Thank God That's Over

“Our tax policies need to be changed. There is something deeply peculiar about having rich individuals who make their money speculating on real estate or stocks paying lower taxes than middle-class Americans, whose income is derived from wages and salaries.” Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize Winning Economist

Final Presidential debate. Which McCain will show up tonight? The old McCain who never met a government regulation he didn’t want to kill, or the new populist McCain, who says he loves the average working American?

If you believe the polls, McCain’s only hope to close the gap with Obama is a knock out punch – or a huge gaffe on Obama’s part. The talking heads tell us that older Americans and white Americans may not vote for Obama, presumably because he’s black and different, which is incredible given the total cluster fuck that the Republicans – and John McCain – have presided over the past eight years.

Are those American voters actually silly enough to vote for McCain (or some minor party candidate) because of race? If so, this country is in worse shape than I thought.

At this dismal point in our history, I'd vote for an African-American lesbian if I thought she had some decent ideas and a dose of political savvy.

McCain is talking about class warfare now, as if he doesn’t grasp the stark fact that a class war has raged for the past thirty years – against working Americans who live by wages and salaries. Wealthy individuals and corporations have kicked the asses of working people for three decades, Senator McCain, and you and your pals Phil Gramm and Charles Keating helped them in the mugging.

“Well, thank you, Bob,” says McCain, sounding like an old man in a rest home. McCain says he knows how to cut billions in defense spending, but he’s thin on the specifics. “Earmarks,” says McCain, “that’s the answer. Cut those wasteful earmarks and we’ll be home free!”

Sweet Jesus, when will this agony be over?

“Senator Obama, I’m not President Bush! I can do it…we…I…we can…sure.” This is McCain’s Hail Mary pass, the last gasp of a dying campaign that is devoid of intellect, soul, heart, substance, content, and truth. The only idea McCain has in his quiver is tax cuts. Will someone please explain to John that we’ve tried that trickle down notion and it doesn’t work? And while your schooling the old fool, explain to him that most American corporations pay next to nothing in taxes, thanks to generous loopholes written into the tax code and voted upon in the Senate by John McCain and his fellow Republicans.

“The answer is Town Hall meetings,” McCain asserts. “If only Senator Obama had agreed to sit down with me in a town hall meeting, things in this campaign would have been so much different.”

The man is old and decrepit but he’s still got balls, I give him that.

Obama is acting Presidential and McCain is acting petulant.

McCain is a crybaby.

Obama’s right about one point: the American people are cynical about the entire political process, the inane back and forth, the wild claims, false accusations, outright lies and total Fox News bullshit spin, and the incredible amounts of money spent by these candidates to buy public offices.

McCain says that all the money the Obama camp is spending is “Destroying the fabric of Democracy.” As if Florida didn’t happen in 2000! As if massive voter fraud didn’t happen in Ohio in 2004! The truth is that the GOP has destroyed the integrity of our elections. Hey, John, it wasn’t Democrats who politicized the hiring process in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division!

McCain: “My campaign is about getting this economy back on track. But let’s talk about Bill Ayers and ACORN! That will put a lamb chop in every skillet and a Ford in every garage!”

This is too excruciating. I can’t stand another second of this travesty. McCain is a jabbering old fool. “Nuclear power is no problem! I have the answers, just trust me, people. I’m John McCain, straight-talking maverick!”

I’ve had enough of politics. I’m switching to the Dodgers game to see if the boys in blue can extend their season.