McCain's Counter to Obama's Acceptance Speech

I'm not sure what to make of Obama's speech last night. In many ways, he did exactly what I asked for last night. He put some meat on his bones and yet kept the speech lively. The most ironic thing for me was that in analyzing the speech afterwards on Fox News, it was the two traditional conservatives, Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer, that defended the speech the most. It was the rest of the panel, Nina Easton and Juan Williams, that took the biggest shots at it. I am not sure what this means besides an interesting antedote to the claim that Fox News is some right wing extension.

That said, the speech left plenty of room for the McCain campaign to counter. First, while Obama did lay out an agenda, it was vague and often wishful thinking. For instance, he said that not only would everyone have health insurance, but even those currently with health care will have their costs reduced. How does he plan to do this? He didn't say and likely doesn't know. He said that he would cut costs by closing corporate loopholes. Well, the Alternative Minimum Tax was supposed to close a loophole and turned into a diaster. So, what are these loopholes? How will closing them wind up any better than the debacle of the Alternative Minimum Tax? He said that he wouldn't raise taxes on 95% of the American people, but he plans on raising taxes on capital gains. Half the people own stocks and would have taxes raised on gains on any of these stock transactions. He said that he would end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and create tax breaks for companies that keep their jobs here. How would he do this? What are these tax breaks and incentives? Isn't raising the corporate tax encouraging all corporations to take their business elsewhere? Barack Obama said it makes no sense to raise taxes on the middle class when the economy is weakening. If I am the McCain campaign, I forcefully counter that it is disastrous to raise taxes on anyone while the economy is weakening.

He said that he planned on paying for his massive spending increases by cutting non working government programs. He didn't name one, and so I'd like to know what programs those. It is boiler plate rhetoric for a liberal to reassure the voters that their massive bureaucracy increases will be met by cutting non performing programs, but we all know that government is much easier to grow than to shrink.

He said he would make sure teachers were paid well. Would he pay them himself? Does he mean that there will be more federal control of education? He said we would be energy independent in 10 years and then proposed to spend 150 billion dollars over the las ten years to get there. We've spent ten times that much in the last thirty years. How would his spending be any different?

Obama also said that everyone including Prime Minister Maliki and President Bush now support his timetable plan for withdrawal from Iraq. He didn't mention that a timetable sounds feasible because the surge has worked so overwhelmingly that even a timetable couldn't screw it up. He wants to end the war responsibly but the only way to end a war responsibly is VICTORY.

Second, he, with chutzpah, declared that if John McCain wanted to have a debate on foreign policy judgment and temperment that was a debate he was prepared to have. That's tough talk for a wuss. McCain offered to have multiple townhall debates throughout the summer. One of them would be in front of veterans on exactly these issues. Obama refused EACH AND EVERY TIME. His tough talk doesn't match his actions. If I were the McCain campaign, I would immediately propose a debate in front of one of the academies, VMI, or the VFW, for exactly this debate. Now that Obama has opened his mouth, it's time to put up or shut up.

Third, Obama proclaimed that when you have no record you attack your opponent. Obama has no record, and he spent the entire speech attacking President Bush, John McCain and D.C. politics. It appears that Senator Obama has told the country who they should vote for himself.