A good start, but not enough

This is a good start, but John McCain has got to do more to convince the undecided voters that the economy will do better under his presidency than Obama's:

Sen. John McCain today proposed $52 billion in tax breaks aimed at reducing the impact of stock market losses on the nation's seniors, providing relief to the unemployed and encouraging savings.

Furthermore, this probably will not win him any votes, but it is good to see that realizes that the government should not have any financial interest in the banks any longer than is necessary.

McCain's made his tax cut proposals as President Bush announced an historic $250 billion plan to have the federal government inject money into the economy by directly investing in private banks.

McCain did not directly comment on the president's announcement. But he warned that as president he would require that government investment end once the private banks and institutions are restructured and healthy.

I could be wrong, but I doubt that it is a view that is shared by Obama.

Thank you John McCain

Jake Tapper reports:

On Saturday, advisers to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told the Politico's Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin that McCain was "considering additional economic measures aimed directly at the middle class that are likely to be rolled out this week...

Late Sunday, McCain decided no new economic proposals would be forthcoming after all.

John McCain, my friend, thank you for getting my hopes up that you were actually going to attempt to explain to the American people why conservative policies are better than liberal policies for the economy.

That is a good question

Andrew Malcolm blogging at the LA Times wants to know:

Does urging political restraint apply to McCain and Obama or just the Republicans?

That is a good question. Rather than posing this question to his readers who can do nothing about the press' behavior, I wonder if he has ever considered posing the question to his bosses at the LA Times.

via Glenn Reynolds

Just quit already

If there is any truth to this:

Mark Salter, McCain’s long-serving chief of staff, is understood to have told campaign insiders that he would prefer his boss, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, to suffer an “honourable defeat” rather than conduct a campaign that would be out of character – and likely to lose him the election.

I wish John McCain would step aside and let Sarah Palin finish the race. The stakes are too high, and conservatives and Republicans deserve a candidate who will fight for victory till the last vote is counted. When this race is over, should John McCain lose, he can easily go back to the Senate and continue to receive his six figure income. Most Americans, on the other hand, may very well see their net worth severely diminished by the burden of the economic policies that the Democrats most likely will enact.

America Wake Up!

McCain is proposing economic policies that will help you preserve the value of your wealth. Obama is proposing economic policies that will hasten the destruction of your wealth.

Don't hold your breath

If the Press truly wanted to be fair and balanced, when it talks about the rage of the Republican party, it should note the rage of the Democratic Party that JammieWearingFool (via Instapundit) and Michelle Malkin do a very good job of documenting.

The press is unlikely to do that because it is biased, and because the McCain campaign is unlikely to push the story the way the Democrats did. If Republicans really want the press to be fair and balanced, they are going to have to demand that McCain push the story.

I hate John McCain, but please vote for him nonetheless

In a post earlier today, I expressed disappointment that another blogger was not forcefully advocating the election of John McCain. Seconds after writing that, I read this article, and I thought to myself I hate John McCain, I really hate John McCain.

The Obama campaign is trying to peddle the story that Republicans are stark raving mad lunatics. The press dutifully complies. His supporters try to rally to the defense of the cause. And, how does John McCain respond? I do not know how he responded, but however he responded to it, he has allowed Obama to make it look like John McCain thinks his supporters are stark raving mad lunatics:

Barack Obama acknowledged Saturday that John McCain has asked his supporters to temper their attacks on him.

Thank you John McCain from one of your stark raving mad lunatic supporters (that would be sarcasm in case anybody tries to use this against me in the future)!

Unless somebody starts a viable write in draft someone (Petraeus, Thomas Sowell, Glenn Reynolds, I do not know, etc) movement, I am stuck supporting this man. So, please vote McCain and Republicans in November, it is the last best chance to save the American dream.

Fiddling while Rome burns

After having advocated that Republicans and conservatives would be better off losing the presidential election, Mike Rappaport is beginning to have second thoughts:

I have been tentatively arguing that it would be better for the nation and the Republican party if Obama were to win. But I should now let readers know that I may be changing my mind on the matter. I am considering voting for McCain. With the financial crisis we are facing, an Obama Presidency combined with a strongly Democratic Congress would be much worse than the situation we were previously facing. Obama could use the emergency to transform the country in a very bad
way. I haven't made up my mind yet.

