Well, this is a disappointing post for both presidential candidates.
Obama's campaign director finally launched a video with some graphics, about a month after McCain's campaign released a longer, more interesting, and far more detailed video. At least Obama's into the video arena now. I hope it improves.
McCain's email on June 27 included links to 2 negative ads. The mud slinging continues. I don't doubt that both candidates will air them on television. I'm disappointed they are being promoted online as well. I hope it stops.
His July 11 Love video is nicer. I did notice that there's a shot of him and Regan but none of him and Bush Sr. or Bush W. Still trying to get that conservative vote - while mentioning that he's been a "maverick." I'll be curious to see how it turns out.
McCain's latest briefing video (July 10) is visually appealing. A balanced budget by 2013 doesn't make sense to me - why that long??? I don't think he has the facts right about Regan being part of deficit reduction in the 80's like Clinton was in the 90's. Here's a chart of national debt. I'm not saying Clinton did anything great - it's the economy and the president's influence on that is highly arguable. You can see the video here:
http://www.johnmccain.com/economicbriefing/
I'm curious as to the reference to Reagan and the deficit as well. Perhaps FactCheck or one of the other sites will look into it. My recollection is that the deficit under Reagan was quite large, in part because of defense spending. If McCain is being purposely deceptive about this, I will be disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see a balanced budget by 2013, but I doubt it will happen. It's too easy for politicians to gain votes by spending money they don't have for them to give it up. To erase the current deficit would take large tax increases (something that wouldn't seem particularly wise in a weak economy) or large spending cuts, which would be wise but would leave the affected voters very unhappy. I don't know that I think either candidate is brave enough to make the cuts that would be necessary, and I'm practically certain that the Congress is not.
As a side note, American Public Media has a site where you can play around with the budget and a limited set of options. You might find it interesting:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/features/budget_hero/
(When I played, I reduced the debt to 7.8% of GDP and shrank the size of government from 20% of GDP to 18% by 2018, but then I tend to prefer a smaller government and to be a bit of a deficit/debt hawk)