Here’s a man who cares about you !!
Seems a little bewildered that things haven’t gotten a little dirtier by now. Never mind the guy he used every dirty tactic to get in power – is leaving with the state of the Nation in shambles – and now it seems he wants to do the same again with McCain or is that McSame.
By KARL ROVE
Obama’s plans are giving voters pause.
No campaign moves in a straight line. Every race experiences turns toward one side or the other, driven by events, the determined efforts of one candidate, or even a bored media hoping for a new story line.
This campaign’s most recent turn started Sept. 15 with the credit markets shutting down and the economy at the brink of disaster. Before then, John McCain was 2.1 points ahead in the RealClearPolitics average, his first lead since late March. Two weeks later, RealClearPolitics had Barack Obama ahead by 4.6 points, rising to an 8.2-point lead on Oct. 14.
Is there one more turn in the contest and, if so, will it be toward Mr. McCain?
The race has tightened slightly in recent days to an average Obama lead of 6.8 points yesterday. And there are a few things bending toward Mr. McCain. The emergence of “Joe the Plumber” and the likelihood of an agreement with Iraq on a continued U.S. troop presence are two of them. Both are opportunities for Mr. McCain to contrast himself against Mr. Obama.
Mr. Obama’s troublesome friendships with Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko and (especially) Rev. Jeremiah Wright are important. But only 12 days remain. These relationships should have been highlighted by the McCain campaign in the spring and summer.
But Mr. McCain complicated things by unilaterally declaring Rev. Wright off limits. Now, Mr. Obama will benefit from the noise the media will generate if Mr. McCain attempts to make Obama’s Four Amigos this election’s closing act.
On the other hand, Mr. McCain might gain by arguing that in this time of consequence for America’s economy and security he has been right and Mr. Obama demonstrably wrong on the biggest issues facing the country.
Mr. McCain’s economic argument is simple: Raising taxes on small businesses in the face of recession will deepen and prolong the downturn. Taxing Joe the Plumber and other entrepreneurs to pay for what the National Taxpayers Union says are Mr. Obama’s $293 billion-a-year new spending plans is an expense the nation cannot afford. Mr. Obama’s tax-and-spend prescription will cause the economic fever to spike, not recede.
On national security, America is close to a bilateral agreement with Iraq that will continue sending U.S. troops home based on success — the result of the surge that Mr. McCain strongly advocated and Mr. Obama fiercely opposed. Should we elect someone so wrong about a strategy vital for success in what Osama bin Laden calls the central front in the war on terror?
Beyond that, Mr. McCain should also use vivid imagery to highlight concerns about the freshman Illinois senator. There are plenty of warning signs about Mr. Obama we ignore at our peril. Mr. McCain needs to explain what they are.
America’s economy got into trouble when people didn’t heed warning signs. Three years ago, Mr. McCain called for stricter oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warning their risky practices threatened our economy and could cost taxpayers billions. He tried to prevent or at least reduce the breadth of the crisis we’re in now. Mr. Obama and congressional Democrats ignored these signs and opposed reform.
There’s more. Wanting to raise taxes — anyone’s taxes — in a slowdown is a warning sign of a misguided economic philosophy. Mr. Obama’s proposal to redistribute wealth is a warning of indifference or hostility to enterprise. Mr. Obama’s health-care plan is a warning that government will have more, not less, to say about your health care if he has his way. Mr. Obama’s dismissal of offshore drilling and opposition to nuclear power are warning signs for an economy whose growth depends on affordable energy. Mr. Obama’s commitment to withdraw our troops from Iraq without regard to conditions on the ground is a warning sign that Mr. Obama is dangerously wrong-headed and ideological on national security.
There’s more: The absence of a single significant instance in which Mr. Obama cooperated in a bipartisan manner in the Senate is a warning sign. So is his failure to dirty his hands by working hard on any major legislative challenge since entering Congress. And so is his refusal to break with his party or its interest groups on any issue of substance.
