MUTH'S TRUTHS - The "Joe-the-Plumber" Debate Posted: 16 Oct 2008 12:10 AM CDT
* Clearly, John McCain's best performance. Clearly, he mopped the floor with Obama Wednesday night. Not so clear is if it will mean a doggone thing on November 4th. * During the Republican National Convention, many Republicans, upon hearing the spirited convention speeches by Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani, asked themselves, "Where were these guys during the primary?" The same question was probably asked by many Republicans about John McCain tonight. Had he campaigned over the last four-to-six months the way he performed in this final debate, it would have been an entirely different election. * Alas, it might be too little, too late. * Obama clearly deployed a debate rope-a-dope strategy. He was sitting on his lead avoiding at all costs any "game changing" mistake which might lead to a knock-out punch. It's a frustrating - some might call cowardly – strategy. But it also works. * That the future of the most powerful country in the world has been reduced to the fortunes of some guy in Ohio named "Joe the Plumber" is truly a sad indictment of politics in our country today. * In an effort to be respectful and dignified, Sen. McCain referred to Sen. Obama's ability to effectively string words together as "eloquence." I thought it would have been more effective, and certainly funnier, had he quoted Taggart from the Mel Brooks comedy classic "Blazing Saddles," who famously said to the character played by Harvey Korman, "Gal-darnit, Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue prettier than a 20-dollar whore." * Sen. McCain opened the debate badly, at least from a limited-government conservative's point of view, by again blaming the current fiscal crisis on Wall Street greed. He almost kind-of-sort-of got around to the true cause by mentioning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a little later, but completely skirted the real genesis of the mortgage meltdown - Jimmy Carter's "Community Reinvestment Act" which led to pressuring banks to extend home loans to people who shouldn't have gotten them. * And while I firmly believe John McCain "whipped" Barack Obama overall in the Joe-the-Plumber debate, I can't stress enough how dead wrong he is on this idea of artificially propping up the real estate market by having the government buy up bad mortgages. * The fact is, easy credit and "no money down" loans resulted in housing demand far exceeding supply which, in turn, resulted in housing prices rising FAR above true market value. The point was raised in the debate that vacant, foreclosed homes are bringing down the value of homes next door where people are still making their payments and meeting their obligations. But the answer to selling those vacant homes is to allow their price to drop back down to realistic and affordable market-driven levels where folks who have been priced out of the over-inflated market for the past few years can again afford to buy. * Folks like me and my wife. * By the way, John McCain said his scheme to buy up bad mortgages was actually Sen. Hillary Clinton's idea. Lovely. The Republican presidential nominee has embraced a government program promoted by one of the leading big-government liberals in the nation today. What's wrong with this picture? * But enough of serious public policy. Let's get back to the debate. * At one point, Obama said something along the lines of, "I wouldn't mind paying higher taxes." Sen. McCain should have shot back with, "Fine, then do so. There's no law stopping you from paying more of your fair share if you think you're not paying enough. But it's wrong to force others to pay higher taxes who think they're already paying plenty." * John McCain's second-best line of the evening completely cut the legs out from under one of the main themes of Obama's campaign, that a McCain presidency would be nothing more than an extension of the Bush presidency. To which John McCain slammed Obama with this: "I'm not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago." * Damn straight, Skippy. * An effectively good line. But not his best line, in my opinion. I'll get to that in a minute. * Another good line from Sen. McCain was in pointing out that Obama initially promised to take public money for his presidential run and then backed out. "You didn't keep your word," Sen. McCain admonished. That's a direct and provable attack on his opponent's character. And in politics, an attack on your character is often the most devastating of all attacks. Unfortunately, the issue itself may be a little too "inside baseball" for the average dumb-decided voter. * Another good line from Sen. McCain came as he emasculated Democrat vice presidential candidate Joe Biden for his "cockamamie idea" of dividing up Iraq into three parts. It completely undermined the notion that Joe Biden is somehow an "expert" on foreign policy. * I found the most interesting issue raised in this final debate to