The only remaining question is whether the understanding that voters are being pandered to hurts or helps the politician doing the pandering.
It seems that now, the day after the primary, we have our answer: pandering hurt Clinton. Is this old style political tactic over? Before winning the nomination (let alone the Presidency) has Obama already brought change to our politics (like he already has to our foreign policy)?
If you believe today's NY Times poll, voters are seeing through the gas tax holiday pander:
72% of Democrats and 70% of all voters think the the Clinton/McCain gas tax holiday was proposed to help the politician who proposed it (only 21% thought it would help "average Americans").
The only remaining question is whether their understanding that they're being pandered to hurts or helps the politician doing the pandering ...
I read Jimmy Crackcorn's diary on the potential job loss and revenue loss from the idiotic "Gas Tax Holiday" proposed by Clinton and McCain, and I got mad. Well, madder. I'm originally from Minnesota, where after the tragic bridge collapse you don't casually talk about taking millions away from infrastructure just to pander to a few voters.
So I decided to use Jimmy Crackcorn's excellent Gas Tax Holiday calculator to see exactly how much I would personally save from this proposed idiocy--and donate it directly to Obama's campaign...
Which do you think is worse: Hillary Clinton's recent, inane gas tax holiday (here, here, here and here) or her long standing pandering by pretending she's an "average Joe" who "feels your pain."
Given that there is zero expert support for the Clinton/Mccain gas tax holiday idea, I wonder who Senator Clinton is using as her model for the person to emulate when you have no evidence to support your position.
It seems that Al Gore would argue it is President Bush.
After thinking about how much is wrong with the gas tax holiday proposed by McCain and supported by Hilary, I decided to see if I could boil down it's faults as simply as I could.
Senators Clinton and McCain have both attacked Sen. Obama for refusing to support a temporary 18 cent-per-gallon tax "holiday." While residents of Indiana and North Carolina are rightly concerned about gas prices, the Clinton-McCain tax holiday would do far more harm than good. That's why most Economists and Governors oppose it, including Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey, a Clinton supporter.
The gas tax holiday would rob the states of needed revenue at a time when most are facing budget shortfalls. More importantly, it could cost thousands of American jobs, particularly in construction, and forestall critical investments in infrastructure -- investments that may well prevent another major bridge from collapsing and ultimately save lives.
As you no doubt remember, last summer the I-35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people. It had been rated structurally deficient a few years before because of cracking and fatigue. In a 2006 memo, inspectors worried it was so weakened that it may need to be condemned before it collapsed. But, because of technical complications and cost concerns, the repairs were scrapped in favor of periodic inspections-- a gamble that failed catastrophically.
This summer, John McCain wants to weaken the entire US transportation infrastructure for the sake of a feel-good government giveaway. He wants to gamble with your safety in hopes you will reward him in the fall. What do you get out of it? You might save a few dollars on gas this summer.
My dear friend Cornel West, I can appreciate your disapproval of Barack Obama's absence at the MLK's event in Memphis but I emphatically disagree with you because your position as noble as it may sound is pathetically wrong.
To rebuke Obama for not making a symbolic visit to Memphis is to ignore the enormous responsibility he has for successfully conducting his campaign for the most important political office in the land, the president of the United States. Is there any priority greater than that at this time for Obama?
As hard as Obama has tried to convince people that he isn't doing things the same old way, some folks like you my friend still don't get it. Obama is hunting for an elephant and can't afford to stop and throw stones at small animals. This is an old African adage and you sir Cornel West may want to add this to your wisdom pouch. It's important to note that my comment by no means diminishes the event.
This weekend, The United Farm Workers held events in Los Angeles to commemorate this day. But it's not a one time thing for them, they have been celebrating this day for years. I think it's time that we do the same.
I'm posting this as the fluffy bunny tale end of the diary I posted several hours ago but didn't have room for to include all I wanted so cut short. Please consider this a complementary companion diary to my earlier one:
Europeans famously get 4-6 weeks of paid vacation every year, plus paid national holidays. We get twelve paid national holidays. But are they the right days? Should we have differetn holidays, or additional ones? As a parent, I feel that it would make more sense to have holidays on some other days as well. So below are some of my suggestions in the poll (some of which are serious!). Please add yours in the comments section.
1.19.09, you're invited. I know a lot of people are already celebrating on Inauguration Day (1.20) but that's only a half day of Bush in office (weak!). His last full day is 1.19, so really, if we want to show our appreciation for the man and his genius, we owe him the justice of doing it the day before. And then that way when it's Inauguration Day, we're already in celebration mode. But hey, since the 19th is a Monday, we should really just make it a whole weekend. That's what I'm going to do, at least - a Friday-Tuesday thing. That should be enough time to pay tribute to his legacy.
Of all the public holidays we note in this country, I'm probably the most susceptible to this one. I've written a bit about this before, in a couple of different contexts. This year I was dreading it, however. Its bad enough to have the King rhetoric rolled out in formulaic style by every unthinking politician for a yearly photo op, but the added plasticity of the election context was something I wasn't looking forward to. I even went so far as to try and sleep through it, but didn't quite make it without logging in here. [cough Glutton for Punishment cough] And so disturbing thoughts keep running around in my head. Rather than be snide about them, I thought it more useful to actually face them, and see if something productive could be wrought from all this discomfort of mine.
I don't think it's the "I have a dream" speech, either in its Washington, DC, or earlier Detroit versions. I think Dr. King's greatest speech was given on April 4, 1967, to a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. It's "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence." Exactly, a year later, on April 4, 1968, Dr. King was murdered in Memphis.
Dr. King's holiday is a day when I hope we can pause for a moment to remember Dr. King, to read this timeless speech of four decades ago, and to recommit ourselves to the struggle for peace and justice. And most important, I hope we can find ways to re-dedicate ourselves to action for peace and justice.
For the holiday season, if you haven't seen this snarky video starring the Leader of the Free World, it pretty well summarizes my sentiments this year:
Americans want peace, her corporate leaders want war. What then can this beleagured nation do?
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