An election rant

I have a quick election rant to go on.

When this election started, I genuinely liked both candidates. I liked Obama's perspective and his composure and his thoughtful approach to things. I liked McCain's devotion to his principles and his toughness and his willingness to do what is right, regardless of the cost. I felt like each party did a good job of putting forth someone that gave us some good reasons to vote for them

But seriously...what the fuck happened? Where did it all go so wrong?

McCain, the man of principle, is totally off the rails. Suddenly, the long-time, devoted, solid conservative who believed in small government, personal responsibility, government accountability and free markets is calling for the government to guarantee people's home values? And he has a program for everything? Whatever happened to "No, that's not our responsibility"? I feel like he alternates between trying to sell out to the right and trying to sell out to the middle.

His campaign has lost all focus and it can't even organize its thoughts around attacking the other guy. Are we getting after him for raising taxes? Or for being inexperienced? Or for associating with bad people? Make up your minds... And, for someone who has been a media darling for most of his career to cry foul because the Networks, cable news stations and newspapers love the super-liberal is, well...tacky.

As for Obama, you are going to have to excuse me for not drinking the Kool-aid, but I like very little of what comes out of his mouth. Let's talk about his tax policy proposal for a second.

He wants to raise the highest marginal rates...fine (just stop talking about "fairness"...it is an arbitrary term, and totally not applicable to ANY part of our tax code). He wants to raise capital gains taxes, and estate taxes and some others, fine. I have a problem with his basic theory that all of our problems can be solved by taxing the rich, but whatever...it is a philosophy (although, let's be honest, raising taxes on the super wealthy just leads to more tax shelters. You want to tax the rich? Simplify the tax code.)

But what of this "tax cuts for 95% of Americans"? As stated before, most Americans do not pay any income taxes. In fact, about a third of workers (i.e., people with an income) pay no income taxes. Or negative income taxes. What is a negative income tax? Well, it is simple...imagine you earn, say $10,000, and you have $1,000 withheld from your paycheck. In April, when you files your tax return, you are refunded your entire $1,000 because you are in a 0% bracket (ignore the numbers...they are rounded). But, you also get the Earned Income Credit, which is a check for a couple of hundred dollars above and beyond what you have been refunded.

And this is how he gets to his 95% number. He is calling for more people to pay no income tax, and for more people to pay negative income taxes and for a higher payout to those paying negative income taxes. In my book, that is not a tax refund, it is not a tax rebate, it is not a tax credit...that is welfare. Plain and simple. And it will undo one of Bill Clinton's major accomplishments (he did an excellent job of getting people off of welfare).

For supporters of both sides, I would ask you...do you really know what your candidate believes in? And do his proposed actions match those beliefs? Not "Obama wants change" or "McCain is a war hero"...I mean their actual core beliefs as they will translate into actions.

So, how did we get here? When we started this, we had two candidates. One was a dynamic young healer with a fresh perspective, a sharp mind and mountains of potential. The other was a grounded war hero with strong convictions and a proven moral and political compass.

And now we are somehow left with a Quasi-Socialist calling for a massive increase in the size of the welfare state, and a suddenly rudderless political appeaser who has forgotten what he is supposed to stand for or believe in.

Can Presidential politics really poison people this much?