Leadership (OR Asking the wrong questions)

Do you remember those goofy McCain ads that would end by asking whether Sen. Obama was ready to lead?

I always thought that question was a little odd, since Sen. McCain doesn’t necessarily posess any demonstrable leadership experience. At the same time, Sen. Obama was at the head of a campaign that was being hailed as the largest, most impressive, expansive, organized campaign ever. And, as much as it was disparaged, Sen. Obama’s ability to “give a good speech” motivated thousand of volunteers throughout the country, and hundreds of thousands to attend his rallies, and millions to donate to his campaign. Isn’t all of this indicative of Sen. Obama’s leadership qualities?

Why do I bring this up?

Because, in contrast to the Obama campaign, which seems a clear demonstration of Sen. Obama’s leadership, the McCain campaign, is imploding:

“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said this McCain adviser. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.

“Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”

Marc Ambinder adds:

Another senior McCain at e-mailed: “It is beyond disappointing to see the backstabbing and blame game beginning ten days before the election.  There is still a path to victory for us and we have two great candidates who are working their asses off every day in pursuit of a win.”

This doesn’t strike me as an organization that is being well led. This seems like a reflection of an organization led by a an inconsistent, irrational, selfish man.

So, is Sen. McCain ready to lead?

Similar Pictures (OR Visual Confirmation of Suckiness)

As I indicated in my last post, there seems to be a whole bunch of stuff going on. I’m just too busy to actually relay or think about much of it…  Instead, I’ll give you some graphs to admire.

Why these graphs? Well, I think most of them convey facts and tidbits worth knowing…  and because I was struck by how similar they look.

Lacking a thread to tie them together, I’ll go In chronological order:

First, Matt references a graph from Kevin Drum, and then goes on to make a point that I made to Dave last week: “Wages for average people are, on some level, the real fundamentals of the economy. And simply put, they haven’t been growing.” This is something I’ve written about before. Anyway, here’s a picture:

Matt follows that up with an eerily similar graph from Hilzoy:

Does it strike anyone as odd that both graphs have the same general shape, and cover the same general timeframe? No, I didn’t figure it would…

Then, from the Wonk Room at ThinkProgress, comes this comparative graph:

So, the light blue line is analogous to the time frame in the first two graphs. Not only did the median wage decrease in that time (which is, oddly enough, coincident with Bush Administration), but there was also a lower percentage of the working age population with jobs. Take a glance at the first graph again. GDP growth is through the roof, but not only was the median worker not seeing any of it, there were fewer workers as a percentage of population.

Now, someone tell me why Sen. McCain (and his apparently blindly loyal followers) think “spreading the weath” is a bad thing? We’ve seen 8 years of not spreading the wealth, and if these graphs are to be believed, just about all of us are getting screwed.

Tired (OR Just hang on…)

I’ve found it difficult to find the motivation to post here lately. It’s certainly been difficult to get my brain to shift from overactive geek mode (thanks to some time consuming, but exciting, stuff at work…  and some at home geekery that I’ll be telling you all about shortly) to political commentary mode. But it’s not just that…

Every day that goes by, I have a harder and harder time imagining two things:

1) How anyone could still be undecided in this presidential campaign? Seriously, these two candidates are, to me, so far apart on just about any spectrum that I can’t envision a place in the middle where someone could reside. Sen. Obama is probably a bit more liberal than Pres. Clinton was, and Sen. McCain seems more conservative than Pres. Bush. Sen. Obama is young, inspirational, rational, and intellectual. Sen. McCain is old, cranky, irrational, and stubborn. What does this place where undecided voters reside look like?

2) How can anyone vote for Sen. McCain? Every thing he and his campaign do seem geared towards getting elected. Obvious, right? But listen to the candidates…  Sen. Obama spends lots of time talking about what he would do, and how he would act, were he president. Sen. McCain spends lots of time talking about why you should elect him (“Sen. Obama doesn’t understand” … “Sen. Obama is un-American” …  “I’m a maverick”). It seems like Sen. McCain’s goal is to be elected president. Sen. Obama’s, in contrast, is to be what he considers a good president. Beyond that, I just don’t understand how anyone (other than, perhaps, the 5% of America earning more that $250,000 a year) can believe that Sen. McCain’s policies are in their best interests. Want to lose your health care? Want to continue to encourage the continued destructive use of fossil fuels? Want to see even more government protections and personal freedoms destroyed? Want to further damage our already significantly tarnished image throughout the world? Want to place our nation at further risk by fostering a fertile recruiting ground for our enemies? Vote for McCain.

I feel like I’m torn between wanting to believe that the Obama campaign is right, that Americans are smarter than the McCain campaign seems to believe, and feeling like Bill Maher is right: Americans are dumb.

Still, even if I’m not sure that Maher is right in that case, he is right that we get the government we deserve.

I think it’s time to hope that we realize we deserve better.

