Balanced budget or half-trillion-dollar deficits?

What I have found most amazing lately about the Republican Party and their candidates, aside for the plain stupidity of selecting Sarah Pallin', which made me happy enough to do a double back flip, if only I could, has been the inconsistency of their positions and policy. I've long been puzzled about the big deficits; aren't these they guy who disavow big government? And John and Sarah's claim that Obama's tax plan is "socialist" while nationalizing the big banks is not? Leaves me shaking my head.

Anyhow, James Carville and Paul Begala on the Huffington Post had this to say, which capsulizes the GOP's inconsistency quite succinctly:

"They will need to answer fundamental questions: What does it mean to be a Republican? Do Republicans support laissez-faire or nationalized banking? Do Republicans support a balanced budget or half-trillion-dollar deficits? Do Republicans want a "humble foreign policy" like George W. Bush, or preventive war against countries that pose no threat, like, umm, George W. Bush? Are Republicans the party of limited government or a vast Medicare prescription drug benefit? Are they wary of Big Brother or eager to expand warrantless wiretaps? Do they support Christian values or torture? Are they the party that believes that cutting-edge technology can shoot a missile out of the sky or the party that believes humans and dinosaurs walked the earth simultaneously? "

It's weird.

The Wrong Focus

I find it infinitely saddening that politics in the US has so much the focus on personalities and associations and not on the probable policies of the candidates or their positions on issues. Bill Maher calls us the United Stupid of America. He is so right.

The perfect example is where the bloggers of both sides are focused on this week:

I went looking for some blogs or news stories from the Right. Why? Well I’ve seen plenty online from the Left and I’ve heard the claim on TV from Republican supporters that the media is all in favour of Obama. So I wondered what the other side was saying and if it isn’t in mainstream media I knew I’d find some of it in the blogsphere.

A little searching, starting from Technorati-Politics, and I found Seton Motley’s post The Huffington Post Is Lying About Us. I was disgusted. This is basically a “he said, she said” claim and counter claim about whether a reporter from left leaning Huffington Post, Seth Colter Walls, properly followed up on some references given to him by the right leaning Matthew Vadum which would have supported Vadum’s claim that Huffington’s claim that the Right’s claim that Obama supported a bad organization (Acorn) was untrue, or something.

Is this the best we can do in politics in the US?

I don’t care much whether Obama worked for a radical organization when he was a young local organizer in Chicago just like I don’t much care if George Bush partied his way through college and got out of the draft by joining a National Guard unit. I don’t much care if Sarah Palin got rid of a troublesome subordinate by firing him or that he now claims it was because he wouldn’t fire her ex-brother in law. What I care about is how these candidates are going to pursue the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, who has the best policy on the Mid-East, on Health Care, on the economy, on taxes, education. Where is the debate on these topics?

The bloggers and commentators and supporters of both sides have just got to get their eyeballs off of their navels and look up at the bigger issues. Right now everyone has the wrong focus. I mean, get f*@king real! Who f*@king cares?

Next time someone says to me (and I wish they would) “What about so and so, isn’t it a shame how the media is covering that up?” I’m just going to go off on them and say “So f@*king what? How about health care, what really are the pro’s and cons of that, how do we fix our education system so we can compete in a global economy, how do we get the US out of debt, how do we deal with an unstable nuclear power in Pakistan, how do we get a fair peace settlement in the Mid East, how do we solve any of these things? Let’s have that debate and get out of the gutter please.”

Fred Roswold