Entries Tagged as 'Commentary'

John McCut

Excellent blog post by Hugh Hewitt on what McCain should do after the Palin debate win:

His simple, closing message ought to be that the world is threatened by terrorism, and the global economy is threatened by rising taxes, chains on productivity, pressure on trade, and corrupt, self-dealing political elites at home and abroad.

McCain needs to declare that he’s been around a long time, and he’s seen all the big mistakes made and all the costs paid, and that he isn’t going to stand for it now.

McCain should pledge to be John McCut from day one in the White House:

He’ll cut taxes on new businesses and construction to jump start a flat economy and invigorate employment;

He’ll cut federal spending to make sure we have the resources for those that need it and not those who have gotten fat off of subsidies;

He’ll cut the chains that government has put on productivity, allowing builders to build and energy companies to explore and producers to make;

He’ll cut every trade barrier he can find and commit to an export economy that will surge the growth in American production of the goods and services demanded around the globe;

He’ll cut the corrupt culture of self-dealing that allowed Freddie and Fannie to pump hundreds of billions of bad loans to over-their-head borrowers and into the economy and thereby infect our financial system to the point of collapse;

And finally, he’ll cut the MSM down to size, calling them on their ridiculous double standard that sought to impale Palin while protecting Obama from his past. McCain should demand a MSM that serves that common interest, not the interest of Beltway-Manhattan elites and which holds all elected officials, not just conservative ones, to the fire. McCain should particularly demand that big media look at Fannie and Freddie and who turned them into Frankensteins and who profited thereby.

We Absolutely Can Drill Our Way Out

A good post from Hugh Hewitt - Memo to the Bush Administration: If Drilling Is That Important, Act That Way via On the Other Hand (thanks for the mention!)

The Obama-Pelosi-Reid Don’t Drill Democrats aren’t budging in their opposition to seeking new oil supplies, as the electoral benefits they envision from high gas prices far outweigh their concern over the damage done to individual Americans and the U.S. economy from the oil shock. They’d rather win the presidency and expand their majorities in the House and the Senate than bring price relief to average Americans and shore up a shaky manufacturing sector buffeted by skyrocketing energy costs.

Democrats of course say in unison “We can’t drill our way out of this,” but in fact we can. More oil production means lower gas prices –it is that simple.

Democrats say it will take too long, but markets react to short and medium term developments, and a firm commitment to new supplies would immediately impact those markets.

Democrats try and throw dirt in our collective eyes, using the most inane talking point of the year about unused leases –as though Americans don’t understand that not all leased land holds oil and that oil companies don’t sit on proven reserves that they lose control of over time.

The recognition has broken through and is spreading that a vote for any democrat is a vote for soaring gas prices and a shrinking economy. Add in Obama’s feverish tax hike plans, and the recipe for an economic disaster is on the table to go along with Obama’s incredibly risky plans to retreat from Iraq and sit down with Ahmadinejad and Chavez for “no-preconditions” talks.

America Is Not a Post-Anything

I am a big fan of Victor Davis Hanson and always enjoy his work, but sometimes he hits a home run.

He’s done it today with America Is Not a Post-Anything on Real Clear Politics.

Experts proclaimed that the United States had evolved into an “information society” of “high-tech jobs.” The traditional sources of American strength — manufacturing, the production of food and fuel, and the assembling of cars and trucks — were apparently passé. Instead, others less fortunate abroad were to do those more grubby tasks, while Americans, with their BlackBerrys and laptops, funded, organized, lectured and critiqued them.

Illegal aliens might cook our meals or change our children’s diapers to free us up for far more important tasks of litigation, finance and environmental review. The Chinese would make everything from our shoes to our phones. The Japanese would supply us with quality high-end goods like cars and cameras. The Africans, Arabs, Iranians, Russians and Venezuelans would drill oil in nasty, dirty places so we wouldn’t have to.

and

Refined Americans became more concerned over questions of gender, race and class justice in our universities and courtrooms, as if the chief problem were only dividing the American pie equitably, rather than expanding it.

The real source of American wealth apparently was the mere fact that we were Americans. Therefore, the rest of the world should naturally loan us money to sustain our envied lifestyle. Our homes got bigger, and we bought and sold them more as investments than as places to raise our families.

Our top graduates opted for Wall Street, insurance, law, journalism and academia. Why not, when laws made it more conducive to invest and trade, but harder and less lucrative to build, drill, farm and manufacture?

and finally

A new, hungrier generation of Americans will have to want to reclaim our pre-eminence and change the national attitude. It must be ready to pay off generations of debt rather than borrow, build rather than sue, and drill rather than whine.

It’s time to honor rather than avoid and outsource physical labor. Our children are healthy enough to cut our own lawns and pick our fruit. Let’s also hope they want to hear a lot more about Gen. David Petraeus’ success, and a lot less of Madonna’s latest psychodramas.

But just as importantly, what Americans need now is leadership to get moving again — rather than more platitudes about hope, squabbling about race and gender, and endless rhetoric about who is really a maverick or a true conservative or the most liberal. What we need to know from our two presidential candidates are specifics about how to jumpstart America.

I’m not a big McCain fan, but he appears to have the exact personality to be able to deliver this kind of message. I do worry that he has spent too many years running as an incumbent senator and has lost his campaign chops. He needs to dial up the intensity and speak these kinds of truth to Americans.