Mr. McCain has only one hope: to drive home doubts about Mr. Obama based on his record, and share as much as he can about his own values and vision to reassure voters.
Even if he does, Mr. McCain’s task won’t be easy: Mr. Obama is using his considerable talents as a community organizer. Evidence from early voting in Florida, North Carolina, New Mexico and Nevada shows that Democrats are flocking to cast ballots. We don’t know yet whether they’re cannibalizing their Election Day turnout by getting reliable voters to cast ballots early, or creating an electoral tsunami by targeting people who wouldn’t otherwise bother to turn out. If it’s the former, Mr. McCain still has a (long) shot. If it’s the latter, he and other Republican candidates are about to be dealt a punishing electoral blow.
Mr. Rove is a former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.
Source: WSJ
Out Foxing Karl Rove 
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October 24, 2008 at 11:11 am
Laurie Almoslino
Mr. Rove’s article sounds very reasonable, but is more of the same misleading rhetoric and unsupported ideology that has almost brought our country to its knees.
All the arguments about ‘winning’ in Iraq and how ‘right’ Mr. McCain was about the surge ignore the fundamental fact that Mr. Obama was prescient in his speech about the folly and danger of going to war in Iraq. Even though Mr. Obama was not in the Senate at the time, he had the guts to stand up against a war that very few were opposing. If you read his speech, you will see how much of it is true. And beyond the initial mistake in going to war under flimsy and manufactured pretexts, our actions have killed or maimed thousands of Iraqi men, women and children, disrupted thousands of lives, reduced our standing in the world, cost us billions and even more in opportunities lost for our own citizens, and killed/maimed many of our own troops, who were forced to go to war not fully armed and ‘on the cheap’ (which of course turned out not to be cheap after all). And the emphasis on Iraq has distracted us from the main task of going after those responsible for 9/11.
All of this finger-pointing to Mr. Obama’s relation to Mr. Ayers, Rev. Wright, etc. is just more of Mr. Rove’s well-known ability to “spin” issues to frighten voters. Mr. Ayers has turned his life around and is working hard on education issues; he serves on boards with university presidents, and others who apparently are willing to forgive him for his past in recognition of his current contributions to society. If all of us refuse to serve on a board where there is someone with a ‘past’, pretty soon there will be no more boards anywhere.
Much more troubling than Mr. Obama’s minor connection to Mr. Ayers is Mr. McCain’s long friendship with Mr. Keating. Mr. McCain inappropriately allowed his friend to treat Mr. McCain’s entire family (plus the nanny) to private plane trips and exotic vacations, took extensive contributions from him and did not protest against a lucrative business partnership and tax shelter between Mr. Keating and Mrs. McCain and her father, that continued on for 11 years after Mr. McCain personally severed ties with Mr. Keating. Mr. McCain repeatedly intervened on Mr. Keating’s behalf to prevent the S&L regulators from doing their job in enforcing the law. Although Mr. McCain did not go to jail, he was reprimanded for his ‘poor judgment’. As we all know, the S&L debacle cost the American taxpayers plenty, and Mr. Keating’s Savings and Loans was at the center of it all, but of course, nothing compared to the current ‘bailout’.
Those so opposed to ‘wealth redistribution’ are apparently not opposed when it comes to redistributing wealth from fixed income seniors and taxpayers to criminals who run fraudulent Savings and Loans. If the government (i.e. the taxpaying public) is guaranteeing deposits in a Savings and Loan, then that government has a duty and obligation to regulate the savings and loan to make sure it is not making imprudent loans, or in Keating’s case, creating a Ponzi scheme to defraud unsuspecting customers.
Mr. McCain did not learn from this period of his life, despite his saying it was the most terrible time he had experienced. No, he went on to push for deregulation in the investment industry in general. Deregulation is great if the government is willing to let those who fail suffer for their mistakes. However, since that is not the case, we end up with a $700 billion (and probably more) bailout of those very same companies whose ineptitude, lack of prudence, and sheer greed have literally destroyed the hopes and dreams of Americans everywhere. There was a redistribution of wealth of the worst sort – from naive, hard working folks dreaming of owning their own homes to those whose only goal was accumulating more, more, more, with utter disdain for the sensible rules of lending (verify income, verify credit standing, etc.), and in many cases, with fraudulent intention to move people into riskier loans than were needed or prudent for their circumstances.