Tax Plans (OR The Devil in the Details)

Via Ezra comes this nifty little page that will estimate tax changes based on income tiers. I’d seen this before, but didn’t look that closely. At first glance, it’s about what you’d expect at each tier. When you compare tiers, though, the inequity is painfully clear.

For a single filer, no dependants, Sen. McCain won’t offer a tax break larger than $100 until you make $100,000, where Sen. Obama will offer 7 to 8 times that for people making 10 time less.

For those people making $10,000 to $15,000, Sen. McCain offers less than $20 off their current taxes. Twenty dollars! That’s one dinner at Applebee’s a year. Sen. Obama’s $700-$800 could pay for a couple months of rent.

On the other hand, Sen. McCain’s plan seems to encourage lots of kids for middle income families:

Married, two earners, no dependents, $50,000: -$40
Married, two earners, 2 dependents, $50,000: -$760

I could go on, but you get the picture. If you have some time, play around a bit…

Maddow (OR Yay! Liberals on TV)

I just wanted to take a moment and say how much I’m enjoying being able watch Rachel Maddow. There was a while there where I’d hope she’d appear on Olbermann’s show so I could catch 3 minutes of her insight.

Now, I get to watch her show 5 nights a week (‘cuz MSNBC doesn’t provide a podcast).

Lately, she’s been doing an excellent job of focusing on Gov. Palin’s alleged abuse of power in Alaska. There are, of course, many other place to find information on the details, bt I think it’s important to remember something:

The only reason this is a national story is because a political hack, who happens to be running for President, looking for a running mate about whom his “base” can get excited, decided to pick an untested, unvetted, Governor.

Is Gov. Palin facing the music? Potentially. But that’s really not the story. The story is that Sen. McCain selected a running mate with this sort potential scandal hanging over her head.

These needs to come back to bite Sen. McCain in the ass.

“Strong” (OR How can you vote for this guy?)

In case you missed the headlines today:

In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself on Sunday to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy protection and hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer.

Robert Reich:

Ironically, a free-market-loving Republican administration is presiding over the most ambitious intrusion of government into the market in almost anyone’s memory. But to what end? Bailouts, subsidies, and government insurance won’t help Wall Street because the Street’s fundamental problem isn’t lack of capital. It’s lack of trust.

The sub-prime mortgage mess triggered it, but the problem lies much deeper. Financial markets trade in promises — that assets have a certain value, that numbers on a balance sheet are accurate, that a loan carries a limited risk. If investors stop trusting the promises, Wall Street can’t function.

Paul Krugman:

The stock market isn’t doing as badly as one might have feared — although it’s just broken below Dow 11,000 as I write. But Felix Salmon suggests that we look at my old standby, the TED spread, shown above — and it’s looking kinda spiky. All in all, way too soon to conclude that we won this game of Russian roulette.

Holy um, stuff! I go out to get a cup of tea and suddenly it’s Black Monday.

Sen. John McCain:

I think still — the fundamentals of our economy are strong.

Sure Fire Win (OR Campaign Ploys Are Fun)

I saw this wacky claim from Sen. McCain that he knows how to capture/kill Osama bin Laden. I almost immediately dismissed it as another campaign ploy.

Keith Olbermann, in his Special Comment tonight, tore into Sen. McCain for not sharing his method/knowledge/etc now and using it to “blackmail” the electorate.

Somewhere in there, it occured to me that if Sen. McCain did have a surefire way to capture/kill bin Laden and he wanted to win the election (which seems pretty safe to say), he would find a way to initiate the capture/kill and take credit for it. Seriously, if he could do it, and do it in such a way that there was no, or little, doubt that he was responsible, he would win this election.

So, if Sen. McCain is saying he can, but he isn’t, then he really can’t.

Running thoughts (OR Huh?)

Mr. Keating Five fought corruption?

How, exactly, did Gen. Petraeus get elevated to, apparently, the best General this country has ever seen?

McCain fights for me by kicking me in the groin and laughing at me while insisting that it’s making it me stronger.

Says C: Because that’s what he learned after he crashed and was taken prisoner, so we all need to learn it too; can we all have his millions afterward?

Wait, Republicans had principles?

Mr. Drill Here, Drill Now thinks Sen. Obama is Big Oil’s pocket?

We believe in not sharing and controlling your personal lives.

He’ll make more choices available, unless that choice is to marry someone of the same gender, or abort an unwanted child.

I’m John McCain and I will state some things as fact without any sort of evidence, proof, or rationale. My audience will accept them all as truth and “boo” accordingly.

Wait a second…  did Sen. McCain just explain something resembling a policy proposal (worker retraining)? That seems a little out of place. He didn’t explain how he’d pay for it though, since he just said he’d cut government spending.

I wish I had a blue elephant hat. No, wait. I don’t.

So, Sen. McCain just espoused, essentially, a Democratic energy plan (with a large sampling of “Drill baby, drill”) and the Republicans lemmings cheered. Does drilling matter to the people that much? Is it impossible for them to see how short sighted clinging to oil is?

