Shouldn't Even Be Close

Ok kids, it’s time to talk about some of the things I’ve been noticing in the going ons of this political season. Let me warn you, if you don’t already know, I’m a supporter of the Democratic ticket. If that bothers you, don’t read this. If you have comments, feel free to leave them at the end of the post. Do me a favor though; don’t just use the typical talking points. You know the ones, “Obama’s a tax and spend liberal” and things of that ilk.

To start with, I’ll address that point right off the bat. I’ve actually done research on this; it’s quite easy to find web sites that have no political slant. According to numerous non-bias organizations, under the Obama tax plan anyone making less than $200,000 or $250,000 for married couples will see a tax cut. The plan calls for the taxes on those that make more than that to return to what they were during the Clinton administration. I don’t know anyone, including those that make those kinds of dollars, that didn’t do well in the 90’s. So, the question becomes, how is that bad? To me, the answers easy, it’s not.

Let’s talk about security. I can’t find any poll that says that Americans feel safer today than they did before 2001. Not one. The bottom line is that 09/11 happened on the Republicans watch. I don’t believe we need to argue about the response of the current administration. There is more and more evidence about the fake evidence used to get into the war with Iraq that I hope we can all agree that we shouldn’t have gone there. That’s not to say that we can just pull out of Iraq, just that we shouldn’t have gone there in the first place.

The outcome of this war is the “Patriot Act”. Have any of you actually read this piece of legislation? For a political party that constantly rails against big government being in people’s lives, they certainly want to spend time in yours and mine. Under this act our phone, email, financial and medical records can be searched by the government without a court order and without you or I even knowing about it. Sounds like big brother to me. Sorry, I’m starting to move away from the original intent of the post; I’ll try to get back on track.

Allow me to give you a scenario: there’s a black guy who is married. He has an affair, while still married, with an heiress. His wife gets in a horrible accident and becomes disfigured. While recuperating, this man decides to file for divorce and be with this other woman. Then let’s say this man decides to run for President as a democrat. Well, I think we all know what the right wing would do with that. His family values would be questioned over and over again and odds are that he would be absolutely trounced in the election if he even gets that far. Change the above scenario to the real story of John McCain and he’s the head of the family values party and a real mans man. Sorry, I just don’t get it.

Let’s take another look at this black candidate. Let’s say he has a 17-year-old daughter who gets pregnant. This daughter, along with her father, would become the laughing stock of the election season and once again the family values issue would be a major issue in the campaign. All we’d be hearing about is what a poor example this candidate has been for his family to allow his child to get “knocked up” as a teenager. We all know that this is really a reference to Sara Palins daughter, yet when it’s brought up all we hear is how courageous she is and what a strong family she has. Amazing.

Needless to say, I’m not a fan of this woman. For those that are, I’m sorry, you obviously haven’t really looked into who and what she is. The reason I know this is that nobody has. When anyone tries to get any info all we are told is that we are sexist. Seriously. She’s not allowed to have a news conference because the McCain campaign is afraid of what she’s going to say. Hell, McCain himself hasn’t been allowed to face the press without having it pre-scripted. Even his little town hall meetings that he so favors are carefully orchestrated. If you are a democrat, and it’s known that you are, you’re not allowed entrance to the meeting.

One last thing about Palin, they have a film of one of the campaign stops where she and McCain were taking questions. She was asked to name specifically what experience she brings to the table to make her a viable Vice President. Her response was that she was ready to lead and that if elected she’s ready. She also said that if you wanted specifics to just ask. She then went on to another questioner. Face it folks, she doesn’t have specifics and that’s simply because she hasn’t been told by the campaign what she’s supposed to say. I know, the typical republican response is that Obama has none either. Wrong. Go to his web site and he has everything he plans on doing in complete detail. You can’t say the same for McCain.

Here’s my biggest fear about this entire election. I truly believe that the race issue is the only thing that can hurt Obama. I think there are a number of folks out there that when the curtain closes on the election booth will have a hard time voting for a black man. I believe this election wouldn’t even be close if he were white. Sounds terrible but I really think that if a white male, with all else being the same, were the democratic nominee there would be a landslide of historic proportions. I hope I’m wrong.