November 2, 2008

OBAMA vs McCAIN

As the presidential nomination race closes tomorrow -- for the election Tuesday – the time has come for deciding between history-making teams treading on delicate themes.

Is the nation ready for a Black man to be president – or a woman to be vice-president a heartbeat away from the presidency?

Illinois Senator Barack Obama seeks to become leader of the strongest and wealthiest nation in the world. His running mate is Delaware Senator Joe Biden.

Possible problems: Obama is black, and Biden has no great legislation to his credit.

Arizona Senator John McCain is the Republican candidate for president with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin his running mate.

Possible problems: McCain is 72 years old, and Palin is a woman.

SKIN COLOR ISSUE

It would be curtains for McCain or Palin to mention Obama’s skin color. Yet, Obama emphasizes his blackness. On three occasions August 27 in Missouri, he declared McCain would try to scare voters by emphasizing “my funny name.”

“Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they’re going to try and do is make you scared of me. You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. He doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills. You know, he’s risky!”

Apparently, Obama was still smarting about comments by former-president Bill Clinton during Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful bid for support from the Democrat Party. Mr. Clinton asserted the Obama campaign was “feeding” the news media to emphasize the race issue.

Obama repeated the “black” charge several other times. In a Jacksonville, Florida fund raiser last June, Obama asserted:

“They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”

A prized memento of the presidential campaign is a fake dollar bill centered by a photo of Obama. No one knows who created the bill, but it has been reproduced thousands of times. Wal-Mart cashiers have to be careful not to accept the funny money.

ACORN INFLUENCE

Obama goes to great lengths emphasizing his skin color.

He began his political career as a “community organizer” in the south side of Chicago. His job – paid by the radical ACORN organization -- was to register Blacks for voting.

His cohorts were notorious liberals such as Bill Ayers who previously had bombed Washington, D.C, landmarks – and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright famous for shouting “G-d dam America” to his parishioners including Obama.

In 1996, Obama had all his Democratic rivals removed from the ballot in an Illinois state primary election on the basis of “sloppy voter petitions.”

Obama was rewarded with a seat in the Illinois Senate – and then a year later, the U.S. Senate where he has served one full year and part of another, voting most of the time as “present.”

ACORN has been active in recent weeks registering Blacks for voting in the election this Tuesday. TV network views of the long lines of Blacks -- waiting to be registered -- attest to the success of ACORN’s effort.

EARMARKS TARGETED

Meanwhile, McCain and Sarah Palin are also campaigning morning, noon and night – including today and tomorrow.

McCain has a sterling reputation as a hero of the Vietnam War – suffering torture that has left him with crippled arms. He became an Arizona maverick in the U.S. House of Representatives four years, then in the Senate 22 years, fighting congressional spending.

His principal targets for elimination are “ear marks.” These are expensive projects attached to spending bills at the last moment by “Gentlemen’s Agreement” (without committee review.)

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Palin, governor of Alaska, wows campaign audiences. She is smart, beautiful and experienced in public office. She likes to show off her family. Her husband Todd -- whom she characterizes as “First Dude” -- is a commercial fisherman in season, and an oil well worker with union membership.

Also prominent are her two daughters Willow and Piper sharing holding-rights for six-month old Trig who is afflicted with Downs Syndrome. Oldest daughter Bristol is engaged. Oldest son Track is in the Alaska National Guard deploying for Middle East duty.

As governor, Mrs. Palin began a $40 billion natural gas pipeline for the “lower 48 states,” rebated a large share of oil and gasoline taxes to Alaskans, and eliminated nearly a half billion dollars in “wasteful spending such as the “Bridge To Nowhere.”

JOE THE PLUMBER

Sen. Obama promises “Joe The Plumber” --and other Americans -- to “spread the wealth” by exempting nearly half of all income earners from federal income taxes.

Obama offers them billions in cash payments -- paid by higher taxes on remaining taxpayers.

Sen. Joe Biden – Obama’s running mate – calls the plan “patriotic.”

Sen. John McCain vows to veto any spendthrift measure sent him as president. However, Senate Republicans at present have only six votes more than that necessary to mount a filibuster against an omnibus-spending bill.

Should Republicans lose seven seats in the Senate -- and Obama is elected President -- there would be no filibuster to stop a Democrat spending spree.

DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN ?

Think twice when you open your ballot on Tuesday.

As Charles De Gaulle once said famously: “The graveyard is full of indispensable men.”

By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist