The Change Candidates

Temple

copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat the cry is the same, “We want change!”  For well over a year Americans have heard the words.  Barack Obama is “The change we can believe in.”  Currently, the cry is McCain is the change candidate, and certainly, he is.  This Presidential aspirant, a celebrated “maverick,” has altered the conversation and transformed his candidacy.  More than once, the media counted the former prisoner of war, John McCain, down and out; yet, the Arizona Senator rose as a Phoenix from the flames.  Many Americans trust that the formidable fellow who fought for his country with blood, sweat, and tears is the best person to serve as President of the United States.
Rock star that the media says he may be, Senator Obama does not excite the masses, at least not here in America.  Oh, he has his loyal followers.  Delusional is how opponents define them.  However, ask some of the electorate: committed Hillary Clinton supporters, Independents, and those within the Grand Old Party whether they trust that Barack Obama can or will transform the country, and in a manner that is consistent with these voters, the answer will be a unqualified “No!”  

Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman may have said it best for the persons who think Barack Obama is but an empty suit, “Sen. Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead.  But eloquence is no substitute for a record — not in these tough times.”

The American people, anxious for a new American Revolution, do not want Barack Obama to lead them.  Near fifty percent of the population does not trust the junior Senator from Illinois.  Nor do they have faith in what they tout is a Washington insider, the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, Joseph Biden.

Some say Obama is inexperienced, elite, out of touch, or they resent that he is too even tempered.  John McCain seizes on the theme of `change.’  These individuals trust, the independent-thinker, the Senator from Arizona was and will be the candidate who can transform America.  After all, those who are Right recall that Senator McCain decried partisan rancor in Washington. He reached over the aisle in the past.  People who call themselves Conservatives trust that McCain will be a consensus builder when he needs to be.  Yet, he will remain as philosophically independent as is his nature.  John McCain stood up to his Party, and President in the past.  He will do so again, The soon-to-be Commander-In-Chief vows change is coming.  The Wall Street Journal avows John McCain is “The Change.”


John McCain reminds citizens of this country, Democrats “tax and spend.”  He, a Republican is different.  Senator McCain says, “If you believe you should pay more taxes, then I am the wrong candidate for you.”  The man of the people, who made a good life for himself understands the  outrage.  John McCain states, the electorate only need look at the tax plans each of the candidates propose.
More than half the population has no faith in the “elitist” candidate, Barack Obama. They trust as the McCain commercials avow.  Barack Obama will raise taxes.  The evidence, as calculated by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, affirms he will.  Presidential hopeful will increase the levies charged to citizens whose income ranks among the rafters.  Persons who earn $227,000 [two-hundred and twenty seven thousand dollars] upwards to $603,000 [six hundred and three thousand dollars] will realize a $12.00 average duty swell.  

Source: The Tax Policy Center

The Obama plan would reduce taxes for low- and moderate-income families, but raise them significantly for high-bracket taxpayers (see Figure 2). By 2012, middle-income taxpayers would see their after-tax income rise by about 5 percent, or nearly $2,200 annually.  Those in the top 1 percent would face a $19,000 average tax increase–a 1.5 percent reduction in after-tax income.

McCain would lift after-tax incomes an average of about 3 percent, or $1,400 annually, for middle-income taxpayers by 2012. But, in sharp contrast to Obama, he would cut taxes for those in the top 1% by more than $125,000, raising their after-tax income an average 9.5 percent.

~ An Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates’ Tax Plans
Executive Summary of the August 15, 2008 analysis
By Roberton Williams and Howard Gleckman
Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

Potential President John McCain concurs; his opponents tax plan is disgraceful and despicable.  Barack Obama has the audacity to raise taxes an additional twelve dollars a year to those who already pay too much.  That is not hope.  A person who earns two hundred and twenty seven thousand up to six hundred and three thousand dollars works very hard for the income they take home.  Certainly, these individuals cannot afford to bestow twelve dollars more to a do-nothing government. Those who toil for the wages they merit need relief.  The government takes too much, far more than is reasonable.  These persons have every right to retain the income they earned.   The seven thousand eight hundred and seventy-one dollars John McCain’s plan would provide are but a mere pittance in comparison to what these individuals deserve.

The people who pound the pavement for a meager million dollars salary cannot contribute one dime more to the community budget that pays for police and fire services.  The additional dollars needed to maintain the roads that rot beneath our feet must not come from small business owners.  Bridges built or repaired must be funded by bonds, foreign investors, or on credit as they are now.  Surely, with all the duties the government already collects, there are adequate resources.  “I will not donate one more dollar to the Feds,” say the rich, or Republicans who feel overly burdened.

