So you're John McCain...

[Kidlicious]

Lancer,

I forgot. How do you feel about corporate welfare? I'm assuming that you're for it, based on your recent comment.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Lancer
If I were McCain I'd be telling everyone I met that if Obama gets elected then the dems will have control of government and that socialism is inevitable.

I have actually heard this from people...

JM

[Ramo]

What's amazing about this business is how poorly thought out all of this is. He introduces a new policy at the debate without giving any of his surrogates heads up. The issue is that it sounds an awful lot like what the Dems have been pushing for, and is actually in the Paulson/Dodd/Franks plan (just needs to be implemented). So he announces a plan that turns a third of it into a corporate giveaway to the worst offenders in the market, which I doubt has any constituency at all. Now Obama gets to make this week about how McCain is a tool of big business, instead of being about spurious character attacks against Obama like McCain intended.

McCain's health care plan is following an even more ludicrous trajectory. First he says that he wants to pay for his health care tax credit by taxing employer-funded health care (which amounts to a net tax increase on health care after the first year). Facing scrutiny about, you know, taking away peoples health care, he says only income tax (not FICA) is taken from health care benefits. Then he realizes the gaping hole that creates in the budget, and says scratch that, we're going to cut Medicare and Medicaid. Then, realizing he'd lose Florida, Palin says that entitlements aren't going to be cut. Leaving them with no coherent position. And all this happened in something like a week, and a little over a month before the election.

These guys clearly have no idea what they're doing. Incompetents, you can say.

[Velociryx]

Ramo, the term you're looking for is "Maverick," remember?

-=Vel=-

[Kidlicious]

Self-destruction.

[Ramo]

Yep, the original Maverick.

What's great is that Obama can launch an attack on every single one of those positions. He says he wants to tax health care benefits and he says he wants to cut Medicare and Medicaid. Are these guys even trying to win?

[Jon Miller]

The scary thing is that they will still get >40% of the votes.

JM

[DirtyMartini]

Originally posted by Ramo
Yep, the original Maverick.

What's great is that Obama can launch an attack on every single one of those positions. He says he wants to tax health care benefits and he says he wants to cut Medicare and Medicaid. Are these guys even trying to win?

No one cares. No one is called to account for the inconsistency of their positions. No one cares about blatant effing lies. Most people probably don't notice it's happening -- they listen for buzzwords: "let the economy function without goverment meddling" and "strick oversight of the vultures on Wall Street" appeal to the same people -- they don't even see the contradictions. The american electorate is functionally retarded.

[Velociryx]

I think there's a method to the madness. They sling ENOUGH ****e, some sticks to the wall, and they run with what does.

IMO, that's how they'll shape policy from here to the end, and they'll either ignore any claims that they're waffling/incompetent, or they'll say that rookie Obama "just doesn't get it....as usual." (with an appropriate eyeroll and wink at just the right moment).

*shrug*

If they somehow pull a victory, I'm moving to Europe!

-=Vel=-

[Kidlicious]

There's definitely some reitirees who pay attention. Also, people are paying attention to the tax payer being stuck with the bill for all this ****.

[Jon Miller]

You forget all the racist people who won't vote for Obama no matter what, and the people who emphasize what candidates say about abortion (Versus what they will do), who will vote for Palin no matter what.

JM

[DirtyMartini]

Sure some people pay attention (like most people here). However, among the great undecided masses, for every person who says "John McCain's positions don't make logical sense and are contradictory. Plus, he's resorted to mean spirited name calling", there are 5 who say "didja hear Obama's best friend blew up the Pentagon?" or "I sure like that Palin, she seems like a good egg".

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
The scary thing is that they will still get >40% of the votes.

JM

Some of that is inertia. If there were 3 months left and he kept going like this, he would have trouble getting 100 electoral votes. To be fair, I suspect if he had that much time he wouldn't be screwing up quite this bad. Some part of all this is desperation to find some theme that lets them stage a comeback.

[Ramo]

I like the new Obama line regarding Ayers. Biden just repeated it:

All of the things they said about Barack Obama in the TV, on the TV, at their rallies, and now on YouTube ... John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him ... In my neighborhood, when you've got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.

The McCain campaign managed to make McCain look like a cowardly tool. Heckuva job, guys. This is why you keep the principals as far away as possible from disgusting character attacks (and leave it to the 527's if you're going that route).

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
The scary thing is that they will still get >40% of the votes.

JM

The last time a candidate got < 40% was Bush Sr. in 1992, and he would have gotten more if not for Perot. Before that, you have to go back to Goldwater, and that seems to have been an anomaly. When you have a two-party system, the loser is probably going to break 40%, even in a landslide for the winner. Carter, Mondale and Dukakis all got in the 40s, after all.