And now awaiting your approval: Dumb and Dumber

Have you notice the quality of discourse on issues has gone decidedly downhill since the candidates given ‘get home free passes’ by the media during the primary are what we now seem stuck with?  As an economist, I’m still waiting for one of them to actually say something about economic policy other than the usual discourse on taxes and spending.  As a citizen, I’m thinking about building a bomb shelter in my backyard.

I can only second this sentiment by the International Herald Tribune on what small details the two have offered up to date.

“McCain is placating economic conservatives in the Republican party by promising tax cuts that would lead to a fiscal nightmare. Obama is pandering to labor with protectionist threats that would endanger relations with important trading partners.”

The one thing I will point to is this telling Obama candidate-of-change sidebar:

“Obama is backtracking somewhat on Nafta, and if he wins, don’t be surprised if he gives a green light to Democratic congressional leaders to pass the Colombia trade pact in a lame-duck session.”

source:http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/22/america/letter.php

I’m completely buying this one since the FISA sell-out.  Remember we already had the wink, wink, nudge, nudge moment with Goolsbee and the Canadian ambassador as a preview.

I’m just waiting to get my hands on the new issue of Forbes which supposedly has a side-by-side comparison.  I’ve gleaned both of their sites, and believe me, they both supposedly have economic advisors.  Now, if they’d just put forth coherent economic policies I could actually WRITE about.

I was hoping for a little more on the international side, given our foreign policy is in a deplorable state and this is McCain’s supposed forte.  Both seem inadequate although there is a change in direction against Obama coming from, of all places, Europe.  The WaPo, here to date a good member in standing of the Obama pep club has recently started this discussion:

“European officials are increasingly concerned that Sen. Barack Obama‘s campaign pledge to begin direct talks with Iran on its nuclear program without preconditions could potentially rupture U.S. relations with key European allies early in a potential Obama administration.”

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/21/AR2008062101658.html

Oh, great job guys!!  Beat up on Senator Clinton for her pant suits and emasculating use of a microphone, THEN tell us that the hopie changie guy could potentially threaten our relations with allies.  Way to go!

Meanwhile, Senator Obama has managed to be endorsed by every tinpot dictator remaining on the planet while garnering heavy criticism from even the European press for undermining the ongoing diplomacy on Iran and its nuclear weapons development.   I have several things I want to share with you on this front.  The first is an appalling Gaddafi video discussing the importance of an Obama presidency.  Savage politics has an excellent blog providing a great analysis on this development. (http://savagepolitics.com/?p=797) so I’ll point you in that direction for more on him.

At last count, Fidel Castro, Kim Jon Il, Obama’s Kenyan cousin, Hamas, and Muammar al-Gaddafi are all giddy on Obama.  Maybe they all have the same koolaid supplier as Obamba or maybe they see that some one so incredibly in over their head has to give them some kind of advantage. Castro did have one small bone to pick with Obama saying “When he was a candidate, he of course committed the error of yearning for “a democratic Cuba.”  Well, I guess Wright, Ayers, Farahkhan, and Pflegle didn’t completely capture Obama’s attention for 20 years.  Maybe he can take a few pointers from cousin Odingo who appears completely ready to embrace his cousin.  This nugget  is from the BBC.

“Barack Obama’s cousin Raila Odingo (a radical Muslim African Arab) planned and executed the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Kenya’s Rift Valley.”

Which leads me to a sidebar question:  If Obama is supposedly a Black American, why is Odingo, his cousin doing ethnic cleansing on native Africans?   This only makes sense if Odingo is ethnically an Arab which would implies that Obama isn’t actually a Black American but an Arab American. I frankly don’t care what his ethnicity actually is because I’ve had it with identity politics, but it brings up a larger question of why Obama would pose as an African American if he’s an Arab American?

Now, we have Bomb Bomb Iran McCain’s advisors doing the 9-11 re-shuffle.  Charlie Black plays the wow, what if we get attacked again card and comes up with McCain wins. This is our war-hero candidate who is supposed THE ONE with foreign policy creds and shouldn’t need surrogates dropping 9-11 references. This happens after the we had found out that McCain’s strategest Peter Madigan was a lobbiest for, of all places, IRAN. McCain is using Bush’s play book a little too much for comfort.

“In an interview with the Atlantic in late May, McCain said that “Iran is hell-bent on the destruction of Israel, they’re hell-bent on driving us out of Iraq, they’re hell-bent on supporting terrorist organizations, and as serious as anything to American families, they’re sending explosive devices into Iraq that are killing American soldiers.” In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee this month, McCain again mocked Obama’s willingness to enter into dialogue with the Iranians, saying, “The idea that they now seek nuclear weapons because we refused to engage in presidential-level talks is a serious misreading of history.”

source: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/06/19/mccain_iran/index.html?source=rss

Again, if sanctions and saber-rattling were working so well, we’d have settled this issue already.  McCain needs to voice some real options here or be defined as the third Bush term.

Can we find some kind of policy that doesn’t include threatening all out war or suggesting it’s okay for a President to talk to ANY of these jerks without preconditions?  Is there any one in either of these campaigns that can get these guys a really quick lesson on diplomacy and international relations?  Both of them seem to be clueless and we can’t seem to get the press to go after either of them at the same time on this.

Is this really the best leadership we can offer the world?  Haven’t we done enough damage with 8 years of a president completely in over his head?   Do we need four more years of cluelessness?