There’s something about an election year that brings out the audacity of politicians to utter what they’re really thinking sans filter. After the recently volley of pundits and candidates and administration officials releasing utterly absurd sound bites, I’ve concluded our political leaderships thinks we’re stupid.
Last month, John Goodman (who helped develop McCain’s health care policy plans) commented on an easy, cost-free solution to the problem of lack of insurance nationwide
‘So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime,’ Mr. Goodman said. ‘The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.
‘So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved.’
Semantics could reframe the debate on health care policy if the government only had to concern itself with citizens that are denied needed care. Under such terminology, the availability of acute, rather than preventative care would matter most.
Unfortunately for Goodman, the quality, equity, and accessability of emergency care is under fire in this country with growing waits, staff shortages and emergency room closings. But changing the language would make the numbers more palatable.
Next, Americans are angry that Congress is set to hand over $700+ billion to Wall Street after it bungled its business. 55% of Americans are against such a bail out. Last week, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson released his proposed bail out of the Wall Street wunderkind, just 2 1/2 pages in length, which included a statement that would elevate him to a status beyond American law or scrutiny.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
Today, testifying before the Senate banking committee Paulson defended the statement saying it would have been “presumptuous” of him to define what sort of oversight this proposal needed if activated.
We gave you a simple, three-page legislative outline and I thought it would have been presumptuous for us on that outline to come up with an oversight mechanism. That’s the role of Congress, that’s something we’re going to work on together. So if any of you felt that I didn’t believe that we needed oversight: I believe we need oversight. We need oversight.
So writing in a clause allowing you to act with impunity, answering to no one, that’s just plain humble? Really? Did the Bush administration think Congress was just going to push their legislation on through, while handing over the keys to the kingdom? Americans have dealt with 8 years of an administration ignoring the law, so giving any one individual a free pass would be insane. I guess the Bush administration hoped the $700 billion figure would shock and awe us so, that we’d turn a blind eye to the assault on the Constitution.
My personal favorite, though, is the the McCain campaign’s categorical refusal to allow Palin to speak unscripted in live interview formats that would allow American voters the opportunity to hear her speak about her opinions on the issues. Today, Palin met with a variety of world leaders, but the pool cameras were only allowed to film about 30 SECONDS of a handful of those meetings. Originally, journalists were refused all access. Those 30 seconds were granted only after news outlets threatened to not cover Palin’s activities at all.
Since being announced as the VP candidate by McCain, Sarah Palin has sat for 2 interviews — one with Charlie Gibson of ABC, the other with Sean Hannity of Fox News. A CBS reporter assigned to Biden estimates that he’s completed more than 80 interviews since Obama announced his running mate.
This refusal to let her speak for herself has to make you wonder, what are they hiding? The hiding isn’t helping the McCain campaign; Palin’s approval ratings have dropped 12 points in two weeks among independents. Andrea Mitchell and Rachel Maddow discussed this tactic, likening it to how totalitarian regimes in other parts of the world treat the media. That Palin remains inaccessible, unwilling to discuss her positions, which are often out of touch with mainstream America, can’t be helping her approval ratings. . . It’s, dare I say, elitist, to think that a viable candidate would and could deny the public access to a thorough vetting of her ideology.
Deservingly, Campbell Brown called for the McCain campaign to “Free Sarah Palin!,” not just because voters have a right to get to know her before casting a ballot, but because it’s sexist to hide her away as if she can’t fend for herself. The McCain campaign and its surrogates have been slapping “sexist” stickers on their opponents and media channels, anyone who dares criticize Palin. It’s the ultimate act of hypocrisy that they’re sheltering “the girl” from the rough and tumble vetting McCain, Obama, and Biden survived on the campaign trail.
More so than any other election in recent memory, Americans are paying attention. It means that the blogosphere rumbles, the main stream media eventually gets around to reporting, and American households are discussing the antics of the power class in America.
When looking at the kind of sound bites and stories covered in the media, you can’t help but notice that the power elite doesn’t have a very high regard for the people that put them there.
Recent Comments