Drudge, that driver of all news stories, is headlining a new BBC poll showing that the world, overwhelmingly supports Obama. This has been clear for some time, but it’s a positive development if Drudge is focusing on it.
The Indian author and former top United Nations official Shashi Tharoor ((Tharoor came in second in straw polls deciding who should replace Kofi Annan as Secretary-General.)) tried to explain why the world wants Obama several months ago in a talk he gave about America’s image in the world.
Tharoor’s thesis is that there are two main “stories” of America told around the world – that of the powerful bully that is uncouth and rough and forces it’s way; and that of the open, pluralistic society where anyone can make something of themselves. Obama clearly represents this second story – and after 8 years of America playing into all the stereotypes of the first story, Tharoor thinks it’s time for a change:
[This is an excerpt. For the complete video, go to Fora.tv.]
[Jesse Ventura, former professional wrestler and governor of Minnesota, speaking at Ron Paul’s Liberty Rally in Minneapolis last week. For the rest of this Jesse Ventura’s speech, check out Fora.tv.]
You certainly didn’t see this in the mainstream media.
I don’t agree with Ventura’s points completely – but he makes a very compelling case for libertarianism. He does it by avoiding subtlety and going for the jugular – which is what you’d expect of gladiators in either politics or professional wrestling.
He speaks to the tremendous anger at our current political and economic system – the anger tapped by Ron Paul in his presidential run.
Barack Obama stands for the hope that our current political and economic system does not need to be overthrown in a revolution, but instead can be ameliorated through gradual and focused change. For example, if the middle class is being squeezed – then give them tax cuts, and ensure that they can get health insurance, and attempt to create new green collar jobs in America.
Ron Paul (and Jesse Ventura) both stand for the anger and revolutionary impulse to overthrow the existing order. Revolution is a word both Ron Paul and Jesse Ventura use in their respective books prescribing what we need to do. Ron Paul for example preaches the reinstitution of the gold standard, the abolishment of the Federal Reserve, and other revolutionary measures. These men have little time for such tinkering as Barack Obama proposes within our current system. As such, they see him and John McCain as equally part of the problem.
That’s where I have to part ways with these two men. I admire them and their passion. But I mistrust any ideology to give me all the answers. As for tinkering – I think, in many ways, that is the best we can do.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a scholar who predicted the latest financial crisis, speaks of “tinkering” as the ideal form of change because we shouldn’t “disturb complicated systems that have been around for a very long time [as w]e don’t understand their logic.” As Brian Appleyard described Taleb’s views in the Sunday Times:
Taleb believes in tinkering – it was to be the title of his next book. Trial and error will save us from ourselves because they capture benign black swans. Look at the three big inventions of our time: lasers, computers and the internet. They were all produced by tinkering and none of them ended up doing what their inventors intended them to do. All were black swans. The big hope for the world is that, as we tinker, we have a capacity for choosing the best outcomes.
“We have the ability to identify our mistakes eventually better than average; that’s what saves us.” We choose the iPod over the Walkman. Medicine improved exponentially when the tinkering barber surgeons took over from the high theorists. They just went with what worked, irrespective of why it worked. Our sense of the good tinker is not infallible, but it might be just enough to turn away from the apocalypse that now threatens Extremistan.
By this logic – revolution is dangerous because it fully commits us to a change, a change which can result in enormous negative consequences. The American Revolution was a kind of beneficial black swan – that ended up producing a unique, stable, and free form of government. The French Revolution on the other hand unleashed a Reign of Terror and totalitarianism – all justified with the same values as the American Revolution. Tinkering allows us to experiment and see what works best and to adopt those measures that work best. It is precisely this determination to tinker that imbues Obama’s plans – from health care to energy policy to education. It’s why Obama’s health care plan works with the current system, creating incentives to fill gaps, rather than mandating an overhaul as the Clintons attempted in 1992 or attempting to push everyone out of the current system as McCain proposes now.
I admire Jesse Ventura for his inspiring rhetoric – and we always need scourges who point out how our society fails to live up to it’s ideals. But if there is anything redeemable in America, if there is any hope that through some determined tinkering we might make things better, then revolution is not yet the answer. Barack Obama and John McCain are not equally part of the problem. Obama seeks to tinker with our economy and government to protect the middle class and to soften the jarring forces of globalization; John McCain seeks to double down on Bush’s policies based on an ideological faith that markets will, on their own, produce goodness and light. Although Jesse Ventura doesn’t know it, he’s fighting the Black Swan – that knowledge that we do not understand the world as well as we think we do, and revolutions fail far more often than they succeed. That’s why we need a tinkerer in the White House come January 2009 – and not yet another ideologue.
It starts with the “Celebrity” attack that worked so well a few weeks ago.
This time, the image of the Obama crowds with blue banners morphs into old white men with a red Capitol Building in the background. The image is reminiscent of Communist propaganda posters of the 1940s or 1950s. Over this image, and the text appears – “Old ideas” while the narrator intones: “Old ideas masquerading as change.” This is the same charge a co-worker of mine made more crudely, and the right-wing talk radio bloviators make repeatedly day after day – Obama is just the same old liberal ideas packaged with a brown face and nice words.
Next in the ad, the actual claims come:
“Obama and his liberal allies promise higher taxes on your income.”