Potential President John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin do not worry of the debt the Bush Administration brought upon itself.  The nonconformist from America’s western State, Arizona, mused aloud as he stood in a sea of Republican Convention goers, “I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party.  We (the Republican Party) were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us.”  The reluctant rebel expressed his regret for what but a few from the Grand Old Party did.  “We lost — we lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption.”  The senior Senator assured the throng of supporters that would not happen again, at least John McCain would not succumb to special interests, that is, except for the few Very Important Persons.  John McCain is the change and he cannot be influenced by dollars.

The power brokers from the McCain campaign lavished attention on Mr. Johnson (Robert Wood Johnson IV, the billionaire heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and owner of the New York Jets) and others like him — his itinerary was a parade of exclusive receptions for V.I.P. donors. Before the convention ramped up Tuesday evening, Mr. Johnson, 61, was among a cluster of McCain campaign officials and supporters hovering outside a suite guarded by an aide. As Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard and senior McCain adviser, chatted in one small circle, Mr. Johnson, 61, was at the center of another next to her, before he disappeared inside the suite with Mr. Davis.

Mr. Johnson has long been a player in Republican politics — he was a Bush Ranger in 2000 and 2004, raising more than $200,000 in each election. He has personally given more than $1 million to Republican candidates and committees over the years.

But this year, he emerged as perhaps the party’s most coveted donor. In May, after turning his office into a war room for more than a month and making sometimes 50 calls a day, he orchestrated a fund-raiser in New York City that brought in $7 million in a single evening for Mr. McCain, by far the largest amount collected up to that point by a campaign that had been struggling to raise money.

More recently, Mr. Johnson rode to the rescue of the Minneapolis-St. Paul convention host committee, helping it close a more than $10 million budget shortfall in a matter of weeks by writing a sizable check himself, getting his mother, who hails from Minneapolis, to do so as well, but also soliciting numerous large contributions from his circle of wealthy friends. . . .

“I’m not a real believer in limits,” Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Johnson rarely speaks at length with reporters. But in a series of conversations, he said he was motivated by a belief in Mr. McCain . . .

Millions of Americans believe in John McCain.  He is the candidate of change!  They trust, as President, John McCain will face the national debt with his signature relentless dynamism.  Republican Party loyalists do not fear the possibility; John McCain will become another George W. Bush.  This soldier is above reproach.  He has a proven record.  The concerns of lobbyist would not influence John McCain.  He learned his lesson after the Keating debacle.  John McCain was devastated when a “favor for a friend with regulatory problems had nearly ended his political career.”  Times have changed for John McCain and now he is ready to change times for the nation.

John McCain will not do as his predecessor has done.  An endless conflict will not drain the budget of trillions of dollars as it did during the Bush Administration.  John McCain, a prisoner of war knew how to win this one, the battle in Iraq, or that one, the fight in Afghanistan.  John McCain is not a hothead.  He will be more cautious before he places troops into battle.

Surely, one needs only consider the surge strategy.  It is obvious; John McCain has demonstrated Democrats are definitely not the cure for what ails this country.  If the policies proposed by the “inexperienced” Barack Obama are to stand, to be sure, internationally, internally, and especially economically, the nation will fall.  More would be placed on the proverbial credit card.

Governor Sarah Palin has the experience needed to create smaller government.  She will help ensure that the McCain Administration reduces the financial burden on the average American. Sarah Palin is an asset to the McCain campaign’s efforts to diminish waste and eliminate levies.  The public trough is too large; it must be obliterated. People can pull themselves up, by the bootstraps.  That, after all is the American Dream so many have achieved.  

As many resources reference, The Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, within the body of Table 1, reveals total government expenditures increased 63 percent when Mayor Palin was in charge.  In fiscal 2003, the last year in which this superior executive approved the budget, the sum costs the City of Wasilla incurred, with the exclusion of capital outlays, were $7,046,325.  In fiscal 1996, the year prior to a Palin Administration, budget expenditures were $4,317,947.  The municipality doled out a mere sixty-three (63) percent more than they had before this fiscally responsible financier entered into office.

Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next ten years, according to a newly updated analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Neither candidate’s plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified.

Compared to current law, TPC estimates the Obama plan would cut taxes by $2.9 trillion over the 2009-2018 period. McCain would reduce taxes by nearly $4.2 trillion (see Summary Revenue Table and Tables R1 and R2). These projections assume the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire in 2010 and that the Alternative Minimum Tax is fully effective with 2008 exemptions.

Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin would be better than Barack Obama at the helm.  Her “Barracuda” ways would lead American out of a fiscal slump.  The former Mayor of Wasilla has shown us all, she knows how to organize a community and balance the books.  One only needs to look at her record, or the ledger submitted to the State of Alaska, to know that even as a young city executive, this woman could create a budget.  She could change the dynamics.  Indeed, Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin, showed herself to be the candidate of change.  Sarah Palin proposed and built a Multiple-use Sports complex for but $14.7 million dollars.  A bond paid for the construction of the facility.

