Welcome aboard, Wendy!
Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional.”
When I entered this campaign, it was at the 2006 Edwards staff Christmas party. My nametag read “Millie Worker.” When former Senator John Edwards read it, he laughed and said, “That makes you like my parent.” He went on to say, “Would you please come down to Chapel Hill so we can talk about what’s coming up.” I sat in John and Elizabeth’s living room for two and half hours. I left North Carolina, energized about politics for the first time in months.
I didn’t hear from anyone for three weeks.
When I finally received the official offer, it was the kind of political offer that said, “Go away.” That happens. It’s their campaign and I just assumed that I had been pushed out. The problem was that I had canceled a number of freelance writing jobs because I had assumed that when John said, “Start right away” I would. I needed a job right away and so I took the one in front of me with Senator Barack Obama.
When we first met, Obama and I had a nice conversation about speeches and writing, and at the end of the meeting I handed him a pocket-sized bottle of Grey Poupon mustard so he wouldn’t have to ask staff if it was okay to put it on his hamburger. At the bottom of the bottle was the logo for “The South Beach Diet” and he snapped, “Oh so you read People magazine.” He seemed to think that I was commenting on his bathing suit picture.
I helped with his announcement speech and others. I worked in the Senate when he was in D.C. One day after a hearing on Darfur, we were walking back to the office. I was still hobbling from a very bad ankle injury and in a very kind and gentle way he offered his arm when we approached the stairs. But later in debate preps and phone conversations and meetings, I realized that I had made a mistake. I didn’t belong. No matter how hard I tried, my heart wasn’t in it anymore.
See campaigns get complicated when you’ve written for so many Democrats. Not only had I written for Senator Edwards, but I had also been Senator Hillary Clinton’s speechwriter. Senator Joe Biden is a “good looking” man and his care after my father almost died from an aneurysm is the kind of kindness you never forget. When I saw Edwards at a traffic light in D.C. about a year after our meeting, he asked for help and I did and it was an honor to help him with his concession speech. And when the primary ended, it was a privilege to help Michelle Obama with a stump speech, be considered as a speechwriter for the V.P. nominee again, and send friends in Chicago ideas until the financial crisis hit. This is what the Democratic Party has been for me; it’s family. Now, it doesn’t even feel like a distant cousin.
This drift started on a personal level with the fall of former Senator John Edwards. It got stronger during the Democratic National Convention when I counted the substantive mentions of poverty on one hand and a whole bunch of bad canned partisan lines against Senator John McCain. Some faith was lifted after Senator Hillary Clinton’s grace during a difficult hour. But that faith was dashed when I saw that someone had raided the Caligula set and planted the old columns at Invesco Field.
The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”
Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.
As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”
The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.
Our economy is in the tank for many complicated reasons, especially because people don’t have enough money. So let them keep it. Let businesses keep it so they can create jobs and stay here and weather this storm. And yet, the Democratic ideology remains the same. Our approach to problems—big government solutions paid for by taxing the rich and big and smaller companies—is just as tired and out of date as trickle down economics. How about a novel approach that simply finds a sane way to stop the bleeding?
That’s not exactly the philosophy of a Democrat. Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.” Did Senator Clinton make mistakes? Of course. She’s human.
But here we are about a week out and it’s déjà vu all over again. Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt?
Oh right, this story goes to the sincerity of her Hockey Mom persona. What planet am I living on? Everyone knows that when it comes to appearance, there’s a double standard for women politicians. Remember the speech Speaker Pelosi gave on the floor the day of the bailout vote? Check out how many stories commented on her hair that day and how many mentioned Congressman Barney Frank’s.
Here we are discussing Governor Palin’s clothes—oh wait, now we’re on to the make-up—not what either man is going to do to save our economy. This isn’t an accident. It is part of a manufactured narrative that she is stupid.
Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper. When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can’t learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national stage with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday Night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot—that’s a sign of both humor and humanity.
Has she made mistakes? Of course, she’s human too. But the attention paid to her mistakes has been unprecedented compared to Senator Obama’s “57 states” remarks or Senator Biden using a version of the Samuel Johnson quote, “There’s nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus a man’s thoughts.”
But thank God for election 2008. We can talk about the wardrobe and make-up even though most people don’t understand the details about Senator Obama’s plan with Iraq. When he says, “all combat troops,” he’s not talking about all troops—it leaves a residual force of as large as 55,000 indefinitely. That’s not ending the war; that’s half a war.
I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party.
I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.
