UNBIASED ASSESSMENT OF McCAIN-PALIN RHETORICS

I heard both McCain and Palin's Nov 1 campaign speeches. I heard with an open mind, and memorised the key points. Mentioning them below, and the questions that immediately came to my mind in their context is written in Red within brackets alongside:

McCain: "Obama is a re-distributor of wealth; I will help create wealth." (Q: How does McCain propose to do that? No hint of that from Mc, or any explanation about his strategy)

McCain: "Obama will increases taxes on you; I will reduce taxes." (Q: What did Mc mean by 'you'? Did he mean all the middle class folks standing in the crowd? Is Obama going to tax every middle class earner, or, just the people having annual income more than $200,000? Will Mc's tax reduction be significant for middle class, or will it benefit the rich more? Mc does not shed any light on this aspect)

McCain: "Obama's tax policy will impose taxes on 50% of small businesses, like that of Joe-the-Plumber." (Q: Is the 50% figure accurate? On what basis Mc said 50%? Do 50% of all small businesses in US really earn more than $200,000 annually?! Btw, Joe-the-Plumber is not a small entrepreneur, nor does he plan to buy one, and Joe's annual income is not even $80,000; so, how is Joe-the-Plumber going to be impacted by Omaba's tax policy?)

Palin: "Joe-the-Plumber got Obama to state in very simple terms what he (BO) is going to do - Obama is going to re-distribute wealth, like socialism". (Q: Is increasing taxes on higher income brackets, and decreasing taxes on middle class 're-distribution' of wealth? Can this be characterised as socialism? Graduated tax rates, i.e., higher tax rates on higher taxable income is something very common in various G-7 and other OECD countries. Is Canada or Japan or Germany or Italy a socialist country?! Then what is Palin talking about when she says Obama is going to spread 'socialism?!)

McCain: "Palin and I will drain the Washington swamp." (Who or what is Mc referring to as 'swamp' in Washington? Does he mean - economic mess, trillion dollar deficit, collapsing health care, and so on? Well, all this happened and/or got exacerbated during the last 8 years of Bush tenure. And, McCain supported Bush 90% of times; so, which swamp will he clean? Does he mean to say that he will clean himself - his own brain? Isn't it all contradictory?)

In summary, from the analysis of campaign statements of McLin coming just 3 days before the election, I am not finding anything in their rhetoric that tells the American people about their plans, about what they are going to do. Instead, their whole rhetoric simply revolves around how 'bad' is Obama and his plans.

To any thinking, discerning, rational voter the above would immediately convey that McCain-Palin have nothing substantive to offer which will really help the larger sections of the population (i.e. middle-class). In fact, if one reads their statements carefully, quite often they are found to be deriding themselves (e.g. 'draining the Washington swamp').

If one takes in to account the inaccuracies/gaffes committed by McCain and Palin and juxtaposes with the above analysis, one would come to the inescapable conclusion that these Republican candidates are totally incompetent, unqualified, intellectually deficient for the posts they are running for.

On top of that if you place the recent indictment of Palin in 'Troopergate' incident, her connections with black magic, McCain's recent actions with regard to handling of US economic crisis, you will shudder (unless you are a blind and irrational McLin supporter) to visualize America's future in the hands of these two incompetent persons.

The question is: would the American people like to see the beginning of America's decline by electing McPalin? Well, this is a decision only the American people can make. Hope they will pause and invest their full wisdom before making this decision!

WILL FREE-MARKET SUPPORTERS PLEASE SHUT UP!

John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, is trying to paint his Democrat rival as a socialist by saying that Obama's so-called "spreading the wealth" phrase essentially aims to kill capitalism in US. What McCain is trying to do is to scare American voters in whose psyche 'capitalism' resides at a sub-conscious level.

Not that every American understands the nuances of capitalism, free market theories or what socialism actually means but probably every American equates uncontrolled free enterprise with capitalism and somehow thinks that it is synonymous of democracy. And, when the Arizona senator creates the sceptre of socialism in his speeches he is trying to touch that part of American psyche and create a fearful revulsion in the voters' minds.

It is a good tactic for McCain, and it may work to some extent. But if this guy really believes in "Country First", he should understand that the so-called free-market mechanism without any oversight has brought US to this economic cataclysmic state. First, let us quickly recap what one of the staunchest supporter of unregulated free-market said the other day.

Alan Greenspan, who was Fed Chairman from 1987-2006, while deposing in front of US House of Representative's Government Oversight committee on Oct 23 acknowledged under questioning that he had made a “mistake” in believing that banks, operating in their own self-interest, would do what was necessary to protect their shareholders and institutions. Greenspan called that “a flaw in the model ... that defines how the world works.”

He went to admit that the "flaw" in the assumptions he used over the past 40 years were that banks and other financial institutions were best able to protect the interest of their shareholders.

The financial crisis even prompted the Republican Greenspan, a cheer leader for free markets, to propose that government consider tougher regulations, including requiring financial firms that package mortgages into securities to keep a portion as a check on quality. He said other regulatory changes should be considered, too, in such areas as fraud.

Now, let me mention some relevant excerpts of what the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, said at the Asian-European leaders' meet on Oct 23. Singh, a noted economist himself, stated:

"The international financial crisis has resulted from three failures:
(a) A regulatory and supervisory failure in major developed countries;
(b) A failure in risk management in private financial institutions;
(c) A failure in market discipline mechanism
These are not my views but those of the distinguished Managing Director of the IMF, with which I agree. We must analyse objectively how and why these failures have occurred with such ferocity. This is necessary to put in place a new set of rules which will prevent recurrence of such failures. The sad truth is that in this age of globalisation we have a global economy of sorts but it is not supported by a global polity to provide effective governance."

What the aforementioned people - Greenspan and Dr. Singh - are essentially trying to say is: stop the chest thumping stentorian pro-free market assertions; recognise the inherent greed in human psychology and put in place mechanisms that will prevent such financial melt-downs.

What is said above does NOT by any means usher in socialism, nor does it mean that capitalism is moving towards ultimate death, all this means is - for God's sakes don't remove the referees from the hockey game and allow the players to regulate themselves, the result will be chaos on the ice!

I am not sure McCain, who is intellectually challenged, will understand all that is stated above. On his part, the Republican candidate, who has his back to the walls, will clutch on to anything by which he can scare the voters away from the Democrat nominee. 'Scare the voters' tactics has been used by Republican in the past, they are trying this again.

Do the American voters see through the Republican tactics? I don't know for sure. But one hopes for America's sake that they do. Because, if they don't they will end up with a Prez and a Veep who are a disastrous combination of senility, dis-ingenuity, shamelessness, pathological abhorrence for truth, one-upmanship, utter lack of intellectual ability and gargantuan incompetence. God help America!