Not true if you’re making less than $250,000 a year. In fact, if you make less than $111,000 Obama promises higher tax cuts than McCain does – because he believe the middle class has been hurting in the Bush economy. Obama is actually promising higher tax cuts for 90% of Americans than McCain is – so McCain’s ad is deliberately misleading those 90%. McCain has made this claim in several of his ads before – and continues to despite it’s inaccuracy.
“Your life savings.”
Even less true than the claim above. Obama does not plan on changing the law to further tax life savings – but he does propose this measure to encourage individuals and families to save:
Obama will ensure savings incentives are fair to all workers by creating a generous savings match for low and middle-income Americans. His plan will match 50 percent of the first $1,000 of savings for families that earn less than $75,000.
“Your electric bill.”
Partially true for both McCain and Obama. This ad again directly echoes the smear email by saving that Obama plans on taxing your “electric bill”. The only “tax” that this could be referring to is the “cap-and-trade system” proposed by both McCain and Obama which would impose a cost on businesses’ carbon emissions. Although neither McCain nor Obama call these costs “taxes” they can reasonably be called that. Further, Obama, though not McCain, plans to offset any potential increase in costs for consumers with a refund from a windfall profits tax.
“They oppose offshore drilling.”
False. Obama does not oppose offshore drilling – but he does not believe the small amount of oil we have in those few protected areas off of our coasts will significantly effect either gas prices or our dependence on foreign oil. As he has been saying for over a month, he is open to offshore drilling – but only as part of a package that tackles the real issues. Since the 1970s, McCain and other Congresspeople have been saying that we need to end our reliance on foreign oil – and they have done nothing to accomplish that. Obama believes we need to create incentives and push for federal funding in concert with market forces to establish a green energy industry in America. This is the only solution that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. “Drill, baby, drill” is a chant for morons.
“It’s not change. It’s more of the same. Obama and his liberal allies: Not Ready to Lead.”
The final claim is obviously meant to echo the Democratic attacks on McCain – pointing out that he supported Bush more than 90% of the time, professed his fealty to Bush on all “transcendent issues”, and advocates doubling down on Bush’s disasterous economic and foreign policies. McCain is charging that Obama does not offer anything new – which is a hard charge to rebut because while Obama claims that McCain and Bush have similar economic and foreign policies – a position that can be checked – McCain is not specifically linking Obama to anyone. What is true is that Obama is supporting an emerging Democratic consensus on a number of issues – a consensus that has only gradually emerged as the Bush administration exacerbated long-term trends that are destabilizing the country. In addition, Obama’s campaign does have some new ideas – with Samantha Power, Lawrence Lessig, and Cass Sunstein acting as key advisors to the campaign, and influencing his foreign and economic policies.
[digg-reddit-me]Sarah Palin’s speech last night galvanized Obama’s supporters and created a surge in fundraising for him. Tonight, it’s John McCain’s turn to speak. Though it seems unlikely he will inspire feelings as strong as Palin either for or against him, he is the candidate we are running against. And now that McCain is the official nominee and is accepting federal financing, he will be forced to curtail his spending. ((To $84.1 million dollars – so it’s no chump change.))
We all know this is an important election. This is the time to donate for the maximum effect – to allow Obama to out-manuever McCain over the coming months.
Here are some reasons to donate right now, while McCain is giving his speech, and in the immediate aftermath:
To reinvest in America – with tax cuts to the middle class, with investments in infrastructure, with incentives to develop green energy alternatives, with health care reforms.
To restore the Constitution. To restore the balance of power in Washington, to stop the cruel and inhuman torture of our prisoners, to acknowledge the vice presidency is part of the executive branch, to have a president who does not consider himself above the law, and to punish those who have committed crimes against the Constitution in the Bush administration. ((For those whose thoughts immediately went to FISA when seeing this, I gave my opinion already. And regardless – you have to admit Obama would be better on these issues than McCain.))
While Rush Limbaugh thinks the best way to make fun of Obama is to appoint a black man to be the “Official Obama Criticizer” – and allow him to make racially insensitive remarks and “talk ‘hood” – Jon Stewart knows better – and last night, with his show pre-taped but scheduled to run after Obama’s big speech, his show ran this pitch-perfect Obama introduction telling the story of Barack Obama, “which begins 180 million years ago”:
[digg-me] Katie Couric interviewed Michael Dukakis today – the man who lost the 1988 presidential race to George H. W. Bush. The quote that makes the interview worth watching is from the very end:
Look, I owe the American people an apology. If I had beaten the old man you’d of never heard of the kid and you wouldn’t be in this mess. So it’s all my fault and I feel that very, very strongly.
The years are going by so fast – it really is bewilderin’;
and we’ll be so called ‘grownups’ and have mortgages and children.
I hope we all gain worldliness and wisdom and maturity;
but I hope most of all that MySpace falls into obscurity…
I hope our profiles all go dead, entombed in distant servers –
a monument to our youth, though lacking its observers.
Your page will be an empty shell when no one is behind it
I hope your MySpace stays forever …and i hope that your kids find it.
I hope that you forget about your MySpace;
I hope it slips completely from your mind,
and I hope it stays up long enough for the next generation to find;
and I hope that it embarrasses your children;
I hope their bratty friends all forward it around.
And I hope you forget your password so you cannot take it down…
The Obama campaign’s new ad is an unfair and personal attack on McCain and his character. It’s a cheap shot. And it’s a perfect response to John McCain’s unfair and personal (and also dishonest) attacks on Obama in recent weeks.
This is how Democrats hit back.
If this is the kind of campaign McCain wants to run, there’s a whole lot more where this came from.
