I'm Helping, Dontchaknow?

Sarah Palin has saved McCain's campaign, and McCain is ahead in the polls. McCain could win this election by a landslide. Oh wait, my apologizes, good people. What I meant to say was that Sarah Palin looks as if she has done more harm than good to the McCain Campaign.

Recent studies by a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Sunday indicated that Palin has steadily been growing less popular among voters and may be costing McCain the election. With such a close race, it makes one think about what might have happened if McCain had chosen someone else? Democrats rejoice at the news of this survey, while Republicans are disappointed at the results.

Who would have thought that a Governor from Alaska, with little to no experience or qualifications for the Vice-Presidency would have generated bad beat? That someone who cannot speak for herself publicly, people tell her what to say, confuses her, and then she doesn't know what is what anymore, would create such a fuss and would potentially cost McCain the election.

Palin's popularity rating may prove to be the cause of McCain's downward spiral, but this is just one survey. Perhaps more surveys will pop up, but as of now, it could only possibly be suggested that Palin dragged McCain down with her.

Powell Supports Obama

Although it wasn't unexpected, former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell's public endorsement of Obama will undoubtedly hurt McCain's chances in the election coming up in just a few weeks.

Powell said that he noticed uncertainty in the way that McCain claimed he would deal with the economic crisis, as he would change his plan constantly. Powell also expressed his concern on McCain's choice for Vice President, Sarah Palin, saying "I don't believe she's ready to be the President of the United States." Furthermore, he believes that the scope of the Republican party has been getting "narrower and narrower" and further to the right, and Powell also expressed his dissatisfaction with the way that McCain attacked Obama for being a terrorist. In response to accusations of Obama being Muslim, Powell further hurts the McCain campaign with his argument that first of all, Obama has always been a Christian, and also, there isn't anything wrong with being Muslim in the first place.

In contrast, he noticed a "steadiness" and "depth of knowledge" in Obama, and believed that his pick for Vice President was indeed ready to be President. He also believed Obama had a very broad reach, "He's crossing lines." He is the "new generation."

McCain had better be worried that other Republicans are feeling this way too.

And no, Colin Powell is not voting for Obama because they are both black. You wish.

A New Leader in Israel?

The Israeli-Palestinian crisis is notorious for half-peaces and broken ceasefires. It seems that if one side gets it together, the other side breaks down. Right now, as The Economist notes, both sides are in a funk. The Palestinians are split between the Islamist Hamas and the secularist and moderate Fatah. The Israelis' prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is resigning over a corruption scandal. Thus, new leadership is needed in Israel. I agree that Tzipi Livni, the curent Israeli foreign minister, is probably the best person for the job. Shrewd and tough, she is not a hawk. I have always thought that moderation is necessary, especially with such a contentious conflict as the one in Holy Land, and she probably has the chutzpah to do what is right.

Now, to tie this back to American politics, I think this is one more reason to elect Barack Obama. As a Jew, it is constantly assumed that because of this fact, I am an unconditional supporter of the Israeli government. I am not. While I do support Israel, I am not Israeli and have no Israeli heritage. I support Israel no more than I do Britain or France or Japan; countries I have respect and sympathy for, but not ones I am actually from. I say this because I believe the unconditonal support American leaders give to Israel begets many of the problems there. While Islamist extremism and terrorism is never justifiable (and I do not respect the legitimacy of Hizbollah, Hamas, or their ilk), that does not mean that Israeli excess is justifiable. And, similarly, while I prefer American politicians that support Isarel to those that oppose it, supporting Israel unconditonally is dangerous. In the heat of battle and public opinion (as well as a fair number of hawks in the ruling coalition), Israel often makes mistakes. Instead of pressuring Israel to rectify these, American leaders, fearful of losing the Jewish vote (think Florida), simply remain silent, giving tacit support to even some of Israel's dumbest mistakes. This only antagonizes Palestinian extremists even more. I fear this is what John McCain would do. John McCain knows no nuance in diplomacy. He hastily atagonizes Russia, Iran, and others even when it does not help the situation. And while Obama too is a supporter of Israel, he understands nuanced diplomacy and the neccesity to be able to broker peace talks between all sides in the conflict.

Simply put, McCain would not be neutral enough to be able to negotiate peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. He supports Israel too much. If you want peace in Israel and Palestine to move forward, John McCain is not your man.

Why McCain/Palin Supporters Should Be Ashamed

The article basically says it all but in short--the McCain/Palin campaign is doing a disservice to the country by not only blatantly lying to the country (about taxes, Obama, and the Bridge to Nowhere), but is distracting from the real issues. We need to pick leaders who know the issues, and just because this is a weak-point for the GOP ticket does not mean that they should shirk from them (case in point: Palin did not know what the Bush Doctrine was on the ABC interview tonight--this is a basic tenet of the Bush foreign policy that led to the Iraq War; if you do not know what it is, you should not be on the National Security Council!).

A Bone for the GOP (but why it doesn't really hurt Obama)

Though I think I've made it obvious who I support, there are some more conservative positions I do find more correct. One of them is pretty much the only opposing viewpoint I have with Obama and it has to do with taxes. I do like Obama's income tax plan: cutting taxes for 95% of people. But, his plan to possibly raise the corporate income tax is quite dangerous. America already has one of the world's highest corporate tax rates--to keep America competitive, it would be counterproductive to raise it. It should in fact be lowered.

However, I promised to also throw a bone back to Obama in my title. You see, thankfully, Obama is not really as liberal in economics as he appears. During the primaries, he was battling Hillary, who while liberal, espouses the Third Way of the Democratic Party (basically socially liberal, but believers in the free market except when there are market failures like environmental damage or labor abuse). He had to go to her left in order to beat her. And right now, he is trying to pander to the American working class which is regretfully anti-free trade. But, Obama is not stupid and he realizes free trade and free markets are inevitable and even to be welcomed. In short, once he shores up his base, he will once again revert to a sensible view on the economy. And this will take away most of the advantage on the issue McCain has now in the long-run once people realize what he truly stands for.

NOTE: The article link in the title is a bit lengthy, but accurately represents both sides' economic policies. Judge for yourselves, but I think you'll see that Obama's is better.

Repeating Past Mistakes

Watching the Republican National Convention this week, one could get a sense of high drama. Betrayal by the federal government. A need for change. John McCain, help us! Yet funnily, this party that is so gung-ho on change has had, well, only eight years to do it in. Yes, as some Republicans will argue, the last two years the Democrats had Congress, but they still had George Bush in the White House. Why didn't he propose any of this change we're all hearing about? What was his energy plan? His education plan? His plan for the economy? Why didn't he reform Washington, as John McCain now seeks to do?

 

The answer, sadly, bodes ill for our country if John McCain beats Barack Obama in the fall. You see, eight years ago, a western Republican ran for office as a Washingotn outsider, a reformer, a bipartisan player. And he turned out to be George W. Bush, who has been anything but the aforementioned descriptions. Instead, he and the GOP have dangerously led this country to war, ignored global warming, remained obstinate on creating a new energy policy, let the environment be trashed away, and allowed the current mortage meltdown to unfold. Meanwhile, Social Security remains unfixed, health care continues in its sorry state, and No Child Left Behind maintains its strangehold on public schools. And, John McCain is even more hawkish than the man that brought us the mess in Iraq. To think that such a similar GOP candidate is now practically tied in the polls with Sen. Obama and has decent chance of winning the presidency, is, well, frightening.