It’s That Black Thing Again
While at lunch, I saw a new McCain TV ad accusing Obama of being advised by the CEO of Fannie Mae. I’m looking for the ad and will bring it to you shortly now.
What’s interesting:
It came out yesterday that McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, has been taking money from Freddie Mac. The campaign lied about Davis’s connection as well the fact that Davis was taking money as late as last month. Oops.
Here’s Rachel Maddow and Michael Isikoff of Newsweek on the Davis Connection:
Yeah, it’s that black thing: pot, kettle.
Oh, but wait, there’s more!
Michael Dobbs of the Washington Post’s FactChecker* reports that Franklin Raines, the former CEO of Fannie Mae–who is, coincidentally, a black man, which plays well to America’s racist underbelly–denies ever being an adviser to Sen. Obama. Bill Burton of the McCain campaign clarified the matter by saying the campaign hadn’t asked for or received any advice or information from Raines. The Obama campaign has consulted a veritable Who’s Who of intellectual overachievers: Robert Reich, Bill Galston, Austan Goolsbee, Jeff Liebman, David Cutler.
Any Raines? Nope, no Raines.
Hey, so maybe the McCain campaign was indulging in a little projection?
* Not to be confused with FactCheck.org, one of the sites on the McCain campaign’s S-list. For telling the truth, ironically.
New McCain Campaign ad
There’s a new McCain campaign ad in Northern California now. I’ve seen it twice. Makes me want to throw a shoe at the TV. I’m not going to give it more air time, but I will provide the link to the analysis on FactCheck.org.
I agree with most of what FactCheck says, but I will quibble about the characterization of the Democrats as the party that can’t balance a budget: the budget hasn’t come even close to being balanced in eons; the last time a Democrat was in office, during the Clinton years, the United States had a budget surplus. Can’t say that about Republicans in recent memory. In fact, no matter what they’ve said or promised, Republicans since Ronald Reagan have been fond of deficit spending.
National Debt as % of GDP
And the tax thing just chapped my hide. As if the Republicans never thought of increasing taxes. Check this out: an excerpt from The 1960 Presidential campaign, 2nd joint radio broadcast between the two candidates:
Nixon also said:
Stop the presses: Nixon is talking about raising taxes.
Here’s Kennedy’s reply:
Darn J.F. Kennedy and his wanting a balanced budget.
Another Democrat who balanced the budget? Surprisingly, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Apparently you can have a Great Society and a strong economy at the same time.
* During his presidency, Nixon didn’t care about balancing the budget. He just happened to have a surplus. Not the same thing as actual balancing. (Stein, Herbert. Presidential economics: The making of economic policy from Roosevelt to Clinton American Enterprise Institute, 1994. p. 169)
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