of course, if there is truly a real depression of sorts, all bets are off on what either McCain or Obama might propose to counter the situation. Taxes alone probably will not be the answer to the more basic problem of how to save this country's and the major international companies and banking industries from going under. What worked for President Roosevelt and the country, could work again, if necessary. I would suppose that Obama is more likely than McCain to go the PWA (the public works ) route or opening options creating new people oriented programs that make sense. I hope he would go that route as what we have right now is a have vs. have not situation that is getting desperately worse. There are more poor hungry people in this country than anyone or party is willing to admit. Every neighborhood in America seems to have homeless people wandering their streets. We see but we tend to look away. Introducing universal health care and getting it to work properly for every person in need of medical care (which is all of us) might go a long way toward helping people feel more secure and might also if engineered correctly might even give the country a jump start away from a negative perception of itself as the country that only cares about capital not people.
So what does this analysis have to do with the election of Obama vs. McCain? I would say my bet is on Obama moving ahead of McCain as and if the economy continues to weaken-national polls seem to indicate Obama already has moved ahead of McCain by a slight margin. I read somehere that Obama now has the "Bubba" vote as he has compromised on the gun issue. Not sure how true this is. I do think working class blue collar people trust Obama to help them out when in trouble more than McCain and that is for sure the truth. I believe Obama has to get some of his thinking on the topic of the economy into better sound bites. If the average American still doesn't know the real difference between a McCain or an Obama Presidency, woe be to us all. I guess the mantra No More Bush Years, McCain is Bush, Enough is Enough is a start. Once again, Obama's handlers need to humanize him again. Maybe Biden can help with that too. I see MIchelle is more in the background of late. Women don't like to see just men doing all the talking and the doing. Somehow the Dems have to turn the two "old boys" image into the "We will change this country for women and this is how we will do it." Get the Dem candidates wives involved speaking to our pocketbooks.
SRaphael
