My thoughts, upgraded.

I saw this article on MSNBC.com, originally from the New York Times. It is an interesting read, evidently Barack Obama was a super smart lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School (disclaimer, I am a grad of the Chicago GSB), who was a great speaker, able to debate ideas with the best of them, and he never stated a position that could hurt him. I think it is this last point that could derail him.

If you look at the issues page of his campaign site, he has the same generic Democratic ideas that have been watered down to appeal to the Center. Here’s the deal, if I wanted someone to peddle Democratic Ideas to me, I would have voted for Gore, or Kerry. The thing is, is that I think Barack is capable of the “REALLY BIG IDEAS” (Prof. Gould, I did pay attention in class), and I would change my vote Barack if he would express them. Instead I get: I’ve got change you can believe in, the same tripe the Democrats have been shilling for 20 years, but dressed up in flowery rhetoric. I don’t want that.

I want: I am going to change the tax structure by raising income tax, but lowering corporate taxes. The tax revenue will remain neutral until corporations start paying out more of the earnings they are keeping. You see, the trickle down people almost had it right, if you lower the tax rate on businesses they grow, but because they aren’t people they don’t hold onto cash. They spend the cash either as dividends, as capital investments, or increases to salaries. Which every way they choose GDP grows, people have more money, and the tax base growth increases tax revenues. If you charge people one or two percent more of the income in taxes, but increase their wealth by three, four, ten percent, their happier. It’s a win-win.

On a related note, I’m glad John McCain (my boy) said that everything was on the table for Social Security, even payroll taxes. I’ve been DAMN tired of him being a shill for the tired old Republican line. In 2000, McCain was the man of un-assailable integrity who had big ideas to run the country by. The only ‘maverick’ idea he’s kept is giving amnesty to the 12 million illegal immigrants that are here. (I’m going to go out on a limb and say I support that, too) Allowing a discussion about raising the payroll tax to facilitate talks to craft a common-sense solution seems like a GOOD thing, not a right-wing thing, but a good thing. It is good to see that McCain isn’t tied to trying to be Mr. Traditional Republican 100% of the time.

So, to conclude, McCain still has my vote because he has expressed his big ideas before, and might agian reclaim them; rather Barack Obama might eventually express his big ideas once he gets the job. I guess a bird in hand beats two in the bush.

Later,

B