Sarah Palin transformed a balanced budget into a serious debt or so it would seem, near nineteen million dollars.  However, she had reasons.  The Hockey Mom thought it essential to provide ice time for the hundreds of youngsters who needed a place to practice. Mayor Palin invested in the local infrastructure. The stories of sons and daughters desperate for a rink were many.

Rebecca Dargis, who lives near Wasilla, says her two home-school sons struggle to find ice time for their competitive hockey team. They often have to play games without practicing, or if they do find ice time, it’s at odd hours like during church on Sundays or late on weeknights, she said. . . .

Even the Valley’s four high school hockey teams, which get priority at the rink, have to trade off practicing at 5:30 in the morning because it’s one of the few times available, Colony High School hockey coach Eric Troisi said . . .

A sports complex has been talked about for some time. Several years ago, Valley voters turned down a state grant to build a sports center, said Curt Menard Sr., who served on a nine-member steering committee Palin created to look at options for building a sports center.

The state grant required the borough pick up the tab for operating the center, Menard said.

Wasilla city residents would also have to pick up the tab for operating this center, but Blair said it eventually will pay for itself.

His company estimated the facility will cost about $600,000 a year to operate and will generate about $550,000 in user fees in its first year. After that, it should break even, he said. . . .

Borough land manager Ron Swanson said officials were concerned the center would not pay for itself.

Swanson said the borough-operated Brett arena, opened in 1983, has yet to break even. But it came close last year, generating about $350,000 of the $380,000 it cost to operate.

Nonetheless, as an agent of change, and a maverick much like John McCain, Sarah Palin helped to persuade her constituents the could have their Multi-use Sports Complex, pay an additional tax, and play on the ice too.  Mayor Palin had the power to plead her case as few did.  This sensational political aspirant can and did sway many to do as she thought fit.  Hence, money was spent, but only to serve the community.  Service to the community is change we can believe in.

As many resources reference, The Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, within the body of Table 1, reveals total government expenditures increased 63 percent when Mayor Palin was in charge.  In fiscal 2003, the last year in which this superior executive approved the budget, the sum costs the City of Wasilla incurred, with the exclusion of capital outlays, were $7,046,325.  In fiscal 1996, the year prior to a Palin Administration, budget expenditures were $4,317,947.  The municipality doled out a mere sixty-three (63) percent more than they had before this fiscally responsible financier entered into office.

While Sarah Palin can spend, it matters not for she knows how to garner funds.  As Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin embraced earmarks.  As a small-town Chief Executive and later as a Governor Palin did not hesitate to seek spectacular sources for greater income.  According to a Washington Post article by Paul Kane, Mayor Palin secured almost $27 million in projects for her tiny hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.  

Had he known, and the assumption is he did not, the honorable John McCain would have been chagrined by the prospect that, the Alaskan politician employed a lobbying firm to help provide the six thousand seven hundred (6,700) residents of Wasilla with multiple millions in attractive Federal allocations.

John McCain was familiar with the fact. Perhaps his refrain would be. Of course, some are concerned with her past practices.  Americans must remember, while Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin was young.  She was new to her position. Perchance political realities had overwhelmed her.  Granted, more recently, as Governor of the State, Sarah Palin again sought and found abundant funds.  She needed to.  While it is true, under her leadership, the state of Alaska requested 31 earmarks, more per person than any other State had.  The total worth of this requested treasure chest is $197.8 million.  The money will be made available in next year’s federal budget, according to the website of Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  That does not mean that she is a spendthrift.  Sarah Palin simply knows how to work within the system.

Earmarks are close to sacrosanct in Alaska, which routinely reaps more money per resident for such projects than any other state because of the seniority and aggressiveness of Mr. Stevens and Mr. Young (both now mired in unrelated corruption inquiries.)

Perchance, the possibility of a Vice Presidential nomination gave Sarah Palin reason for change, or the conceivable indictment of Senator Stevens caused the Governor concern.  Sarah Palin has changed.  The Vice Presidential nominee has been publicly critical of requests she, Senator Stevens, and others made for $223 million in federal funds.  

The dollars meant to build a bridge from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Gravina Island, became a source of contention once detractors labeled the project, “the Bridge to Nowhere.”  Governor Palin understood her earlier error.  

As a candidate for Governor in 2006, Sarah Palin supported the bridge and the use of Federal funds to construct it.  After she became the Chief Executive in Alaska, Governor Palin was happy to take the dollars initially intended for the structure.  Sarah Palin stopped the bridge to nowhere!  This Governor knows what it means to build a bridge without the help of big government dollars.  

She said she would use federal funds for other purposes.  Tis true, she changed; and yet, perhaps not as much or as quickly as the soon-to-be President John McCain would have preferred.  Still, Republicans take heart.  Sarah Palin is not at the top of the ticket.  That honor is reserved for Senator McCain.