I am glad that Mike Rappaport has come to a conclusion that I have been trying to voice for the past couple of weeks. Now, I wish he would get off the fence and work to help preserve capitalism in America. I wish he would say I am going to vote for John McCain, and I hope every body who reads this will do the same. Even if he is not sure that he intends to vote for McCain, I wish he would say this. Ultimately, how a single person votes is unlikely to change the outcome of an election. However, by voicing doubts about a candidate, an individual can influence the outcome of an election by helping other people mentally justify their own inaction. For conservatives, the cost of sowing such doubt is too great, for the dream of America that conservatives have been fighting for dies with a Democratic party landslide in November.

via The Volokh Conspiracy

McCain's Economic argument

Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics does not get it:

If you peruse the conservative blogs or listen to talk radio - you can almost feel their anger. There's plenty of blame to go around, they argue. And of course they're right - both parties are to blame - but it doesn't matter.

The average voter doesn't understand the intricacies of economic policy. Heck, when you think about it, nobody really understands the economy. So, voters often rely on simple yet sensible metrics to make political decisions about the economy. One of them has been more or less operative since the election of 1840: if the economy tanks during a Republican administration, vote Democrat. If it tanks during a Democratic administration, vote Republican. Applying this rule to 2008, we get the following. McCain, because he is of the incumbent party, gets the political harm. Obama, because he is of the out party, gets the political benefit. That's all there is to it.

That is not all there is to it. At the beginning of the crisis, Obama's response to the crisis was it is Bush/Republican's fault. McCain's response was let us not blame anyone and hope this subject goes away. When voters hear those two responses, is it any surprise that the issue played to Obama's benefit?

It is true that McCain has started to go on attack on the issue, but he has done it very poorly, and he still has not made the argument that if you think it is bad now, wait till the Democrats are given complete and total political control, it will only get worse. McCain has an economic argument that will turn this financial crisis to his favor, but he has failed to make it so far.

Incidentally, the people who run the McCain campaign and the Obama campaign have almost certainly study the same history that Jay Cost have, and they have probably all learned the same wrong lesson (i.e., nothing that can be done, so find other areas to engage). Consequently, if history ends up repeating itself, the lesson ends up appearing to be true because no attempted to overcome it.

Finally, if Jay Cost is right, the race is over, and there is nothing that McCain can do to change it fortunes, so if they attack Obama on the Economics issue, they really have not lost anything but the time and effort that they invested. Whereas, if I am right, and they take Jay Cost's advice, they have lost their best chance at winning the election. Simple logic dictates that the McCain campaign should be attacking as hard as it can on the economics issue.

Beyond McCain's control

Victor Davis Hanson writes:

...the outcome in these last few days may be seem contingent in large part on breaking news beyond the candidates’ control.

Nothing is beyond your control, unless you allow it to be beyond your control. The McCain campaign has not attempted to control how people respond to the financial crisis, and as a result has been controlled by it.

A half an hour of Obama

Obama is spending vast amounts of money on his campaign:

Already advertising at record levels, Barack Obama has scheduled a half-hour commercial for prime time on Oct. 29, six days before Election Day.

...

Such a vast purchase of commercial time is a multimillion-dollar expense, but Obama has been spending dramatically on ads, overshadowing rival John McCain and the Republican National Committee.

Some might view this as a sign of political strength. I say as long as he is stuck at 49% in the polls, it is a sign of weakness.

News the media refuses to provide

via Youtube and Cupious Dissent

McCain and Economics

McCain did an awful job last night making his economic case. Republicans are offering people wealth. Democrats are threatening to take away people's wealth. How hard is it to make that argument. All Republicans and free market advocates need to find some one who can make that argument and can make it in a hurry. Shout it from every mountain top. The wealth of our nation is at risk like it has never been before. Why aren't Republicans and free market advocates engaged in self interested fight for economic survival?

The State of the Race

Paul Mirengoff on last night's debate:

A win on the visuals and at least a draw on substance (if that’s a fair assessment) is a win for Obama at this point. So tonight he moves a little closer to the presidency.

That is pretty much the conventional wisdom.

However, as a McCain supporter, I am foolishly optimistic that conventional wisdom is wrong. My optimism comes from the fact that even though Obama has the lead in the polls, he is stuck at just below 50% (it is true that 2 polls have Obama at 51%, Gallup and Rasmussen, but that is still within the margin of error). This means that hopefully there are still enough undecideds left to put McCain over the top.

