"Sen. [Barack] Obama is more interested in controlling who gets your piece of the pie than he is growing the pie," The Guardian reported McCain saying in Toledo, Ohio.
Conservatives have traditionally owned the subject of taxes. But, a combination of a sour economy and effective strategy on the part of Obama has largely taken that away. The reason I say that is this: no body likes paying higher taxes, and Obama's tax plan verifiably lowers taxes for most Americans - if he means it and can pass it. In essence, Obama took away one of the oldest Republican tools in the book, by being the candidate of lower taxes for the most voters.
But as I state above, McCain has finally found an angle that may just work:
"If I'm elected president, I won't raise taxes on small businesses, as Sen. Obama proposes, and force them to cut jobs," McCain said of his Democratic opponent during a rally at the convention center. "I will keep small business taxes where they are, help them keep their costs low and let them spend their earnings to create more jobs, not send to Washington."
It's an old tact - and one that creates a false choice and obscures the meaning of "small business" - but it's one that Americans are sensitive to and one that has worked many times in the past. McCain has, in recent days, also referred to Obama's plans as "socialist." It's quite a stretch for reasons that I won't get into here, but he bases his claim on Obama's statement about "spreading the wealth around." The charge of "income redistribution," - i.e. taking money from the most "productive" citizens (wealthy) and giving it to the least productive (the needy) - is a line that works well in conservative circles, and some argue, in more centrist circles as well.
And just to be clear, conservatives and liberals don't exactly agree on what constitutes being "productive."
But here is the important thing to watch: the socialism v. trickle-down argument will test the degree to which Americans associate our current economic problems with trickle-down economics, - i.e. lowering taxes on businesses in hopes that the lower rates will encourage investment and lower costs will help businesses create more jobs for all Americans (growing the pie).
What McCain is doing is trying to create the perception that anything to the left of his tax plan, is socialism. Obama has been trying - quite successfully to this point - to create the perception that trickle-down economics has failed us and that McCain's plan is just more naked trickle-down.
The problem with this narrative is that it creates a false choice for us. The choice is not really between socialist-style income redistribution or pure trickle-down economics. Each of their strategies have their perspective benefits and pitfalls.
And while I tend to come down on Obama's side of the argument in this instance - because I believe his plan is less socialist than McCain's plan is trickle-down - the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Even as I right this, the socialism line is finally having an effect on the polls. That effect, in my opinion, is aided by a reduction in the McCain campaign's negativity on the Ayers and ACORN subjects that polls showed angered some voters. I wrongly predicted yesterday that the Powell endorsement would steal headlines today. I was wrong because it is far more interesting to watch one candidate call the other a "socialist," regardless of how idiotic that claim seems to anyone that knows what socialism means (they don't teach that in journalism school).
One thing is for certain, McCain is picking up some steam. But it remains to be seen if it will be enough.
Update: before I forget to go on record, expect to see a tightening in the polls on the subject of who is better to handle the economy. That's all.
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