RightWave

This shocking headline and opening courtesy of the venerable Associated Press:

McCain, Obama offer different visions on taxes
Make more than $250,000 a year? Watch out. Barack Obama wants to raise your income taxes. Social Security taxes, too.

Run a corporation? Lucky you. John McCain wants to cut your business taxes.

Those positions illustrate pieces of two vastly different approaches to the economy, an issue at the forefront of voters’ minds given that the country is teetering on the brink of - if not already in - a recession as gas prices soar and layoffs rise amid a credit crisis and a housing slump.

Obama, the Democrat, seemingly has a traditional liberal outlook of taxing the rich more while having the government help people of more modest means through tax breaks. McCain, the Republican, advocates a classic conservative vision of cutting taxes - many geared toward businesses - to promote competition within a free-market system.

I mean, wow.  Really.  Republicans and Democrats disagree on taxes?   I’m shocked.  Although, I guess, to be fair, this was in question in this election cycle. 

However, this is illustrative of one important point.  Senator McCain should keep this as the story.  He should stop talking about global warming or whatever other “straight talk” he’d like to provide us for the day.  He should keep talking about tax cuts and spending restraint.  He should talk about the expansive growth of government and how to stop it.  At least, I suppose, if he’d like conservatives to get at all excited about him this year.  Guess we’ll see…

Senator McCain, please don’t select Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal as your runing mate.  Please.

Yes, he’s a good man.

Yes, he’s a good, solid, consistent conservative.

Yes, he’s young, enthusiastic and good natured.

Yes, he’s often brilliant and a great thinker (and doer).

Yes, he’s an ethnic minority.

And, yes, he’s the future of the Republican Party.

Which is exactly why you should leave him be.  Don’t ask him to be your running mate. 

And, Governor Jindal, if you’re offered the post, please do the unthinkable.  Politely decline.

There is much work to do in Louisiana.  Work that must be done, and work that requires a strong, smart, right-minded, determined leader to accomplish great things and make bold decisions.  Not only that, but Louisiana today offers an unparalleled opportunity to enact sweeping free-market reforms: school choice, legal reform, ethics, fundamental tax and spending reforms.  The list goes on and on.  Governor Jindal can do those things.  He’s already started.

He can be a hero to both the people of Louisiana and the conservative movement at large.  He can demonstrate his can-do spirit and tout it around the country to conservatives who are downtrodden by decades of frustration and disappointment by their elected officials.  He can inspire a new generation of “policy wonks,” immigrants, young people and regular joes to engage in the process and maybe even run for office.

No, he’s not the most polished politician, but that’s part of his charm.  

He has a future to build and a legacy to leave. 

He can’t do it, however, if he’s snatched up by and caught up in a national race in the first year of his governorship.  And, make no mistake, this will be the nastiest election we’ve seen yet.  Despite the rhetoric of hope and change, I believe this will be an ugly year for American politics.  Perhaps some if it’s deserved, by the way, but it’s not the way any of the players will want to be remembered.

So, I ask.  I plead.  Let him be a good Governor.  Let him build his profile (did you see him on Leno a couple of weeks ago?). Let him develop his own narrative and his own personality.  Let him be the leader he can be.

Now, I’m sure we free-marketers will find something we don’t like or a place to disagree every once and a while.  It happens with every political leader, but his promise is strong and his potential great.  Let’s nuture it, develop it, support it.

Rush Limbaugh says he’s the next Ronald Reagan.  I’m not so sure about that from a political perspective.  Certainly, though, its achievable from the view of real policy accomplishments and sparking another conservative revolution.  Perhaps, even more importantly, righting the ship of the Republican party. 

We conservatives seem to find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory all too often.  We move to fast, get too excited too soon.  Let’s not do it again.

Let’s look to the future, friends. 

So, Senator McCain, be bold in your choice.  Look outside the political field.  Choose a strong conservative and a good man or woman to run along side you (perhaps even influence you!).  But, I implore you, leave Governor Jindal be. 

Give him the real opportunity to lead the nation one day - in the future.

When John McCain came on the screen on Saturday Night Live this weekend, I got nervous (be honest, didn’t you?). 

But, I was pleasantly surprised that he was (finally) off his global warming soapbox, at least for a little bit.  SNL would have been a natural place for him to peddle his bill of goods and play to the liberal-skewed staff and audience.  But, alas, Senator McCain talked about…EARMARKS!  Hurrah!  Hurrah!

Now, I realize this doesn’t mean that he won’t push forward on his cap and trade scheme (did someone say “$1.3 billion tax increase?”  Oh.)  But, at least he’s back to his core competency - stopping the runaway growth of government.  I’m happy to have him talk about that all the time and stop talking about all his other nonsense.

