Socialism reigns... Looks like all four are!

Obama the socialist (from here):

On October of 2008, in conversation with a voter forever to be known as Joe the Plumber, Obama gave one of his fullest summaries of his tax plan. After explaining how Joe could benefit from it, whether or not he achieves his dream of owning his own plumbing business, Obama added casually, “I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

McCain the socialist:

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.”
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 omfort, there’s nothing wrong with paying somewhat more.

Palin the socialist:

A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of the New Yorker — 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."

Biden the socialist:

"We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people," Biden said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America." Noting that wealthier Americans would indeed pay more, Biden said: "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."

On yesterday's debate - II

After reading my previous post on the debate last night, a reader wrote this in... I could not have said it better...

Since when is it the American standard for our top leaders to be like us? Shouldn’t they be exceptional? Why can’t we demand people who can answer the questions they’re asked articulately, people who live by the rules they impose on others and lead by example? Why do we want someone who could have a cup of coffee with us at a soccer game?

I just find it entirely frightening that Palin could be president, and doesn’t know anything about the country, our issues, international relations, or even thinking on her feet. And I remain resentful of the notion that because I voted for Clinton in the primaries, I’d vote for Palin now, regardless of an entirely opposite worldview.

So – I feel pretty strongly about her, if you couldn’t tell. I thought Biden did well, but definitely had to pull some punches or he’d be seen as patronizing. I would have liked for him to have torn her apart, but that would’ve been politically disastrous.

On yesterday's debate

If yesterday's debate was a contest on who could appear folksier, homely and cutesy then Gov. Sarah Palin hit the ball out of the park. Of course, that is not what debates that help us choose leaders for our nation are about - or is it? With nowhere to go but upwards, she did not have a meltdown that most predicted. In fact, she came off as very articulate, very clear and lucid on every answer - except that her responses were not really answers to the questions posed. She managed to go off tangent to just about any and every question asked of her on policy, healthcare, Iraq and domestic affairs. She also relied on this strange circular logic where on the one hand she said that Sen. McCain will enforce strict governmental oversight while in a retort right after said that government is the problem and needs to get out of the way… One cannot have it both ways!
When did expectations sink so low that when reactions the next day are 'Thank god she did not embarrass us' became the standard to judge vice presidential candidates?

Sen. Biden on the other hand was fairly calm and collected with his answers. His answers were more direct and to the point and he managed to produce pertinent answers to questions asked of him. In particular, I was shocked by the following factoid ‘we have spent more money -- we spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country’. I have not fact checked this, but if true is simply an astounding example of misguided leadership. Of course, expectations that his answers would be long winded, empty and airy were not fulfilled. Here again we breathed a sigh of relief and said, ‘Thank god, he did not shame the campaign with his gaffes’. Of course, he was definitely, very definitely more Presidential of the two and handily won the debate.

In our fervent prayers that candidates scrape by and not embarrass themselves, we are lowering the bar for ourselves in general and for the country at large.

In keeping with her style, Palinesque moments that had a 'Kouric interview' feel to them abounded - some of them here:

• “Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be all, end all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet” – magnetic poetry alert.
• “The reason we don't read about Afghanistan anymore in the paper, it's succeeded.” – the last I checked there was a growing Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan slowing winding its way into Pakistan.
• “As we discuss ANWR there, at least we can agree to disagree on that one. I will keep pushing him on ANWR” – I have no idea what she meant here…

Full transcript here.

On today's Vice-Presidential debates

Gov. Sarah 'pitbull' Palin will debate Sen. Joe 'gaffe' Biden tonight. Ms. Palin is someone who took the national stage at the Republican National Committee a month back and derided individuals involved in community organizing and community service. She is someone who makes sure women are made to pay for rape kits after they file a rape report. The list goes on – there is no need to repeat it here… Of course, with the loquacious Joe Biden’s ‘let me ramble on’ demeanor juxtaposed alongside Sarah’s ‘short on substance’ rants (of late especially), it promises to be an interesting evening.

At this point, short of Ms. Palin actually passing out or throwing up on the podium, her handlers have lowered expectations so much that all she has to do is remain mum through the whole debate and she will be declared winner…

This was her recent response when asked about the newspapers she reads: “Um... all of 'em... any of 'em that... um.. have been in front of me over all these years... um...”
Biden is not too far behind. Just last week Biden told us that Franklin D. Roosevelt had appeared on TV to explain the market crash of 1929. The problem with that statement was that Herbert Hoover was president at that time and television did not start appearing in American homes until years after.

I forgot to mention, among her moderate list of accomplishments, pathological lying is under-reported but does stand out prominently. Her list of lies keep growing (see Andrew Sullivan’s list of 15 absolute lies told by her here). I am almost inclined to say, let the best person win, but in this case, I am sure that Palin’esque politics might not be the best for us at this stage. As someone was joking the other day, while her boss Mr. McCain might suffer from incontinence, she seems to suffer from a different malady - incompetence...