my 16 month break...and why McCain is going to lose

I've always planned on getting back to writing on my blog...maybe a 16(ish) month break is enough time off to make sure that nobody will actually read this post. Nonetheless, I felt like I needed to write something in order to grease the skids for future posts. The first post back is the most difficult, right?

I don't usually write about politics, but since we are in the midst of election season I figured: What the heck? Why not...?

So, let me start out by making the bold assertion that this is one of the worst presidential election seasons of all time. How did we get such a chump at the top of the Republican ticket? Don't get me wrong, like everyone else, I admire and respect John McCain for his service to our country and his sacrifice as a POW. But come on...Seriously? Is this the best the Republican party has to offer? The sad reality is that John McCain is almost surely going to lose this presidential election, and I'm pretty sure his campaign has yet to figure out why.

McCain's big problem that no one seems to be talking about, is that he's tried so hard to differentiate himself from President Bush, that he refuses to recognize and identify with anything that President Bush did right. The problem with that is, he simply cannot win a "who's-more-different-than-Bush" contest with Obama. The most obvious example of this is regarding the Bush tax cuts on dividends and capital gains. These tax cuts provided tremendous economic stimulus for our economy, as it worked its way out of a recession. Jobs were created; the economy grew; the stock market rallied to all-time highs. We have not actually experienced an 8 year recession as Obama would have us believe. These "Bush tax cuts" are currently set to expire in 2010, which will effectively raise taxes on anyone who owns stocks, including millions of people who make a lot less than $250k per year. Obama opposes the renewal of these tax cuts, which means that he supports a de facto tax hike. McCain favors an extension of these tax cuts, but he's failed to bring up this topic in any of the debates. Why? Because he would then have to admit that the "Bush" tax cuts were a good thing, and he's afraid that people will accuse him of being "more of the same".

McCain needs to realize that he's not going to capture the anti-Bush vote over Obama. He needs to stop worrying about distancing himself from President Bush. Yes, Bush made mistakes during his two terms in office. He created massive government programs and spent like a drunken sailor. However, he did do some things right. Unfortunately, I'm afraid McCain's concern about being perceived as "more of the same" is going to cost him the election...