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Seeing Red
May. 3rd, 2008 06:29 pmIt absolutely makes my blood boil to read the comments on Fox-News.com election coverage. I like to believe that Americans are not stupid, as a rule, but the media's emphasis on Reverend Wright (who is actually pretty cool, if you watch the whole of any of his speeches and not just the fear-mongering sound bites) and that one comment made by his wife and that time he didn't wear a flag pin...
I just don't understand how people can actually believe that Obama is unpatriotic and is trying to destroy America. It is utterly irrational and destructive. I don't understand how people can interpret everything about a candidate in a negative light.
I would have been okay with Clinton getting elected, up until this gas tax thing. I don't like her, but I thought she would probably be a competent administrator. But the fact that you can't find a single economist who will endorse the gas tax, but she still wants to attack Congress with it, "Do they stand with hard-pressed Americans who are trying to pay their gas bills at the gas station or do they once again stand with the big oil companies?” The big oil companies who will benefit from the tax-relief because it's a break from an excise tax taken at the point of production (not the point of purchase), so all they have to do is hedge their financial statements to inflate their reported costs, and the profit-tax will actually decrease their tax payments, while encouraging Americans to buy more oil, so that when the tax-holiday ends, we still haven't been discouraged from our high-consumption habits. Yes, Mrs. Clinton. Way to look out for the little guy. Not to mention that it would be impossible to even convince Congress to pass said useless windfall-profits tax.
I want a president who will listen to the experts in the relevant field, who will not continue to fight for a stupid idea that experts say is stupid. The only value of McCain's and Clinton's vaunted experience is its ability to assist them in making good decisions. And honestly, that experience cannot possibly make them experts on the economy, foreign policy, health care, the environment, the war. A president who will research the issue before taking a stance, who will look at past mistakes and use them to determine the future (yes, Obama voted for gas tax relief in Illinois, and saw that it didn't work. And now people accuse him of flip-flopping? Really?) is going to be a valuable asset.
I just don't understand how people can actually believe that Obama is unpatriotic and is trying to destroy America. It is utterly irrational and destructive. I don't understand how people can interpret everything about a candidate in a negative light.
I would have been okay with Clinton getting elected, up until this gas tax thing. I don't like her, but I thought she would probably be a competent administrator. But the fact that you can't find a single economist who will endorse the gas tax, but she still wants to attack Congress with it, "Do they stand with hard-pressed Americans who are trying to pay their gas bills at the gas station or do they once again stand with the big oil companies?” The big oil companies who will benefit from the tax-relief because it's a break from an excise tax taken at the point of production (not the point of purchase), so all they have to do is hedge their financial statements to inflate their reported costs, and the profit-tax will actually decrease their tax payments, while encouraging Americans to buy more oil, so that when the tax-holiday ends, we still haven't been discouraged from our high-consumption habits. Yes, Mrs. Clinton. Way to look out for the little guy. Not to mention that it would be impossible to even convince Congress to pass said useless windfall-profits tax.
I want a president who will listen to the experts in the relevant field, who will not continue to fight for a stupid idea that experts say is stupid. The only value of McCain's and Clinton's vaunted experience is its ability to assist them in making good decisions. And honestly, that experience cannot possibly make them experts on the economy, foreign policy, health care, the environment, the war. A president who will research the issue before taking a stance, who will look at past mistakes and use them to determine the future (yes, Obama voted for gas tax relief in Illinois, and saw that it didn't work. And now people accuse him of flip-flopping? Really?) is going to be a valuable asset.