 Anyway, in case you missed it, here’s clip:

UPDATE - Kathryn Jean Lopez over at the Corner has a different clip posted from the SNL appearance.  And, her post reminds me of something my mother said to me the other day.  “Would Ronald Reagan have done something like this?” …meaning is this really becoming of a Presidential candidate?  Probably not, but who knows?  President Reagan was an actor after all, and pretty darn funny.  But, he had class.  Does anyone anymore? 

So, I don’t have all that many nice things to say about Senator John McCain (despite, at least in some way, sharing party affiliation), today I’ll stand up for him against the ridiculousness of Senators Clinton and Obama. 

“I believe saying no to the farm bill is saying no to rural America.”

So says the good Senator from New York.  As for Senator Obama:

The Illinois senator also chided McCain and Bush for “saying no to America’s farmers and ranchers, no to energy independence, no to the environment, and no to millions of hungry people.”

Hardly.  The farm bill has far less to do about farmers than it does about providing a vehicle for Congressional porkers to fund their pet projects.   And, the environment?   That’s just gratuitous.

To his credit, Senator McCain had this to say:

“Attempts will be made to use my opposition to this bill for another’s political gain” but the “American people deserve to know the truth” about the bill.

Ed Frank over at AFP has a good sad list of some of the earmarks in the farm bill.  Sickening for any taxpayer to see, and each and every one of those members of Congress should be down right ashamed.  Sheep and Goat Industry Improvement Center, REALLY?  

So, take a deep breath before you head over there to take a gander.

If you need something to cheer you up in the meantime, take a listen to this timeless tune from The Sound of Music and think happy thoughts (no, it’s not the song you think) or how it relates to the Presidential race:

I’m working on trying to get an earmark for myself in the farm bill!

In the meantime, I commend to you Dr. Barry Poulson’s great column on an outrageous earmark for Nevada, Lake Wobegon West:

Tucked into the farm bill winding its way through Congress is a $175 million earmark to build a lake in the middle of the Nevada desert. Nevada should name this “’Lake Wobegon West’ and use ‘Surf Nevada’ to promote tourism. This lake could replace the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ in Alaska as the poster child for wasteful federal spending.

Read on…

Completely separate from anything…

As I sit here watching the latest episode Deadliest Catch, I thought I’d post the new ad that’s been running on the Discovery Channel lately.  It’s really catchy, and I like it.

Quote of the day, from a so-called “Blue Dog Democrat” regarding the Dems proposal to add an income tax “surcharge” to couples who earn a million dollars or more a year (or individuals who earn $500,000 or more):

“What we’re talking about is a one-half percent income tax surcharge on incomes above $1 million,” said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., a leader of the Blue Dog group. “So someone who earns $2 million a year would pay $5,000. … They’re not going to miss it.”

They’re not going to miss it?  Are you kidding me? 

Hmm.  Apparently, it’s a bad time to be a high-achiever in America - and it’s just going to get worse. 

Why, indeed, would we want to incentivise people to work harder and earn more?  And, shall we discuss why this is called an “income tax surcharge?”  Surcharge?  Like when you buy a ticket from Ticketmaster?  So I guess we should think about this like a Ticketmaster charge for your ticket to the millionaires club.  Because, of course, if you’re a millionaire, you’re not already paying enough. 

If, perchance, you happen to be a millionaire who doesn’t feel like you’re paying your fair share, I’d direct you to support Congressman John Campbell’s “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” legislation.

This kind of thing is just silly more than anything else, to be sure - a ridiculous attempt to “enforce” their “pay-go” rules.  Aw, shucks, we have to raise taxes…

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, it’s just not funny.

With her most recent assertions, Hillary Clinton has sunk to a new low, even by Clintonian standards.

As usual, Peggy Noonan captures this well in her most recent column:

In case you didn’t get what was behind that exchange, Mrs. Clinton spent this week making it clear. In a jaw-dropping interview in USA Today on Thursday, she said, “I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.” As evidence she cited an Associated Press report that, she said, “found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

White Americans? Hard-working white Americans? “Even Richard Nixon didn’t say white,” an Obama supporter said, “even with the Southern strategy.”

If John McCain said, “I got the white vote, baby!” his candidacy would be over. And rising in highest indignation against him would be the old Democratic Party.

To play the race card as Mrs. Clinton has, to highlight and encourage a sense that we are crudely divided as a nation, to make your argument a brute and cynical “the black guy can’t win but the white girl can” is — well, so vulgar, so cynical, so cold, that once again a Clinton is making us turn off the television in case the children walk by.

From “Yeas and Nays:”

 McCain planning climate change tour

Guys, we’ve got to stop this.  Any suggestions how?

He’s supposed to be the REPUBLICAN candidate, right?  What ever happened to limited government, less reguation, lower taxes, etc.  Why can’t he be as good on all these other issues as he is on spending and pork-barrel earmarks? 

Grr.

Annie Patnaude over at the AFP Blog has a great post on the more than 200 jobs Gov. Terminator wants to add to the government payroll to act as the enforcers of his green policies.

 Can’t you just imagine their uniforms?