be education. * Obama, despite the fact that he was nothing more than a state senator at the time, nevertheless declared, "I doubled charter schools in Illinois." "I." Some people, especially those who have no real accomplishments to fall back on, love to take credit for things they really didn't do. "I." * Obama told everyone how courageous he was in supporting charter schools and merit pay for teachers despite opposition by the all-knowing, all-powerful teachers union. But on the core issue of true education reform, vouchers for parents, Obama has heard the master's voice loudly and clearly and toes the company line. No vouchers, no way, no how. Period. * Which makes Obama one of the biggest hypocrites in America today. In the debate, Obama declared that "parents have to show more responsibility" for their children's education, but denies poor and middle-class parents the financial ability to do just that. In an Obamanation, only the wealthy will still be able to afford real school choice. * On the other hand, John McCain FINALLY voiced support for vouchers by pointing out that the District of Columbia, home of one of the worst public school systems in the country today, provides about 1,000 vouchers per year for parents to use to send their children to the school of their choice…public, private or even religious. Sen. McCain noted support for vouchers by pointing out that some 9,000 parents are on a waiting list to get one of those coveted 1,000 vouchers. * But Obama still says no. The teachers union has drawn a line in the sand and Obama won't cross it…no matter how many poor and minority students have to suffer in failed public schools. When it comes to real school choice, it's not about "the children." It's about the union. And Obama has sided with the union; the children be damned. * In the post-debate analysis on the cable networks, I heard talking head after talking head say how polished, calm and unflappable Obama was. Unfortunately, that's probably how many of the dumb-decided voters perceived him, as well. But to me B.O. came off as a smarmy Eddie Haskell (ask your mom), saying and doing anything to please. Yes, he's a smooth talker. Yes, he's "eloquent." But that's it. There's no substance, just well-rehearsed talking points. Alas, that's enough for way too many voters. * Sure, John McCain won the final debate. But this isn't about winning the debates. It's about winning the election. And John McCain didn't do anything major to change the momentum Obama has built up, nor did Obama do anything to stall his momentum. Which means with three weeks to go, John McCain is still behind. * In the end, it's not necessarily the best candidate who wins an election, but the best campaign. Obama has run a superior campaign up to this point. But one thing we've learned about John McCain: Never count him out. * Which brings me to what I thought was Sen. McCain's best line of the night – apparently unintended – and which *might* be the one thing that could still pull this out for him. * At one point late in the debate, Sen. McCain inadvertently referred to Sen. Obama as "Senator Government." * Folks, that has the potential of being a last-minute momentum shifter. The campaign should refer to Obama as "Senator Government" for the duration of the campaign. While Americans are truly scared to death about the financial crisis we're in, there's still a deep, underlying fear that government is the problem not the solution – and will only make matters worse. * If Sen. McCain would get off this government bailout kick he's embraced and get back to blaming the government - including George Bush's big-government "compassionate conservatism" - for bringing on this economic calamity – while pointing out that Barack Obama's answer to every problem is mo' government – he might still be able to turn this thing around. * Probably not. * But hope springs eternal. * And at least when President Obama's big-government administration makes this bad situation worse and drives the American economy even further into the toilet, the ground will have been laid for a free-market, fiscally-conservative limited government agenda in 2012. While that may not help John McCain at this late date in 2008, it will help America in the long run. * And as John McCain himself is wont to say, country first. If you prefer to subscribe via postal mail, write to: MUTH'S TRUTHS, c/o FeedBurner, 20 W Kinzie, 9th Floor, Chicago IL USA 60610 I'M MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE. http://www.thepetit ionsite.com/ 1/recall- the-congress- of-this-united- states Would you like to help organize a march on Washington like the one that successfully brought an end to Viet war? If we don't fire Washington, who will? For details, send email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Rich Martin __________________________________________________ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "APFN" group. 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