Conventional wisdom holds that is unlikely that all of those undecideds will vote for McCain. Hence, conventional wisdom holds Obama won last night's debate through attrition. However, I think conventional wisdom is wrong is because they misunderstand who the remaining undecideds are. Almost all of the remaining undecideds are certainly former Bush supporters.

Think of it this way, Obama's standing in the polls is a reflection of the fact that he has the commitment of the half the population who voted for Kerry and Gore. The reason that he can not get above the 50% is because he can not convince former Bush supporters to vote for him. I think that it is unlikely that he will be able to convince them to vote for him, but he can win the election, by convincing enough of them to stay home and not vote on election day. Here is a small anecdotal piece of evidence that supports my belief:

...when Hart stepped back and focused in particular on the four voters who said their vote could still be won by McCain or Obama, it was telling that all four had supported President Bush in 2000 and 2004. Not a single Kerry or Gore voter was wavering over Obama.

When viewed in that light, Obama's goal last night was to make these voters feel that staying home and not voting is preferable to voting for McCain. McCain's goal was to convince them that voting for him is preferable to staying home. McCain could have done more, but I believe he marginally improved his standing with last night's debate.

Spread the truth

Every American needs to know the truth about our economic crisis. I stole this video from Ace of Spades (I hope he approves and understands).

The truth will set you free

Ace of Spades writes:

Jay Cost, by the way, disagrees with me and thinks that McCain might as well "pee into the wind" as attempt to deflect blame from Republicans when it comes to a banking crisis. He suggests just hitting Obama on Ayers and Wright.

I say: Um, okay, can we not try all three?

Ace is right and Jay Cost is wrong. If Republicans act like they are to blame, the American people will assume that they are to blame. Republicans must argue forcefully for the truth (i.e., Democrats caused this fiasco).

Update: More than this election is at stake. If Republicans cede the economic argument to the Democrats, for the next 20 to 30 years, George W Bush will be used against Republican candidates for President the way Herbert Hoover was used. The only way to prevent this, is tell the truth and hope the American people are smart enough to see the truth.

McCain's path the victory

McCain needs to commit to making this argument and making sure as many people in America as possible here it. America's economic future is better served by electing McCain as opposed to Obama.



via Power Line

An Obama economy

An Investor Business Daily editorial makes the case why no one should vote for Obama:

It was Democrats' regulatory and litigious assaults upon the mortgage market in pursuit of "social justice" that left our economy in its precarious position of today; indeed as an attorney, Obama himself in 1994 represented a client suing Citibank, accusing it of systematically denying mortgages to blacks.

But if the taxpayer rescue of Wall Street and Uncle Sam's taking over the banking system scares you, the broader socialism planned by the Democratic presidential nominee should leave you petrified.

Unfortunately, the McCain campaign does not want to talk about the economy. They think it is a losing issue. It is not a losing issue if they make the American people understand that the Democratic party's ideology is responsible for the crisis and will make it worse. Only, the Republican party's ideology offers the best means to clean up the mess as quickly as possible.

via The New Pundit

Obama wants you to think the election is over and he won

The Obama campaign is attempting to de-legitimize the McCain campaign's criticism of Obama by claiming that those criticisms are inappropriately divisive and acts of desperation. As Obama said today:

That's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time.

The McCain campaign has to fight back forcefully to prevent either of these stories from becoming the meta-narrative for the press.

Since one is absolutely false (the inappropriately divisive claim), and the other one is hopefully false, it should not be to hard to do.

McCain should win the election

Dan Balz at the Washington Post writes:

But when Hart stepped back and focused in particular on the four voters who said their vote could still be won by McCain or Obama, it was telling that all four had supported President Bush in 2000 and 2004. Not a single Kerry or Gore voter was wavering over Obama.

If this focus group is indicative of the general population, and the only undecideds left are former Bush supporters, I feel much better about McCain chances than what the polls are indicating. I am guessing it will be much eaiser for McCain to convince former Bush supporters to vote for him, as it will be for Obama.

Additionally, the VP debate might have been enough to seal the deal for McCain. For the past few weeks, the media elite have been relentlessly mocking Palin as an idiot. This put enormous internal pressure on these "soft" Republicans not to commit to McCain (no one wants to deal with constantly hearing that their preferred candidate selected an idiot for a VP). Palin's performance in the debate might have been enough to instill them with the confidence to no longer fear having to hear other people's low opinion of Sarah Palin.