Time for McCain to Sharpen the Socialist Attacks

I read this piece on CNN and it gave me an idea about the manner in which John McCain should proceed in the last fifteen days.

Gov. Sarah Palin continued the GOP offensive Sunday, attacking Sen. Barack Obama's tax plan as "socialist," and though Sen. John McCain tempered his allegations, his message was the same.

The Palin-McCain line of attack was also echoed at an Orlando, Florida, event by their GOP colleague, Sen. Mel Martinez, who likened Obama's tax plan to communist Cuba.

"Where I come from, where I was raised, they tried wealth redistribution," the Cuban-American senator said. "We don't need that here. That's called socialism, communism -- not Americanism."

McCain dodged a question from Fox News' Chris Wallace about whether Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, was a socialist himself, but McCain criticized Obama's tax plan, which he dubbed an effort "to spread the wealth."

Now, reading this piece got me thinking. If the McCain campaign makes the last fifteen days into an effective examination of Obama's policies and links them to socialism, they will win. That's because despite his eloquence his policies are largely socialistic in nature. That said, simply repeating over and over that he wants to "spread the wealth" and using that as proof of his socialism is not nearly enough. It appears that Dick Morris is again an oracle.

Follow this election cycle. Between the summer of 2007 and the end of February of 2008, all focus was on Hillary Clinton’s ups and downs. And Obama defeated her decisively. Then in March and April of 2008, Obama was in the focus and Rev Wright and the surrounding controversy propelled Hillary to victory. Then during the summer of 2008, all eyes were on Obama and he gained. In September, McCain was on the griddle. At first his selection of Sarah Palin let him move ahead. But then his “suspension” of his campaign and subsequent complicity in the bailout package cost him his lead and moved Obama to an advantage just short of double digits.
Now the attention should logically shift to Obama. He is way ahead and McCain is nowhere to be seen. Few give McCain any chance and the debate is over whether the race is over already. This is, of course, the ideal environment for a McCain surge. All attention would normally focus on the Democrat. But it isn’t. Every American checks the market before they check the polls. The ongoing anxiety over the stock market is not only giving more and more people reason to hate the Republicans of Wall Street and their allies in Washington, but it is keeping us from focusing on Obama.

In fact, as the race nears the end, with Obama in the lead, the focus is in fact now flatly on the front runner. This gives the McCain campaign an opportunity to massage the news cycle so that it focuses on Obama's policies in a manner that is optimum for the McCain campaign. If all the McCain campaign does is repeat Joe the Plumber, spread the wealth, and socialism over and over it won't be enough. It won't be near enough. In order for this to work, they must create a narrative and a narrative can be created that will leave no doubt that Barack Obama is much closer to a socialist than he is to a capitalist.

Soon, Sarah Palin must point out that Barack Obama believes that health care is a right. John McCain believes it is a responsibility. That was each of their answers at the second debate. Palin needs to forcefully point out that it was never the founding fathers intention to make health care a right. If it was, that's exactly what they would have done. When health care is a right that means the government imposes that "right". That's exactly what happens in Socialist societies. In fact, it isn't only in Cuba and Venezuela, but as Europe has moved more socialist, they have also created such rights as health care. John McCain should welcome a debate on whether or not it makes sense to make health care a right. He needs to use Sarah Palin to move the debate from Joe the Plumber to whether or not our country should make health care a right.

Then, the McCain campaign should point out that the center piece of Barack Obama's plan to create jobs the government to spend nearly a quarter million Dollars to create them. Remember, the center piece of Ronald Reagan's plan to create jobs was to cut taxes so that the private sector could create them. You can't get a more opposite philosophy than that. Of course, when the government spends more in order to create jobs, that is another center piece of Socialism, and again, Sarah Palin, the attack dog, must forcefully say it. The McCain campaign campaign must ask the simple question: Do we want a society in which the private sector leads in job creation or the government? If it's the first, vote for McCain, if it's the latter, vote for Obama.

Finally, the McCain campaign will need to wrap up the narrative in the last week in three ways. First, they must point out that Barack Obama's economic plan punishes each and every driver of capitalism: the entrepeneur, the investor, and the corporation. Barack Obama wants to raise the corporate tax, taxes on the highest earners, many of whom are successful small business owners, and the capital gains tax. Furthermore, he once told Charlie Gibson in a debate that he wants to raise the capital gains tax in the interest of "fairness". Of course, using tax policy to promote "fairness" is another bedrock of Socialism.

Second, they must soon begin to anticipate Obama's responses and use them against him. This was actually best done in this scene in the movie 8 Mile.



In it, Eminem's character anticipates all the insults his opponent will use in his own free style mix and thus takes away all the attacks from him. It isn't that difficult to anticipate what Barack Obama will say in response because he says the same thing over and over.

Lately, [McCain] and Governor Palin have actually accused me of -- get this -- socialism," Obama said. "It's kind of hard to figure how Warren Buffett endorsed me, Colin Powell endorsed me, and John McCain thinks I'm socialist."

Taxes are always a redistribution of money. Most of the taxes that are redistributed go back to those who pay them -- in roads and airports and hospitals and schools," President Bush's former secretary of state said. "And taxes are necessary for the common good, and there's nothing wrong with examining what our tax structure is or who should be paying more, who should be paying less.

"For us to say that makes you a socialist, I think, is an unfortunate characterization that isn't accurate

Barack Obama always responds by proclaiming that his tax policy will give more back to the middle class.

Here is how Sarah Palin should anticipate his response.

Folks, make no mistake. If Socialism is sold eloquently and with charisma, it can be made to sound like a great policy, but it will be Socialism nonetheless. Our opponent will tell you that he isn't a Socialist. In fact, he will say that all he is doing is providing more relief to the middle class. Folks, ask yourself this question: Where is he getting the money he is providing to the middle class. He's getting it from those at the top. That's income redistribution. He'll tell you that his plan will create jobs. Ask yourself how he wants to go about creating jobs. He will spend government money to do it. When government spends money to create jobs, that's socialism. He's going to tell you that health care is a right. Ask yourself what sort of person creates a right to health care, and of course that person is a Socialist.

Finally, the McCain campaign needs to wrap this up by tying Obama's Socialist leanings to many of his radical ties like Bill Ayers, the New Party, ACORN, and Frank Marshall Davis (his communist mentor in Hawaii). By tying his Socialist leanings to his radical set of friends and associates, they can make the connection why his past associations matter. It's because they have lead him to the ideology in which he wants to put America on a path to Socialism.