The $800 Hammer

People who have been concerned of late over the back-and-forth in the Democratic party, ought to have sighed a breath of relief if they watched the John McCain performance on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopolous". He simply doth not know what he talks about.

Instead of asking ridiculous question such as whether McCain's pastor loves America as much as he does; he instead asked about the economy and the budget...and I got the sense that McCain would rather be talking about his pastor.

He talks of balancing the budget and says that he could find $100 Billion in "waste" tomorrow. He talks as if its self-evident that reason for the budget deficits and federal debt is not because of an inability to tie revenues to spending; rather, our programs are simply inefficient. And if John McCain, who has never managed a budget in his life so far as I can tell, gets into office he is going to be able to reduce non-discretionary spending by 30% simply by cutting the ubiquitous waste the Republicans always talk about.

You know, $800 hammers, $5,000 toilet seats...which shows his age and his ties to the Reagan Era, before many of the privatization reforms were put into play which ended the need for the Pentagon to design their own hammer, instead of just going out and buying one already made.

On the Capital Gains tax, he says that many Americans invest in 401Ks and they would be subject to the Capital Gains tax...but in actuality, a 401k is a tax-deferred plan, and when people take money out, its taxed as income, not as a capital gain.

Sen. McCain wants this election to be about issues of "character" and "patriotism" simply because he doesn't have the breadth of knowledge necessary to manage this country. He's a popular, affable guy who gets along with many of the people in the Senate and the Media. He's got lap dogs like Lyndsey Graham who hang around and try and get some of that affection (be it positive or negative) because he does have a natural charisma; not Obama charisma, but for a 71 year old white guy, he's more charismatic than most of the GOP establishment combined.

But while character is important, competence and policy stands will be much more important in a general election where people are tired of the 8 year Bush disaster. After Brownie incompetence, Americans aren't going to turn to a commander-in-chief who doesn't have a basic command of the facts; and Sen. McCain simply does not...of course, the question is, will his charm and personality trick people into believing him when he is either incompetent or lying?