Posted by
Juliana Johnson on Monday, October 06, 2008 11:23:43 AM
On Thursday night, Governor Sarah Palin cleared the credibility hurdle
she faced in the estimation of swing voters, even earning some
begrudging kudos from Democrats.
On Tuesday night, it's John McCain's turn to do the same.
The
Teddy Roosevelt-style populist rhetoric about earmarks and Wall Street
greed is an okay warm-up act, but McCain needs a show-stopper.
McCain
should speak to Obama in that same father-to-son fashion as to how the
world works when it comes to pocketbook issues like he did as to
foreign policy in the first debate.
Here's what McCain should say:
Barack Obama wants to make this campaign about Wall Street versus Main Street.
Senator Obama clearly needs directions.
Because
this campaign is about K Street versus Pennsylvania Avenue. It's about
the lobbyists who've corrupted politicians and compromised our
politics. And it's about the need for a President to stand up to those
who seek to game the system for personal gain.
Senator Obama
says our current financial difficulties result from the failed
Bush-McCain economic philosophy. First, Senator Obama, I take great
umbrage at the insinuation that I am not my own person. If you think I
take my cues from George W. Bush or anyone else, then you are neither
familiar with my public record nor my personal sacrifice. And if you
care to make such an assertion, Senator, then please be man enough to
do it straight away and to my face.
Second, what Senator Obama
terms a failed philosophy is nothing more than a common-sense belief
that Americans should keep more of what they earn because families make
better decisions on how best to spend their earnings than does the
political class in Washington.
And what of Senator Obama's economic philosophy?
It
is Senator Obama who initially proposed doubling the capital gains tax
and has now scaled that back to a 33% increase in that tax. That would
be devastating to our economy. At the core of our financial problems is
the credit crunch. Senator Obama's tax hike would further restrict
credit and inhibit capital formation. This is precisely the opposite of
what we should be doing. Senator Obama clearly realizes this since he
diminished the magnitude of his own tax increase proposal but still
insists upon a massive hike. So who is the ideologue?
Senator
Obama decries deregulation but it is Obama's team of economic advisors
formerly at the helm of Fannie Mae--Franklin Raines, Tim Howard, and
Jim Johnson--who engaged in the reckless lending policies, encouraged
by President Clinton at the time, that extended loans to subprime
borrowers. (Here McCain could hold up the Sept. 20, 1999 New York Times
article entitled, "Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending" that outlines this policy change in detail).
And
since Senator Obama has such newfound concern for windfall profits,
perhaps he can start with his campaign's economic advisors, the three
of whom parachuted out of the Fannie Mae death spiral with close to
$300 million before the corporate jet crashed on the roofs of Main
Street homeowners.
Senator Obama carries on about job creation
but advocates job-killing protectionism and an antagonistic posture
towards our trading partners. He wants to renegotiate trade agreements
that will inevitably close markets to American goods.
Senator Obama is selling you a bill of goods, America.
He
casts himself as a reformer and yet springs from the bosom of political
corruption and machine politics, against which he did nothing.
Senator
Obama speaks of his fondness for the middle class and yet cannot
contain his contempt for middle America when he is at a San Francisco
fundraiser or when he is confronted by the strong, conservative female
Governor running with me.
I know there is anxiety. I know there
is fear because I understand that things are difficult financially for
millions of American families. But don't let yourself be ruled by that
fear or by the contrived class envy rhetoric that the radical left wing
has been trying to sell you since the 1960s. For all his talk of
change, Senator Obama is intent on pursuing the very same policies with
the very same people that got us into this mess.
We will turn
our economy around by pursuing common-sense policies that ease our tax
burdens, restrain government spending, incentivize savings and
investment, and encourage small business growth.
These will be the first principles of a McCain presidency. This is the way back for America.