This is one of the worst ‘redistributions’ of wealth in our nation’s history – if you are consistent, Mr. Rove, you will stand up and denounce Mr. McCain and the others who pushed for deregulation and turned their backs on the American public.
As for energy policy, Mr. Rove states that “Mr. Obama’s dismissal of offshore drilling and opposition to nuclear power are warning signs for an economy whose growth depends on affordable energy.” Let’s see – offshore drilling. Let’s ruin our beautiful coastlines (and the accompanying billions in tourist dollars) for a benefit that we won’t see for 10 years. This is another example of how Mr. Rove’s successful push for Mr. Bush to take office has cost us so much in opportunity costs. If, instead of becoming embroiled in the Iraq war, we had chosen to respond to 9/11 by making an all-out national effort to conserve energy and to develop alternative fuels and energy efficiencies, imagine where we would be today. Instead of our hard-earned tax dollars going down the drain of the Iraq morass, we would instead have been investing in energy efficient technology and creating jobs. We might have a booming economy today, greater exports to other nations, greatly reduced dependence on foreign oil, less pollution, the cooperation and admiration of other countries, and less risk of global warming.
Mr. Obama is very committed to alternative energy, and all the wonderful opportunities that this focus will give to our country. If you truly want to support small businesses, and business in general, then you will support Mr. Obama in his drive to reduce our use of oil, which is a limited resource, and increase our use of alternative fuels which are based on nearly unlimited resources such as the sun, wind and hydropower. Why is it that ‘pro-business’ people want to ‘drill, baby, drill’? They should take a good look at sales of the Toyota Prius vs any brand of mini-van. If you are a smart business-person today, you should be jumping up and down to get the government to take an interest and support the development of alternative fuel technologies rather than clinging to the old technology based on a limited, polluting resource.
Mr. Rove’s continued insistence that Mr. Obama wants to raise taxes is just more fear-mongering. Most small business owners, like myself, are not in the income tax bracket that will be affected. And those who are tend to own large homes and have other investments that decrease their actual tax burden. Do you truly think that America was a better place when there was no income tax, a few wealthy individuals were rich beyond imagining, and the majority of folks toiled away in dirty factories for a pittance? There needs to be a balance between supporting business through low taxes while still providing the infrastructure and opportunity to help those on the bottom of the ladder progress in life. We are so partisan and one-sided in this country that we have forgotten simple decency. There are many people in our country who work hard but are struggling to survive. They don’t need a handout, but they do need help – sometimes it is a relatively small amount that can make a difference in whether a person gets health care or not, or can go back to school, or can pay rent rather than being homeless.
How long has it been, Mr. Rove, since you talked to anyone not in your income bracket? Have you seen the state of our public schools, read about the unsafe bridges throughout the country, studied the need for a revived energy grid, researched the number of students graduating with grinding debt loads, noticed the statistics on foreclosures, viewed documentaries about neighborhoods dominated by gangs, counted the high cost of so many uninsured or underinsured Americans, or watched while other nations buy up our assets and we go deeper into debt? While your protege, Mr. Bush, has been in office, the basics of infrastructure and opportunity have been neglected and shunted aside in favor of lower taxes for the wealthy and expenditures for the war in Iraq. And yet you still push the ideology that lower taxes will solve all. No one wants to go back to truly high tax rates, but Mr. Obama is only advocating slight increase in the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans.
Do you really think that people will decide not to pursue business opportunities because the tax rate goes up by a few percentage points? I can tell you as a small business owner that I am eager to pursue more opportunities and to make more money, and a few percentage points extra tax will not deter me or most other business people. Let’s take a hypothetical example of a business person with taxable income after all deductions of $200,000 per year. Taxed at 33%, he or she would net $134,000. Now let’s suppose that same business person grows his or her business and now has taxable income of $300,000 per year, taxed at 36%. The take home amount is now $192,000. Would you rather have $192K per year income or $134K per year income? And the reality is that the $300K person has probably bought a new, more expensive home and made other investments that are reducing his ‘actual’ tax rate.
