Battling On Three Fronts And America's Doin' Time

We now get to to witness Barack Obama's ability to multi-task. On one front, he's getting the business from Hillary Clinton who's making her firewall pitch in Texas and Ohio. On another, he's getting hammered by John McCain who's testing out some early attacks for the general election. And finally, he's taking shrapnel from third parties such as President Bush, who I guess has nothing better to do with the war going so well and the economy in such great shape. But, hey, this is the life of a front runner and to his credit, Obama's swingin' back. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23392288/

But the examination has begun. The "celestial choirs" as Hillary put it, are starting to be drowned out by the new drumbeat of "is he really fit for the job?" Tucker Carlson had an interesting interview with a professor of political science named Fred Siegel on this very subject. Of course, you never know whether these people are plants by one campaign or another. And Tucker is a die hard McCain guy. But...Siegel laid out a few specifics as to why he thinks Obama is not ready. He cited a comment that Obama made about Pakistan that Siegel felt revealed a serious lack of understanding about a key foreign policy issue. Obama said that the new government in Pakistan would be more cooperative than Musharraf in the search for Bin Laden. In fact, Siegel maintained, it's widely known that this new government has pro al Qaeda and Taliban factions, making it more difficult to capture Osama Bin Laden. On another issue, education, Siegel indicated that Obama talks about the need for more funding, when in fact, funding has doubled for public education in the last ten years. It's not funding that's the problem, it's the proper use of that funding. Siegel said that Obama is lucky that Hillary hasn't called him out on these points.

Speaking of Hillary, maybe one of the reasons she can't make these comparisons is that she trips over herself sometimes. Like yesterday. In a TV interview with a local Texas station, a reporter read Hillary a statement by a Hispanic supporter who said that Obama's problem with Hispanics was "that he was Black". Period. The reporter then asked Hillary if she "denounced and rejected" (wink, wink) those comments. Unbelievably, Hillary did not denounce or reject, giving the rationale that you can't really censor what a person says. The same rationale on which she had called out Obama during their debate. Of course, a little later her clearly horrified campaign did damage control, saying that Hillary had to verify the accuracy of the supporter's comments before she could denounce or reject them. Which she now most certainly did. So...I guess we can take that whole issue off the table.

In any event, this new phase will be very revealing. One thing Obama has shown is his proclivity to learn very quickly. If he survives these multi-front attacks, he'll be much better prepared for the job. If they draw real blood, we'll see if Hillary or McCain can take advantage.

Hey, how about a combination of Democratic and Republican approaches on the economy? For example, let's go with the McCain idea of reducing the corporate tax rate to 25%; then roll back the Bush tax cuts on everyone earning more than $300,000 (not $250,000), but... preserve the current capital gains and dividend rates. Then offer a middle-class credit on the payroll tax, which Obama favors, and you'd have a nice package that didn't hurt the wealthy too much, kept businesses happy and put more money in the pockets of lower income folks who would spend it.

On another note, if you know 100 people, chances are, one of them is behind bars. The Pew Center just revealed an amazing report that states that 1 in every 100 adult Americans is in prison or jail. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23392251/ At more than 2.3 million, we have the largest incarcerated population of any country in the world. Including China and India. That, my friends, is amazing. Oh, and if you're black, you're three times as likely to go to jail as a white person. Man or woman. We spend $50 biiii-llll-ion per year to do this. In fact, some states like Connecticut spend more on incarceration than higher education. You can't make this up. It might be nice to hear a Presidential candidate discuss this, but they won't because they can't appear soft on crime. Unbelievable.

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