CRITICAL CHOICES
One down, one to go.
Obama has picked Biden and now we wait to see who John McCain will pick as his Vice Presidential candidate. It's going to be "Change and Experience" vs. "Experience and ?" as far as slogans and sound-bites go.
Regardless of which candidate you support, it's important to remember that historically speaking, Vice Presidential candidates are but one ingredient in what makes up a successful Presidency, not the prime flavor of the whole dish.
The exception to that rule of course has been the soon to close Bush-Cheney two-term partnership, where the Vice-President has been the over-powering ingredient in both terms of the Bush presidency.
Somehow I think that neither Obama nor McCain are likely to let their Vice-Presidents be the defining element of their Presidency.
So the choice between the two continues to be driven by what each promises to do on the major issues of the day.
Barron's this weekend has a cover story titled "Dueling Visions", focused on what each of them promises to do on one of the most critical issues facing the country, the Economy. In particular, the piece takes a closer look at the tax plans of both candidates. A flavor:
"In McCain and Obama, the electorate is presented with dueling visions of what shape the economy, and particularly the nation's tax structure, should take. Obama's stated belief is that the best way to revitalize America is by raising taxes on the rich and redistributing wealth to the poor and middle class.
McCain, in contrast, would retain all of President Bush's tax cuts, including those for the wealthy, and cut corporate taxes markedly, with the aim of boosting investment in businesses and creating jobs."
The piece covers both familiar and unfamiliar ground in the contrasting of the evolving tax plans of both camps, and is worth reading in it's entirety.
The one area where the debate needs to be centered on going forward is what each candidate promises to do not just on the tax side of the equation, but on the spending side as well. And what options they'll have in implementing their tax and spending priorities through a presumably larger Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.
Our spending plans are particularly important in how the rest of the world views the long-term prospects of the U.S. dollar, and their investment plans in our country.
The article provides a better sense of McCain's priorities on the spending side than of the Obama camp. Specifically, it says:
"McCain promises that his fiscal plan will lower deficits, not raise them, because he will be austere on the spending side of the ledger. Whether he'd succeed at that is open to question, but he does have a lengthy track record of opposing pork-barrel projects and has been known to take on special interests...
"His mantra on the campaign trail is that he will veto wasteful spending and make the authors of such bills "famous," meaning infamous. And since he is a Republican -- though more in the vein of centrist Nelson Rockefeller than conservative Reagan -- he would have an easier time than would Obama in bucking a Democratic Congress."
Moderate Republicans like me, and I dare-say many Independents and conservative Democrats, would like to hear more on the "not-spending" priorities of both candidates.
Here's hoping that once we get through the distracting dramas of the Vice-Presidential and Convention nominations, both candidates can start addressing some of the real issues in earnest.
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