When it comes right down to it, the wealthier the individual, the more benefit he or she has accrued from the government – roads to transport goods, protection of wealth by police and the military, trade negotiations, industry oversight, often industry subsidies, the establishment and enforcement of contractual law to protect real and intellectual property, protection and management of our natural resources, an educated work force, a regulated stock market, government supported research, government promotion of business here and abroad, currency production, the ability to incorporate, the patent office, direct subsidies and much more – these are all the cornerstones on which wealth is built. Those who run businesses, like myself, should be aware every day of the advantages we gain from our government, and be willing to pay our fair share of the expenses involved. In countries where government does not provide these services or provides them poorly, running a business is far more difficult.
In the face of a massive bailout of the investment/insurance industry (and the prior bailouts of the Savings and Loans, facilated by Mr. McCain’s interference with prudent regulation of Keating’s Savings and Loan), with no guarantee that the economy will even recover despite this massive infusion of cash, the argument that somehow businesses will suffer from Mr. Obama’s election can’t be taken seriously. Small businesses are literally dying by the day, even here in supposedly recession-proof Seattle, as a direct result of the lack of Republican oversight of the banking, mortgage and insurance industries, the massive outgo of resources for the Iraq war, and the resultant credit “crunch”.
No credit, no business. It is a simple formula, and all the political sophistry in the world can’t hide this truth from the American people. It is quite clear to even the most casual observer that one-sided policies favoring only the wealthy have not been successful for either the poor or the rich (many of whom now have greatly reduced net worth due to the stock market plunge). One-sided policies on the other side will not be successful either. Most people realize that the middle course is the correct one. Although Mr. Obama has been painted as an extreme liberal, if you will read his books, listen to his speeches and follow his career, you will see that his emphasis is on finding common ground between competing interests and coming up with solutions that are creative and sensible.
Even Mr. Rove acknowledges Mr. Obama’s “considerable talents as a community organizer.” That is ideally what a President should do. Organize this fractured nation into more of the community we should be and move us forward on a common course that treats each citizen as someone of worth and dignity who deserves a chance at a better life.
The American people understand that our country has been on a collision course with reality for far too long. Unbridled greed, lack of investment in infrastructure and education, over-aggressiveness abroad, the lack of a coherent energy or health care policy, the erosion of personal freedoms and the large gaps in the social safety net – all of these hallmarks of the Bush administration are now meeting up with the reality they have tried so hard to pretend did not exist, and the resulting wreckage stares us in the face.
Mr. McCain, for all his talk of being a maverick, was one of the people pushing hard for deregulation and the rest of Mr. Bush’s agenda. With his choice of Sarah Palin, who is essentially unqualified for her role at this time, he has shown that his “country first” slogan is merely empty words – it is “career” first and always. His adultery and lack of loyalty to his first wife, dumping her for a rich young heiress does not speak well to his character, but does speak to his ambition and impulsiveness. If you will study his record prior to becoming a POW, you will find that he repeatedly crashed airplanes due to his recklessness and poor judgment. If he hadn’t been the son of an admiral, I doubt if the military would have continued to allow him to remain. I still admire Mr. McCain for his stance on campaign reform, his attempts to reform immigration law, and his incredible courage as a POW. However, he is really not a maverick at all, but rather a standard-bearer for business as usual. Business as usual is not possible – every successful business person knows that when you are failing, you have to change course – the same policies will only result in the same failure.
The American people realize we must change course – yes, we do hope to create an electoral “tsunami” of Americans who usually vote AND those who seldom vote, but who all realize that their future hope lies in the much maligned but all important “Community Organizing” abilities of Mr. Obama as opposed to the community-destroying policies of the last eight years.