Before I cast my vote, I will correct my party affiliation and change it to No Party or Independent. Then, in the spirit of election 2008, I’ll get a manicure, pedicure, and my hair done. Might as well look pretty when I am unemployed in a city swimming with “D’s.”
Whatever inspiration I had in Chapel Hill two years ago is gone. When people say how excited they are about this election, I can now say, “Maybe for you. But I lost my home.”
October 28th, 2008
New York to PA Buses, Free:
Show your Support for John McCain in the Keystone State
McCain-Palin Volunteer Buses will leave from outside Penn Station, along West 31st Street right before Eighth Avenue at 9am next Saturday and Sunday, so long as there are enough volunteers to fill a bus.
The bus will return to Penn Station from Scranton around 8:30pm each evening.
Volunteers should RSVP to citizens@johnmccain.com each week by Thursday at noon with their name, phone number and the days they can travel.
The Democrats for McCain Victory office in Scranton is located at 420 North Main Street, Scranton, PA 18504. The phone number there is 570-951-9923.
The Republican McCain Victory office in Scranton is located at 430 Lackawanna Avenue, Scranton, PA 18503.
Caifornia Cavalry: Buses leaving from Torrance, Burbank, Newport Beach, Sacramento and San Diego for Nevada, to canvas there.
Email: california@johnmccain.com
I’m told dress is BCPO (business casual, pants optional).
Arizona to New Mexico:
Call the McCain HQ in Phoenix at 602-334-4440. Bus leaves Friday through
Monday to New Mexico. FREE hotel.
October 28th, 2008
Well, I could very well add several other states (like VA where they are throwing out military votes … support the troops, my ass), but this is very troubling:
Judge rules Ohio homeless voters may list park benches as addresses
Yeah, you read right. Lefty judge rules that a friggin’ park bench can be used as an address. Look, I’ve always believed that everyone has the right to vote but this is going too far.
How do we know they are homeless? How do we know fraud isn’t going to be committed by the “homeless” voter who registered to vote 20 times with ACORN or some other lefty group from the same “bench” address, but under a different name?
Another reason why showing an ID should be mandatory in ALL states.
October 28th, 2008
RO RUH!!!
State Senator Dianne Wilkerson was arrested this morning after an 18-month undercover investigation by Boston Police and the FBI in which she allegedly accepted eight bribes worth $23,500.
The 15-year Democratic lawmaker allegedly accepted cash payoffs that ranged from $500 to $10,000 to help a nightclub secure a liquor license and to assist a private developer who wanted to build on state land. Wilkerson allegedly tried to influence legislation in the state Senate as recently as last week to help the developer in the Crosstown section of Roxbury, near the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue.
The probe included one cooperating witness and at least two undercover FBI agents. Investigators made audio and video recordings and took still photographs of Wilkerson allegedly accepting cash payoffs starting in June 2007 and continuing through this month.One series of photographs displayed by federal authorities at a press conference this morning show Wilkerson allegedly stuffing a $1,000 payoff into her bra during a meeting with an informant at No. 9 Park restaurant that was surreptitiously recorded with audio and video. The 10 $100 bills were not in an envelope and were clearly visible in the photograph dated June 18, 2007.
According to a 32-page affidavit, Wilkerson also brought along a grandchild when she accepted a $1,000 kickback on Aug. 31, 2007, at the Fill-A-Buster restaurant, which is directly across the street from the State House.
“Public service is a privilege. Voters and taxpayers expect that elected officials will do what is right for their constituents, not what is financially best for themselves,” US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said this morning at the press conference. “Citizens place extraordinary trust in those it gives the greatest authority. And with that authority comes the obligation to act with fairness and honesty.”
Wilkerson is expected to be arraigned this afternoon in US District Court in Boston. She faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted, with more potential charges pending.
Wilkerson’s campaign manager Boyce Slayman confirmed that Wilkerson was led away in handcuffs.
October 28th, 2008
The McCain health-care insurance tax credit may well be one of the most misunderstood proposals of this presidential election. Barack Obama has been ruthless in his attacks. But the tax credit is highly progressive and will provide a powerful incentive for people to purchase health insurance. These features under normal circumstances should endear Democrats to the proposal.
There has been a lot of rhetoric and misstatements, but what exactly does Sen. McCain have in mind? He would replace the current income tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance with a refundable tax credit — $5,000 for those who purchase family coverage and $2,500 for individual coverage. Mr. McCain would also reform insurance markets to stem the growth in health insurance premiums.
What many may not realize is that the federal government already “spends” roughly $300 billion to $400 billion through the tax code to encourage people to pay for their health care through employer-sponsored health insurance. This subsidy takes the form of the exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance from both income and payroll taxes.
