Joe Better Off With Obama

Listen up Joe.... today Nobel economist Paul Krugman tells us about "The Real Plumbers of Ohio." (NYTimes)

Krugman explains, "Forty years ago, Richard Nixon made a remarkable marketing discovery. By exploiting America’s divisions — divisions over Vietnam, divisions over cultural change and, above all, racial divisions — he was able to reinvent the Republican brand. The party of plutocrats was repackaged as the party of the 'silent majority,' the regular guys — white guys, it went without saying — who didn't like the social changes taking place."

This laid the foundation for the original everyman Joe, the G.O.P.'s "Joe six pack" .... "It was a winning formula. And the great thing was that the new packaging didn't require any change in the product’s actual contents — in fact, the G.O.P. was able to keep winning elections even as its actual policies became more pro-plutocrat, and less favorable to working Americans, than ever."

Fast forward to the 2008 presidential campaign. "John McCain’s strategy, in this final stretch, is based on the belief that the old formula still has life in it.

"Thus we have Sarah Palin expressing her joy at visiting the 'pro-America' parts of the country.... McCain making Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, a k a Joe the Plumber... the centerpiece of his attack on Barack Obama’s economic proposals.

"And when it turned out that the right’s new icon had a few issues, like not being licensed and comparing Obama to Sammy Davis Jr., conservatives played victim: see how much those snooty elitists hate the common man?"

So.... what's the situation of the real plumbers of Ohio? In 2007.... the "Bush boom" years.... according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual income of “plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters” in Ohio was $47,930. A far cry from the $250,000 income the wanna-be plumber Joe.... who himself earned $40,000 that year.... was querying Obama about.

And this is to say nothing about the lack of medical insurance available to employees, like plumbers, of small businesses, or the decreasing income, rising costs and home market squeeze since 2007.

Krugman asks.... "Who is really standing up for Ohio's plumbers?"

"McCain proposes continuing Bush’s policies in all essential respects, and he shares Bush’s anti-government, anti-regulation philosophy.

"What about the claim, based on Joe the Plumber’s complaint, that ordinary working Americans would face higher taxes under Obama? Well, Obama proposes raising rates on only the top two income tax brackets...."

Krugman concludes, "I don’t want to suggest that everyone would be better off under the Obama tax plan. Joe the plumber would almost certainly be better off, but Richie the hedge fund manager would take a serious hit.

"But that’s the point. Whatever today’s G.O.P. is, it isn’t the party of working Americans."

November 4. Vote. It matters!

Hillary Invokes the "A" Word

How low will Hillary go in pursuit of her lost campaign for the White House?

We found out yesterday.

In an interview with the editorial board of The Sioux Falls Argus Leader she opined... "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?" Adding "We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California."

Hillary enablers were quick to point out that she was just talking about the timeline.... June.... as a month where things could happen.... as if that justified uttering the "A" word in this highly-charged contest.

Assassination. How could she? But, evidently this has been one of her long-standing rationales for staying in the race after there was no mathematical way she could succeed.

According to "Clinton Remark on Robert Kennedy's Killing Stirs Uproar" in the New York Times, criticism of this oft-made argument caught Hillary off guard, "campaign aides were taken aback by the quick reaction to her remarks, but then quickly realized that Mrs. Clinton had to backpedal."

And, what was Hillary's backpedal..."I was discussing the Democratic primary history.... campaigns that both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June, in 1992 and 1968 .... to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That's a historical fact."

Facts are funny things, Hillary.

Because you can check them. On page 407 of your husband's autobiography, "My Life" he said about the New York primary on April 7, 1992 and the other primaries that day.... "we also won in Kansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. On April 9, Paul Tsongas announced that he would not reenter the race. The fight for the nomination was effectively over. I had more than half the 2,145 delegates I needed to be nominated....."

Funny, Bill thought the 1992 primary fight was over on April 7.... not June. And, his benchmark.... he had over half of the delegates, just as Barack Obama has over half of the pledged delegates.

The New York Times thought Bill had wrapped up the nomination even earlier, in March of 1992.... "he was viewed as having secured it in March, when his last serious opponent dropped out."

Can anyone really believe that Hillary was the only one who didn't know Bill's campaign was "wrapped up" months before June of 1992. Can anyone seriously think that mentioning the tragic Kennedy assassination wasn't one of the "catastrophes" she had in mind as being a reason to stay in the race.

Even Bobby Kennedy's son, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said yesterday.... "I've heard her make that argument before, it sounds like she was invoking a familiar historical circumstance in support of her argument for continuing her campaign."

No need to point out the great risks Barack Obama is facing as the first viable African-American presidential candidate. Even giving voice to thoughts of assassination could unleash the action.

Ignoring Hillary's divisive race and class baiting comments such as "hardworking whites," her linking of the continuation of her presidential campaign with the assassination of a rival candidate in June is.... really, there are no words for the disgrace of such low behavior.

If there is a silver lining to this dark incident, it would be that it should remove the unsavory possibility that Hillary would be Obama's vice president.... and just a heartbeat away from her fanatical ambition.