Thursday - October 23, 2008

John McCain should realise: it’s the taxes, stupid.  (OK, back to the USA for this)

Not too much too say.
Have lost musician friend of 30 years and will soon post.
But this stuff is very much alive and of interest to us all. 
But it ain’t over yet. Not till the last ballot is accounted for on election day.

Catch the rest of Kim’s take on things: => http://www.theothersideofkim.com/index.php/tos/

“I would feel better about electing a President in times of economic uncertainty if either candidate had the slightest familiarity with economic issues.” Kim du Toit

John McCain should realise: it’s the taxes, stupid
By Frank Luntz
Last Updated: 11:01pm BST 22/10/2008

Barack Obama will be the next President. For a pollster and message consultant to declare the outcome with 10 days to go is risky. But John McCain’s campaign has shown no capability to capitalise on events, and the Obama campaign just doesn’t make mistakes.

Republicans eye Palin for 2012 presidential campaign

It didn’t have to be this way.

McCain could have stood up and said no to the $700 billion “taxpayer-funded Wall Street bail-out”.

McCain could have been a hero for the middle-class
Sure, it’s now called an “economic rescue plan” by the White House, but the Bush Administration’s rebranding came too little and too late. He could have declared that “Main Street should not have to pay for the sins of Wall Street”, that it’s “time for the corporate con-men to do some time for costing us some dime”.

That decision alone would have made him a hero to tens of millions of hard-working middle-class voters who resent seeing their tax dollars handed over to fund the retirement packages of the Billionaire Boys Club. But he didn’t.

McCain also could have personalised the taxes that every American pays. He could have leapt from his seat in the so-called “town hall” debate, his second televised clash with Obama, walked over to each person in the audience, and gone through the litany of taxes they all have to pay.

“When you wake up and have your first cup of coffee, you pay a sales tax. Go to your garage, pay an automobile tax. Drive to work, pay a gas tax. At work, you have an income tax. Come home, pay a property tax. Turn on your television, there’s a cable tax. Have a beer, pay an alcohol tax. Even when you die, you pay a death tax.” But he didn’t.

As for Obama, he could have done what the Left-wing blogs wanted him to do and ripped into his opponent the way John Kerry did to George W. Bush in 2004. Instead, he chose a conciliatory path, often agreeing with - and even praising - McCain for his positions on some issues and only occasionally going on the attack.

Voters awarded him victory for that strategy after all three debates. And in a survey of non-partisan “independent” voters released yesterday by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, Obama has opened up a double-digit lead among the voters who will decide the outcome.

The only time in the past 50 years where a candidate came from this far behind to overtake his opponent was Ronald Reagan in 1980. But that race featured a debate just five days before the election - and everything was melting down around Jimmy Carter.

There are no more debates - and McCain is hardly the Great Communicator. Everything is melting down around the Republican Party. With stock markets still plummeting, unemployment still rising and the entire global economic system in chaos, it’s tough to see how someone of the same party as the most unpopular president in modern times could possibly overcome such obvious barriers.

And when a lifetime’s worth of savings is now worth 30 per cent less than it was 100 days ago, it’s very difficult to listen to the candidates tear each other apart. The candidate who offers hope becomes a lot more appealing than the candidate on the attack.

In fact, the real untold story of 2008 is what is happening at state and local level. Republicans are in danger of losing the Senate seats they need to be able to block Obama’s legislation - and the House of Representatives looks even worse. This election is starting to look more like Britain in 1997 than anything America has seen in decades.

On election night, the polls in Virginia and Indiana close at 7pm, and both states could end up in the Democratic column for the first time in decades. It will be a long night for John McCain. If the current trends continue, it will be an even longer four years for the Republican Party.

Frank Luntz is a pollster and communications consultant

http://tinyurl.com/6l9an8

Posted by Drew458     on 10/23/2008 at 09:49 AM   
Filed Under: • Politics • Republicans •  
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