Still, some 45 million Americans are uninsured; and the growth in health-care spending continues to outpace the growth in incomes and the economy, which portends further increases in the number of uninsured. The employer-based system itself is eroding. Voters should be wondering whether there is a better approach than this subsidy.
Consider the current exclusion. Its value rises with how much someone spends on health care, and how much of this spending is funneled through employer-sponsored health-care coverage. This creates an incentive for people to purchase policies with low deductibles, or which cover routine spending. These policies look a lot less like insurance and more like prefunded spending accounts purchased through employers and managed by insurance companies. Consider homeowners and auto insurance policies. Do these cover routine spending on cleaning the gutters or tuning up a car?
The subsidy encourages people to buy bigger policies that cover more, and leads to greater health-care spending. Moreover, lower deductibles and coverage of routine spending dulls consumers’ sensitivity to price. Reducing the tax bias should result in insurance that is more focused on catastrophic coverage and less on routine spending.
By replacing the income tax exclusion with a fixed, refundable credit, the McCain proposal reduces the tax bias for large insurance policies. Because the credit is for a fixed amount, regardless of how much you spend on health care, it helps break the link between the existing tax subsidy and how much is spent on health care. This improves incentives in the health-care market by reducing the bias that has contributed to such a high level of health-care spending.
Moreover, the credit provides a powerful incentive for people to purchase insurance. The two tax provisions — the new credit and the repeal of the income tax exclusion — on net provide a substantial tax cut of $1.4 trillion over 10 years. Not only do most Americans receive a tax cut under the McCain proposal, but the tax cut is directed toward low and moderate income taxpayers.
Read the rest.
October 28th, 2008
But no front page news about the assassination plot against Bush? Patterico makes a great point on the continued bias of the leftwing press.
According to court documents and decisions, the assassination plot against Bush involved two men who “met with a potential accomplice” and “attempted to recruit that person to participate in the assassination of the President.” Further, when the men were arrested, they “were en route to Crawford, Texas to conduct reconnaissance at the President’s ranch.”
One of the men made “oral statements to the effect that one of them, or both of them working together, would shoot the President with a rifle at the President’s ranch near Crawford, Texas.” His co-defendant is alleged to have specifically talked about shooting the President “with a modified military .30-06 caliber rifle” at the Crawford ranch, and made “statements about specific locations from which he could fire the rifle.”
Yet that story got no press attention whatsoever that I could find.
October 28th, 2008
That’s right, she illegally rummaged through Joe the Plumber’s files to find dirt. Oh, did I mention she’s a major Obama supporter, donating $2,500 to his campaign?
Ohio’s inspector general is investigating why a state agency director approved checking the state child-support computer system for information on “Joe the Plumber.”
Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed today that she OK’d the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate.
She said there were no political reasons for the check on the sudden presidential campaign fixture though the Support Enforcement Tracking System.
Amid questions from the media and others about “Joe the Plumber,” Jones-Kelley said she approved a check to determine if he was current on any ordered child-support payments.
Such information was not and cannot be publicly shared, she said. It is unclear if Wurzelbacher is involved in a child-support case. Reports state that he lives alone with a 13-year-old son.
“Our practice is when someone is thrust quickly into the public spotlight, we often take a look” at them, Jones-Kelley said, citing a case where a lottery winner was found to owe past-due child support. “Our practice is to basically look at what is coming our way.”
Ohio Inspector General Thomas P. Charles confirmed today that he is investigating the incident to determine if “Joe’’s” records were legally accessed by Job and Family Services employees.
The use of a state computer system to search for information on Wurzelbacher is the fourth uncovered by The Dispatch.
Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland (DEMOCRAT) [who appointed Jones-Kelly this past January] is satisfied that there are no political overtures to the check on Wurzelbacher, a spokesman said.
I don’t think so Mrs. Jones-Kelley. One does not do a search on just anybody when they are “thrust into the spotlight”.
It didn’t stop at Child Services either. Joe’s name was searched at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, in the Toledo Police Department’s criminal records, and in the office of the AG.
The ironic thing about this entire situation is Liberals are always screaming about privacy rights, the Patriot Act, etal. but have NO problem (or see no problem) searching for dirt on an average citizen who just happened to ask a friggin’ question to a candidate for POTUS, who just happened to be on Joe’s street. No wonder the source for the Ayers babysitting story is scared shitless. His/her story is explosive and Obama’s thugs would stop at nothing to silence him/her. RIP Douglas Young, if you know what I mean.
October 28th, 2008