There it is! That’s why Sen. McCain picked Gov. Palin. Russia is trying to rebuild an empire by invading neighboring countries to control their oil. Alaska is, as Cindy McCain told us, right next to Russia…  it’s obvious that we’re next! Gov. Palin, though, will be able use her extensive experience in Alaska to rally the polar bears and penguins to withstand the furious Russian assault.

I hate war, and want to keep other families from sending their parents and children to new wars. But, I’m a militaristic man with a temper, so don’t hold me to that.

Sen. McCain wants to change the way everything in Washington is done, to invent in infrastructure, in our children, in each other…   Just like the Democrats have been trying to do for decades.

“Let’s use the best ideas from both sides”…  just like I’m stealing all these ideas from the Democrats and this vision from Sen. Obama.

Wow. Sen. McCain really does hate to talk about his POW experience. He’s certainly speaking hesitantly, and emotionally about it…  oh wait, no he’s not. It really is a remarkable story, and Sen. McCain claims to have learned some lessons from it. But, really…  what does it have to with being President?

“My country saved me” …  cool. Now, save your country by conceding the Presidency now.

“If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you’re dissapointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. [...] Run for public office.”  Just like Sen. Obama has done and is doing? Seriously, does he not see that connection?

OK, I know there aren’t many ways to convey the conflict of ideas, of the struggle we all undertake to improve our selves, our situation, our station, but do we have to cache everything as “fight”? Fight for this, fight for that…  Are we really that pugnacious of a society?

And, it’s over. Phew. I made it. My TV survived.

Disconnect (OR Inside the Republican Mind)

Marc Ambinder had a couple nuggets today from the McCain campaign that deserve comment.

First:

McCain will focus on the battles he’s had with his party and make the contrast: has Obama ever taken on his party when it was politically inexpedient?

This is one of those things that the McCain camp seems to bring up often, as though it’s a badge of honor. Look, it’s really easy to oppose Republican policies and ideas. It can be really easy to find an issue to oppose the GOP on and, simultaneously, appeal to the vast majority of Americans. I think it’s, generally, much harder to do the same with Democratic policies. Taking on a party that is generally wrong almost can’t be politically inexpedient, by definition.

Next:

[The McCain Campaign] insist[s] that no one knows what a community organizer is, and whatever they think it is, it doesn’t compare to being a mayor.

[...]

Indeed, the Obama campaign knows that many Americans don’t know what a community organizer does, and they’ve changed the way they refers to Obama’s experience too. When he talks about community organizing now, he references his organizing work for churches. That embeds the work in a more familiar context. Inner city Catholics know what community organizers do, certainly.

So, if we accept that “inner city Catholics” know what community organizers do, and further posit that many church goes at least have an inkling of the same, doesn’t that really leave “elite” urban and suburbanites as the only people who don’t know? Doesn’t that mean that the McCain campaign is appealing to the same “elites” of which they claim Sen. Obama is a member?

Maybe it’s just me.

Assorted Thoughts (OR Changing Gears)

Rumor has it, the Republicans are holding some sort of large gathering right now… I’m pretty sure you can watch it on any major network. What I doubt you can see is any coverage whatsoever of the emerging police state around the aforementioned large gathering.

I don’t know this for sure because there’s a family tennis rivalry to watch tonight, and the much anticipated NFL opener tomorrow. Essentially, the world has provided me with ample excuse to not watch the Republicans espouse, with astounding enthusiasm, policies, philosophies, and ideas with which I completely disagree.

For example: tonight’s theme is “Prosperity.” Just think about that for a minute. The same party that has presided over 2 recessions in 8 years, that has pushed policies to encourage the creation of the housing bubble which has lead to trillions of dollars of lost wealth, that continues to endorse economic policies that will further exacerbate the gap between the “haves” and “have nots”, that same party is going to talk about prosperity? Seriously?

——-

Other random thoughts:

- The biggest win for Sen. McCain with his VP selection is that no one is really talking about him, his unpopular policies, cranky personality, or his uninspiring candidacy. Even if the news is mixed about Gov. Palin, there certainly isn’t a lot of negative talk around Sen. McCain (outside of his apparent lack of vetting his VP selection)

- Google has release a new web browser. Wil is uncertain about the EULA. My thoughts are mixed. But, the comic that tells the back story of the browser is very cool.

- In my never ending quest to find the media play that best fits my needs, I have currently settled on WinAmp. MediaMonkey had its perks, but the Library navigation was always a bit cumbersome. When playing with Linux, Amarok seemed best, but it’s not yet the complete package. By the same token, neither is Songbird, but it seems oh-so-close to being a simple media player/manager. Not a do-everything-and-make-your-breakfast application. I’m going to keep an eye on that one.

- In other software news, the free MagicDisc portion of MagicISO is really handy. Anyone who deals with .iso files on a regular basis should download and install it right now.