Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Obama Vs. Reality

I have been waiting for a while for someone to sum up my frustration with the Obama campaign. Thomas Sowell's Are Facts Obsolete? comes close. Change for change's sake? Really? Raise taxes? Attack business? Attack friends and trading partners? Go after the "rich"? I keep waiting for someone to call him on this nonsense or confront him with reality. It hasn't happened yet. Maybe there is still time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Stephen,

While Sowell makes some good points, there is also a reality Obama has to face. One, the Congress is almost equally split between Democrats and Republicans. Not only that, there are more than a few conservative Democrats (Blue Dog Democrats) who would not vote for a tax increase or even most of what Obama is proposing. So what he wants to do and what he can do are two different things. Not only that, most tax increases etc. can be repealed or allowed to expire if they prove faulty (what former Republican congressman Mickey Edwards calls venal sins vs. mortal sins, but that is another conversation). Also, Bill Clinton ran as a liberal and pretty much governed as a moderate Republican. He signed most of the Contract with America when the Republicans did not have enough votes to override a veto. He was also willing to overhaul Social Security until Monica derailed it. I would be willing to posit Obama will do the same lest he be tarred by the Republicans as a"socialist" or "big government liberal" etc. He probably could not repeal NAFTA etc if he wanted to. It would seem he is just playing to the base. It seems that those facts are the reality. There is no need to call him on it since he will come up against it if he wins.