Obama Should Put His Money Where His Mouth Is...

Obama is has assumed the Robin Hood role in the 2008 election.  Here's a thread you may not be aware of.  How much money is the Obama/Biden ticket giving to charity out of their own back pockets?  Aren't we our brother's keeper?

It is easy to talk a good game, but you need to look at a person's actions.  Obama talks about providing for the needs of the poor, but his own charitable donations don't support that.  During his years as a community organizer - when he and his wife were attorneys and both making good money, how much of his own cash did he dno'ate to the poor and under-priveleged in South Chicago?   

Here is a spreadsheet I found that shows Obama's adjusted gross income since 2000 along with the corresponding year's charitable gifting.  As you can see, from 2000-2004 his donations average around 1% of his income.  Only since 2005 has he given more, maxing out at between 4.7% and 6.1%.  Granted, he made more money during those years due to book deals, but those dates also correspond to his more visible years in the Senate where those figures are tracked a little more closely through his tax returns.  

As you know, I'm no McCain fan, but  in 2006 and 2007, John McCain gave 28% and 27% of his personal income (not Cindy's- they file separately) to charity.  Obama says he is all about spreading the wealth- as long as it isn't his.

If you think Obama is bad, Joe Biden made almost $320k last year.  (his spreadsheet is on the left)  He gave $995 to charity during the same period.  Talk about intellecutal dishonesty!  I do have a bit of a disclaimer here- anyone refuting this could say that Obama and Biden COULD HAVE given more and just not claimed it on their tax returns.  May I just say BS to this.  If that were the case, why would they worry about deducting ANY of their donations?  Another argument could be that their donations were given in time and not in money.  That may very well be true, but given the sweeping redistribution of wealth they are seeking to impose, this answer seems to be all too convenient.  What hypocrisy.

I Voted.

I just voted- Yes, I voted for John McCain (hold on a second while I go barf... thanks, I'm back now). I wasn't entirely sure I was going to do so. The Libertarian candidate (Bob Barr) was still a toss-up in the back of my mind. It became clear that this would have been a throw away vote once I pulled into the parking lot. Obama REALLY is winning on the get out the vote front. There was a chalk line drawn in a semi-circle from the front door of the library where I cast my ballot. I was told that this was a buffer zone where no campaigning could take place. Pacing the outside of the line were people dressed in Obama-logoed garb handing out tracts for him.

To be fair, there was one gentleman who was a Republican candidate for the county commission (not affiliated with the McCain campaign), so it wasn't only a pro-Obama effort. The poor guy did have a McCain/Palin pin on his hat, and it looked like he had taken a fair amount of grief from the Obama crowd. I spoke to him for a minute about his campaign, and as I was taking a leaflet from him, an Obama worker rudely stuffed a stack of papers in my hand on top of his leaflet. I told her that I didn't appreciate her forcefulness, and handed it back to her. She left without a word. Disclaimer: This is not to say that all people who work the precincts for Obama are rude. This just happened to be my experience today.

Once inside, the voting line snaked in and out of rows of books. It was interesting to stand there and people-watch. The two ladies in front of me were very much into Obama. They were talking to other people they knew in line about the calling they were doing on behalf of the campaign. From what I could overhear (yes I was being intentionally nosy), they were going to be in high gear until November 4th. They mentioned that they were working on putting together a call bank at a local strip mall, and would be manning it 12 hours a day until the election.

It is no secret that Obama has got a better ground game than McCain, and I witnessed it first hand today. Oh the times, they are a-changin’. God help us all…

Obama vs. Joe the Plumber

Well?  What did you think?  I think McCain won this debate- in substance at least. Here's a list of the stronger points:

1.  He did a better job tonight of picking apart Obama's plans- especially the semantical "get out of jail free" card on nuclear energy- the one where Obama supports nuclear energy as long as it is "safe".

  

2.  The "I'm not George Bush" line was also very effective.  Wish McCain would have been more assertive in this regard in earlier debates.

  

3.  McCain could have spent more time on the "present" votes that Obama used so often in the past.  He could have mad a valid argument here, driving home the point that Obama refuses to take stances on substantive issues.

4.  The abortion issue was handled better by McCain, but there was blood in the water when Obama brought up his vote concerning the treatment of babies that survived an abortion.  Obama lawyered around the issue about how and why he voted the way he did (esentially infanticide in my view) and McCain just let it drop.  This could have been a much more powerful blow.

5.  "Joe the Plumber" was an effective tool for McCain tonight.  I think Obama was caught off guard by Joe, and had no effective means by which to counter in tonight's debate.  This should be a red flag to other "Joe's" out there, and it put a face on all the people in the country who will be affected by either candidate's presidency.  McCain came off as being more in touch with the issues that mattered to Joe.

In terms of delivery, I think Obama wins.  I learned something tonight b sheer accident.  I spent half of the debate listening from the kitchen while cleaning up a spill in the refrigerator.  The parts of the debate I thought McCain won were the parts where I didn't see the him talking.  McCain (as always) looked twitchy and agitated.  Obama (as always) was cool as a cucumber.  McCain's eye rolling isn't going to play well in the morning.  Why can't the Republicans find a guy who is at least SOMEWHAT charismatic???

My opinion:  Net effect zero.  Had McCain been this tough in the first two debates, he may have increased his chances.  Every post-debate show I've seen so far says the same thing, but I think that their motivations are different than mine.  I see it as a series of missed opportunities while the network news teams try to run out the clock for Obama.  I've never been a huge media conspiracy theorist, but I can't help but see it in this instance.