More Political Pandering

I have read with interest the acceptance speech of Senator Obama and I thought I might just point out some of the pandering contained therein. The oratory contained no less than 16 promises. I doubt that if elected President he could bring about even 10% of them. It will be interesting to see how many promises Senator McCain makes because he won’t be able to bring about any higher percentage.

It is interesting to note that Congress of which both Obama and McCain are members have not been able to effect the changes they are presenting us. Of course, it is well know that Senator Obama has spent his entire short Congressional career running for President.

Considering that most of his speech was finding fault with the Bush administration and trying to tie McCain to it, here are his quotes and my comments.

“[Tonight] more of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet.”
Congress passed the laws to de-regulate the banking and mortgage industry.

“[Tonight] more of you have … tuition that’s beyond your reach.”
Liberal universities set their tuition fees. Of course, the liberals would like to take more money from the rich to subsidize tuition.

“This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.”
I’m not quite sure what the Bush administration has to do with this woman’s illness.

“We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets…”
Surveys show that most of these veterans choose to sleep on the streets.

“Why else would he [McCain] define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year?”
Senator McCain never so defined the middle-class. He did say that a rich person might be defined as someone making that amount.

“How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans?”
Senator McCain has consistently proposed keeping the current tax cuts for individuals while you have proposed raising taxes.

“How else could he offer … a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?”
Investing in equities is not gambling. In fact, most investment managers agree that retirees will run out of money if they don’t continue to invest at least 40% of their portfolios in equities. Let’s see what kind of investments Senator Obama uses.

“For over two decades, he’s [McCain] subscribed to that old … hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.”
Well, that was the philosophy that John F. Kennedy subscribed to. And, it worked.

“In Washington … what it really means is … Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps – even if you don’t have boots.”
Oops, something Senator Biden believes in.

“We measure the strength of our economy [on] … whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job.”
This waitress can probably already do that. It’s called FMLA.

“Businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs…”
Well, maybe that’s what the responsibility of a business should be in a socialist economy. In a free-enterprise economy, businesses have a responsibility to their shareholders to make a fair return on investment. Creating jobs is a by-product of a successful business. This, folks, is the true mantra of a socialist.

“[John McCain said] no to renewable fuels.”
You mean those renewable fuels that are driving up the cost of food worldwide. Another liberal debacle of trying to manage the economy.

“Drilling is a stop-gap measure.”
Maybe, but why are you so against it? Perhaps you think we should keep importing oil from unfriendly nations.

“I will find ways to safely harness nuclear power.”
“Duhh – we already do that.”

“[I] made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights.
How come your buddy Clinton didn’t do that?

“[McCain] won’t even go to the cave where he [bin Laden] lives.”
And, just where is that cave, Mr. Obama? And, why haven’t you gone there?

“We are the party of Kennedy.”
You mean the Kennedy that put through the biggest tax cut in this nation’s history and successfully turned around a recession? By putting more money back in the hands of the people? Something called supply-side economics? The fact is the democratic party of today is not the party of Kennedy. What have you liberals done with that party?

“Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe.”
I’ll take that challenge. Democrats won’t keep us safe! Carter made disastrous military spending cuts. Clinton consistently avoided dealing with the terrorists. Clinton’s secretary of state said that we “are not the police of the world.” I guess Clinton believes that we should just stand by and watch people being oppressed and killed.

“I will end this war in Iraq responsibly.”
But not with dignity or victory.

“I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons...”
I didn’t know the Bush administration stopped.

“Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.”
So, we should keep anchor baby illegal alien mothers in the country but not let them work. By the way, any illegal alien mother can take their anchor child back home to her home country.