Presidential Campaign, or Something Else??

This week in the '08 Campaign has been a travesty so far. The two biggest stories have been a minor incident that has been blown up into a massive issue (the Rev. Wright thing), and a poor incident of blatant pandering to voters (McCain and Clinton 's summer gas tax holiday idea). Meanwhile, Al Qaeda has just been reported by the government has having moved above pre-9/11 strength in the world, the economy is circling the drain, gas is approaching $4/gallon, the Iraq occupation is still costing $12 billion/week, the environment is still suffering, and jobs are heading overseas as fast as ever. But it's ok in the end, because Exxon made another $30 billion profit this quarter.

There are literally close to 100 more pressing matters in the country than whether Obama has thrown Reverend Wright under the bus yet or not. Now that he has, this issue needs to disappear. There is no further story to come out of this, except Rev. Wright saying something else borderline psychotic to reporters. Where is the outcry over McCain actively seeking the endorsement of Rev. Hagee (called Catholic Church 'the great whore', said that Katrina was God's wrath for New Orleans having a Gay Pride parade) and Rev. Parsley (made some statements about women that are probably too offensive to post here)? Only Keith Olbermann even mentions Rev. Hagee once in awhile. Rev. Parsley has flown completely under the radar since his endorsement of McCain. Both of these religious figures are just as bad as Rev. Wright, but they are getting a pass. I just wish I knew why that was happening.

Next, you have both Hillary Clinton and John McCain saying that the federal government should suspend the 18 cent/gallon federal tax on gas. First of all, economists have blasted this as pandering, and they are rarely political figures. They all say that the billions received from the federal tax go to things like road and bridge repair, and road resurfacing. If that money disappears, there would be essentially no way for the government to make repairs to transportation infrastructure until it starts being paid again. Second, those same economists say that it would save the consumer on average $28 over the proposed three months. Obviously this means that there is no benefit to suspending the tax, and a large punishment if we do. However, neither Clinton nor McCain has bothered to tell their audiences that this is the case. Ironically, Obama has been told by his economic advisor, who was a cabinet secretary under President Bill Clinton of all people, that he should not support this tax suspension. I agree 100%.

Finally today, Pres. Bush has started to try and use consumers' anger at rising gas prices to justify drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). He says that we have no other choice at this point. What he DOESN'T say is that even when drilling is at 100% efficiency, it would account for under 1% of the world oil supply. This small amount of new oil on the market would have a minimal impact on the price of gas, and consumers would be unlikely to notice a difference. Meanwhile, we have ruined one of the most pristine areas of wildlife on the planet, so that we could MAYBE lower the price of gas by a cent or two (which is less than what the price has been fluxuating by recently, that being something like 6-8 cents/week in some areas). I don't see how, based on this evidence, there is any reason to tap into that reserve.