John McCain is a Pandering Buffoon

By: Lowell
Published On: 4/20/2008 11:04:05 AM

I just received a fundraising email from John McCain which I would have thought came from "The Onion" if it didn't say "Paid for by John McCain 2008 and John McCain 2008 General Election Compliance Fund" at the bottom.  I mean, this guy can't possibly be serious, right?  First, he offers this heroic pledge:

Whether it's the economy, the struggle against radical Islamic extremism or national security issues, I stand ready to offer bold solutions to our nation's challenges.

Well, great, we need "bold solutions to our nation's challenges," that's for sure.  Three of the greatest challenges are: 1) our "addiction" (Bush's own words) to oil from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere; 2) global warming; and 3) correcting the fundamental imbalances in our economy and putting it back on a sustainable growth path for all Americans.

So, faced with those problems, what "bold" solution does John McCain have to offer.  Ready now, hold onto your seats!

This week, I laid out an economic plan aimed at providing immediate and long-term relief for all American families. One of the key components of this plan is a suspension of the federal gas tax on gasoline from Memorial Day to Labor Day of this year.

The effect of this "gas tax holiday" will be an immediate economic stimulus - taking a few dollars off the price of a tank of gas every time you fill up.

So there you have it, John McCain's "bold" plan for America -- temporarily remove the 18.4 cent-per-gallon federal gas tax, thus saving us $1.84-$3.68 per week (assuming we consume 10-20 gallons a week).  Over the entire summer - 12 weeks or so -- that would save us around $22-$44. Voila, economy saved, oil "addiction" ended, global warming taken care of.  Errrrr...not.  In fact, this "bold" idea by John McCain is about as far from "bold" as you can get. Actually, it is pandering of the worst kind, the exact OPPOSITE of the supposed "straight talk" McCain and the idiot/compliant media like to claim is his hallmark.  

The bottom line is that if John McCain were truly serious about offering "bold solutions" to the nation's economy, global warming, and energy security, he'd be calling for a massive program for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and "clean tech."  Sadly (but not surprisingly), John McCain is no longer a straight talker (if he ever was), he's not a "moderate" (as he claims to be), and he's not offering "bold solutions" for America.  To the contrary, John McCain -- as much as he and his pals in the media want to convince you otherwise -- represents nothing more than George W. Bush's third term: never-ending war with Iraq (and Iran and god knows who else); the same tired old trickle-down/supply side/Laffer curve policies that got us into this mess in the first place; no clue about energy and the environment; and certainly no "bold solutions."  

In short, John McCain is a pandering buffoon who is desperate to be president and will say anything to try to make that happen. Let's make sure that doesn't happen.  Go Obama!

UPDATE: Does anyone know how many billions of dollars McCain's idiotic proposal would take away from highway maintenance, bridge repair, etc?

Comments



Speaking of "buffoon" (Lowell - 4/20/2008 11:11:51 AM)


Pandering? (cageyd - 4/20/2008 11:42:56 AM)
"Eliminate the George Bush tax cuts for the rich".  Now that is what I call pandering.  If we dig a little deeper, Mr. Obama defines "rich" as those making more than $200,000/year.  I am amused at this ridiculous limit.  Would the young, liberal professionals who are supporting Mr. Obama be happy if he set a reasonable limit of perhaps $60-80,000 or even less?  At least Mr. McCain has a specific proposal on the table which will actually impact most of the people.


McCain's plan is to make Bush's (Lowell - 4/20/2008 12:17:41 PM)
idiotic tax cuts for the richest Americans permanent, at a time of war and huge budget deficits no less.  Even McCain admits that this means the budget won't be balanced at least until the last year of his SECOND term.  Nope, no pandering or buffoonery there.

By the way, you might want to check out our posting guidelines, specifically "Users who are excessively or pointlessly bashing the Democratic Party, or being Republican trolls, are subject to banning."



"Rich" (tx2vadem - 4/21/2008 10:49:27 AM)
People reporting Adjusted Gross Incomes of more than $200k on their tax returns comprise 2.2% of all tax returns filed in 2004 (according to IRS tax statistics).  I would certainly classify that as rich in comparison to all other filers.

As to what is ridiculous and what is reasonable, why is 200K+ ridiculous and 60k-80k reasonable?  And reasonable for what?  If you are talking about repealing the tax cuts passed in the Bush administration, are you thinking that people making more than 60K are rich and therefore should be a part of the tax repeal Democrats are proposing?  It would be more helpful in understanding your argument if you referenced specific proposals of Senator Obama rather than just income numbers.



The other part of the tax cuts (Rebecca - 4/20/2008 12:43:55 PM)
When you consider that there are fewer and fewer rich people who are richer and richer you see how unfair this really is. Now if the number rich people were increasing it might be a good idea.

The fact that fewer people are rich and that they have more wealth than ever before reveals that this tax cut scheme is designed to consentrate wealth in fewer and fewer hands, NOT to help small businesses and the economy in general.



Bonehead plan (Eric - 4/20/2008 3:11:54 PM)
I had a tongue in cheek post up the other day about Gilmore joining McCain on this foolishness.  It reminds me of the pandering Gilmore successfully pulled off with Virginia's car tax when he was running for governor... which almost resulted in total economic disaster for us.  A few more brilliant ideas from McCain piled on top of Dubya's comprehensive failure and the United States will be a third-world nation in no time.


that picture is the campaign (j_wyatt - 4/20/2008 3:26:27 PM)



McCain's appearance on This Week today was even worse (Kindler - 4/20/2008 3:51:05 PM)
I had hopes that he might actually run a somewhat clean, substantive campaign, but those hopes are now completely dashed.  On This Week, when asked if he was planning to question the patriotism of his Democratic opponent, he launched into a disgusting,  Karl Rove-ish tirade of guilt by association, tarring Obama for being an acquaintance of William Ayres, former Weatherman.

This year's Swift Boat has launched.  Let's focus all our energy on sinking it.



Lowell (Tom Joad (Kevin) - 4/20/2008 7:28:18 PM)
I read in an msn article that the gas tax elimination for the summer would be about 10 billion. I find that a little low but that's the only number I've seen so far.


Here's an article (Tom Joad (Kevin) - 4/20/2008 7:30:58 PM)
from Fox Buisness news that I found with a top ten list of why not to suspend the federal gas tax...go figure.


Thanks. (Lowell - 4/20/2008 7:35:40 PM)
So, how's John McCain going to make up the $10 billion in lost revenues for our crumbling bridges and roads?  And what purpose would this serve, regardless, except for blatant political pandering of the type that Mr. "Straight Talk" claims he abhors?


What does he say to consumers... (Tom Joad (Kevin) - 4/20/2008 10:54:44 PM)
when the price of gas jumps 18 cents after Labor Day? What does he tell the families of victims who die because of the horrible state of our commuting infrastructure?

Perfect commercial: Families of the victims of the Minnesota bridge collapse talk about the loss family members interspersed with shots of roads and bridges in need of repair...

"In a time of our nation's greatest need, John McCain put politics before our safety. He helped institute a gas tax cut that is used to fix the (insert percentage) of roads and (insert percentage) bridges that are in disrepair. Yet, he voted to keep President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Is this the set of priorities that you want in your President? Our citizens deserve better...they deserve Barack Obama."