Election 2008: The polls are tightening...

[Shawn Azman]

I have said a few times on this site that I feel the race for the American Presidency is over, and that Obama will surely win. However, with exactly a week to go in this Presidential election, the polls are starting to tighten.

As of Monday, the Zogby poll had Obama leading by 5%, which was down from 12% on sunday. Rasmussen also had Obama ahead by 5%, down from 8% on Sunday. On Monday, the Investor’s Business Daily poll, the most accurate poll in 2004, has Obama’s lead at only 2.8%. Now, the polls tightening the week before election day is normal for Presidential races, and one could explain the numbers just by that, however, I would like to explain why I feel the polls are tightening in America.

Obama’s true colors are starting to be shown on the economy.

I know we have talked about the economy and the taxes a lot on this site, and every news station in America is talking about it a lot, but it is the most important issue in this election. Americans are afraid about what will happen to the economy. What is going to happen to their 401Ks? Are they going to be able to keep their jobs? Will I as a college student be able to get a good job out of college? These questions and many more are on the minds of nearly all Americans. And now that people are starting to hear Obama’s true views, they are beginning to question if he is the right choice.

If McCain wins the election, I believe he needs to offer Joe the Plumber a cabinet level position (not really), because without him, McCain would not be where he is today. Joe the Plumber did what no one else before was able to do, and that is to get Obama to explain his true economic philosophy: to “spread the wealth.” Obama wants to raise taxes on the upper level income earners and redistribute that money according to the government’s priorities. I believe people are beginning to wonder if taxing small businesses and corporations is really the best thing to do in an ailing economy. If people are worried about keeping their jobs, or keeping their benefits, they should be worried about how their employers are going to keep paying their salaries and providing benefits while also paying higher taxes.

And if Joe the Plumber were not enough, it is now becoming public that Obama thought the Supreme Court in the ‘60s was not radical enough because it did not break from the Constitution and look into wealth redistribution (audio here). He believes that the Warren Court should have broken from the Constitution to created “economic justice” in America. He says that the Constitution is a document of negative rights, saying what the federal and state government cannot do to you, but he wanted the courts to look into what the government “must do” for you.

I have a big problem with this. I love the Constitution. One of the reasons I believe it is such a great document is that it was designed to limit the powers of the government. The Constitution was not written as a way to guarantee rights to the people (like the Magna Carta was), because then that would have become a huge list of rights the government could not take away from the people. The Founders knew the better way to run a government was to list only the rights the people give to the government, and all the rights not listed are retained by the people. This means, at the beginning of the country, the people had All the rights, and they decided to give up some rights for the common good to the government. However, the government is not allowed to take on more powers that what are listed in the Constitution.

With this being said, the idea that Obama wanted the Supreme Court to break from the Constitution and explore the idea of redistribution of wealth as a way to create economic justice is radical. One reason begin that, as harsh as it sounds, America was not founded on the right of economic justice. The Declaration of Independence states we have the right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It does not state we have the right to happiness, just the right to pursue happiness. But Barack Obama wants to “spread the wealth” as a way to try and create economic justice in America. This idea goes against the founding ideas of this country and the ideas it functions upon today.

With help from Joe the Plumber and Obama’s opinions on the Warren Court, McCain is now starting to close the gap in the polls. Let’s see if it can carry him all the way to a win on Nov. 4th.

[piggybank]

Ah, you forgot to mention this campaign's final platform before November 4: SOCIALISM. It's dirty, but it's all they've got. And, from reading this latest article by Hertzberg, it looks like it might come back to bite them in the butt!

link: Like, Socialism: The New Yorker
...
McCain himself probably shares this belief, and there was a time when he was willing to say so. During the 2000 campaign, on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” a young woman asked him why her father, a doctor, should be “penalized” by being “in a huge tax bracket.” McCain replied that “wealthy people can afford more” and that “the very wealthy, because they can afford tax lawyers and all kinds of loopholes, really don’t pay nearly as much as you think they do.” The exchange continued:


YOUNG WOMAN: Are we getting closer and closer to, like, socialism and stuff?. . .
MCCAIN: Here’s what I really believe: That when you reach a certain level of comfort, there’s nothing wrong with paying somewhat more.

For her part, Sarah Palin, who has lately taken to calling Obama “Barack the Wealth Spreader,” seems to be something of a suspect character herself. She is, at the very least, a fellow-traveller of what might be called socialism with an Alaskan face. The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. The proceeds finance the government’s activities and enable it to issue a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it (“collectively,” no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of Karl the Marxist.

[i-heart-sarah]

Rassmussen: Obama +3
Gallup: Obama +2

think the "wealth spreader" revealed himself a week or 2 too soon. Obama's drawing point was his vagueness - all things to all people.

Hope & Change. who could be against that?

But as Obama has let slip (or was emboldened enough to admit), he's clearly in favor of redistributing wealth. not in a "social safety net" kinda way, but in a "according to your means" kinda way. While Americans are generous to a fault, lending a helping hand to the less fortunate or those who have been hit with natural disasters, we do not believe in redistributing wealth for the sake of "fairness"

fairness in America = the opportunity to succeed. Obama seems to have forgotten that - or never believed it.

IF McCain pulls this off, Obama's desire to "spread the wealth" will be the reason.

"I am Joe the Plumber"

[i-heart-sarah]

better, imho, than the New Yorker piece.

Investors Business Daily

Just a bit from the column:

Socialism is centralized power. That's why socialist movements, which often begin as cults of personality, usually end in fascism. Witness Stalinism, Maoism, Castroism — and, yes, Nazism, which, as Hayek noted, stands for "National Socialism."

Again, almost every major society that started with socialism has ended badly. Socialism has been refuted repeatedly, yet that hasn't stopped neo-Marxists — hiding now behind the title "community organizer" — from dreaming their dreams of collective sacrifice for collective good.

They see capitalism with its profit motive as vulgar and immoral because it's at odds with altruism — the idea that the general welfare of society is the proper goal of individuals.

What they fail to realize is society is the greatest beneficiary of our system of rational self-interest. The poorest of the poor and the laziest of the lazy still benefit from the genius of the entrepreneur and the risk-taking of the venture capitalist.

Almost every modern-day invention, from lifesaving drugs to computer software, was inspired by profit, not public welfare. Yet everyone shares in the greater efficiencies, cost savings, life expectancies and job opportunities created by the inspiration and perspiration of money-hungry individuals.

No system in history has created more wealth, per capita, over a shorter time than unbridled American capitalism.

[rostigo]

[i-heart-sarah]

but i'm shocked, shocked that joshua micah marshall thinks Obama is still comfortably ahead.

in other news, sean hannity thinks the gap is closing. i'm sure there's video or audio out there with him saying this, but i'm too lazy to search for it, and the response from the obama supporters would just be:

i'm shocked, shocked that sean hannity thinks the gap is closing

"i am joe the plumber"

[i-heart-sarah]

If McCain wins the election, I believe he needs to offer Joe the Plumber a cabinet level position (not really), because without him, McCain would not be where he is today.

at the Al Smith dinner a few weeks ago, both McCain & Obama spoke & (as tradition dictates) poked fun at themselves, the campaign & their opponent. McCain was hilarious, delivering punch lines with expert timing.

in his leno-esque monologue, he mentioned:

(Obama) claims that this honest, hardworking small businessman could not possibly have enough income to face a tax increase under the Obama plan. What they don't know -- what they don't know is "Joe the Plumber" recently signed a very lucrative contract with a wealthy couple to handle all the work on all seven of their houses.

AlSmith transcripts