Still, she is a superior choice for Vice President.  The earmark story shows she can be transformed in a moment.  More importantly, she can transform an assembly of Convention goers and a television audience of millions.  Sarah Palin is the change Republicans can believe in!  She spoke of how Barack Obama had written two memoirs and had not yet authored a governmental Bill.  That statement was powerful.  

The people in the audience at the Republican Convention, as well as television viewers throughout the nation, responded very well to the words of Governor Palin.  Her delivery is what America needs in a President.  This bit bull who wears lipstick can and does perform.  Thankfully, she is no Barack Obama.  Sarah Palin has executive experience.  Barack Obama has only a speech or two to tout, and zero legislation.  That is, unless you consider the reforms that directly address the dreaded earmarks Sarah Palin is so famous for, or the love for lobbyists Sarah Palin and John McCain have each grappled with.  Senator Obama is personally responsible for a litany of laws that might threaten the mavericks who are certainly the candidates of change.

Ethics and Lobbying Reform legislation.
Throughout his political career, Barack Obama has fought for open and honest government.  As an Illinois State Senator, he helped pass the state’s first major ethics reform bill in 25 years.  And as a U.S. Senator, he has spearheaded the effort to clean up Washington in the wake of numerous scandals.

In the first two weeks of the 110th Congress, Senator Obama helped lead the Senate to pass the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act, a comprehensive ethics and lobbying reform bill, by a 96-2 vote. This landmark bill was signed into law by the President in September 2007 . . .

Most importantly, the final reform bill contained a provision pushed by Senator Obama to require the disclosure of contributions that registered lobbyists “bundle” – that is, collect or arrange – for candidates, leadership PACs, and party committees.  The New York Times called this provision “the most sweeping” in the bill, and the Washington Post said: “No single change would add more to public understanding of how money really operates in Washington.”

In January 2006, Senator Obama laid the groundwork for the reform package that the Senate eventually adopted a year later.  He started building a coalition for reform by helping to author the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act introduced with 41 Democratic sponsors. The bill proposed lengthening the cooling off period to two years for lawmakers who seek to become lobbyists and requiring immediate disclosure as soon as public servants initiate any job negotiations to become lobbyists . . . In addition, Senator Obama sponsored three other ethics-related bills in the 109th Congress that went even further on ethics, earmarks, and legislative transparency . . .

Then there was the The Congressional Ethics Enforcement Commission Act.  This bill was widely endorsed by reform groups.  Common Cause: stated, “[T]his legislation would do more to reform ethics and lobbying than any other piece of legislation introduced thus far because it goes to the heart of the problem: enforcement.” Public Citizen extolled Senator Obama “for having the courage to challenge the business-as-usual environment on Capitol Hill and introduce far-reaching legislation.” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington offered commendation. “This is the first bill that deals seriously with the lack of oversight and enforcement in the existing congressional ethics process. . . . This bill will help restore Americans’ confidence in the integrity of Congress.

Senator Barack Obama originated The Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act and The Curtailing Lobbyist Effectiveness through Advance Notification, Updates, and Posting Act (The CLEAN UP Act).

Perchance, there are Bills Barack Obama authored.  Apparently, the Illinois Senator wrote legislation that passed in his home State, and also in the United States Senate.  Nonetheless, Senator Obama lacks the qualifications John McCain and Sarah Palin have.  The change he claims is not as the nimble moves of two rebels might be.  Senator Obama does not know how to tell his tale in a manner that obfuscates truth.  He is not practiced in propaganda.  Nor does he pander as skillfully as the Grand Old Party dissenters do.  

Senator Obama has not divorced himself from his Party, as Sarah Palin and John McCain have.  Barack Obama is not talented in the art of treachery.  On the other hand, his Republican opponents have mastered the craft of change rhetoric.  The McCain Palin twosome can successfully run as Party loyalists, while they claim to be outsiders.  All are in awe, as Americans suspend belief.  Indeed, this pair has changed the election.  Ultimately, the partnership will fix Washington.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama does not compare.  He does not steal slogans or secure multi-million, billion dollar endorsements as well as John McCain and Sarah Palin do.  Barack Obama works to serve the poor, the underclass, and the community.  What can these little people do for him?  Nothing!

Senator Obama is not as slick in the art of deceit and deception.  It is dubious that he can change what he does not understand.  Politics is a game.  People are but pawns.  Perhaps, Joseph Lieberman was correct.  “Barack Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead.  But eloquence is no substitute for a record — not in these tough times.”  

Republicans have faith, Barack Obama needs further training.  It will be a time before he knows how to present the status quo as though it is a true transformation.  The record speaks volumes.  American voters might wish to assess, what sort of change this country can believe in, the illusionary image created with smoke and mirrors or the authentic alteration that comes from within a community well-organized!

The Source of Change . . .