Letters to the Editor
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Missing The Point
Those of you who are well enough off to scoff at the meager savings of Clinton's proposal, could you please send me $30? My address is 4225 E University Dr., Apt 25, Mesa, AZ 85205. Please inform your friends of my plight and do the Christian thing. Thank you.I am not being facetious.
Those in such dire financial straits they can't afford needed medicines or even the gasoline it takes to go fetch them might do well to consider that Hillary is part of the elite power structure that caused the loss of millions of high-paying manufacturing sector jobs over the past 30 years. Hillary was part of an administration which foisted the strong dollar policy on the American public for the benefit of our crooked financial services sector, at the expense of anybody who produces a tangible good of value for a living. The same administration passed legislation to ensure the oil commodity business is as opaque as possible, meaning we the people are blind to what the big oil companies and enemy states like Saudi Arabia are doing behind closed doors.
Now, after helping to rob the working man of his cake Hillary is offering the proles a few crumbs in the form of a pissant tax cut? Why, how magnanimous of Hillary Antoinette.
Can we break out the guillotines yet?
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Clarification: I wasn't suggesting Gore should or would run
What I was suggesting is that Gore has been holding back on endorsing one Democratic candidate over another. It's hard for me to believe that he doesn't at this point have a preference.
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Oil Prices
Demand for gasoline has fallen, but the price of the commodity continues to rise due to speculative trading
Well, we don't fully know what's going on with oil trading, thanks to Hillary's husband, who signed into law legislation which makes the government virtually blind to the doings in the oil exchanges. The Clintons are a gift that just keeps on giving.
That having been said, while demand for gasoline may have fallen a smidge here in the US now that the price per gallon has more than doubled over the past few years, global demand continues to skyrocket. I know plenty of Americans think the United States is the entire planet, but the reality is the economies of many developing nations are booming - thanks in large part to the outsourcing of our manufacturing sector for the primary benefit of international elites - and their demand for resources is growing in kind. And since oil is a finite resource with a finite supply available in the market at any given moment, price rises are inevitable.
Which is another reason why a gas tax holiday is a stupid idea. If anything, we should be slowly raising gas taxes, both to encourage conservation and to get people used to an increasingly oil-scarce future in advance. Better to bring it on slowly so that people can adapt than wait for some shock - like another oil embargo, a war in the Middle East or civil upset in an oil producing state - that would result in chaos here in the US.
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@ Moira kelley
I get what you are saying but I don't equate pandering to being strong-willed. I think fighting for what you actually believe in is being strong-willed. Clinton is doing what Kerry did, move to the right on all positions - but you aren't going to out Republican the Republicans. You have to make an argument for your ideas.
As for ignoring McCain - Salon and the rest of the MSM has been ignoring that guys slip ups for years. His free-pass is something we agree on, but this isn't the place to discuss it. This is about actual differences between two Democratic candidates.
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@ FredBizzle
"What this is about is electing someone who will be honest with the electorate about the challenges we face. Who knows if Obama is that person, but it's becoming very clear that Sen. Clinton is not."
I'd argue not only that Sen. Clinton is not that person (this is just a fact to me, at this point--this latest pander is only one of many pieces of data to lead me to this conclusion), but that Obama is that person.
Or at the very least, wants to be that person.
It depends on us.
In Philadelphia, his speech was as honest, direct and sophisticated as any I've ever heard. That he delivered it on the campaign trail is a very major coup, in my opinion.
Now, compare that speech to his latest repudiation of Wright.
The latter, while not necessarily dishonest, was a pander. He was forced to address, in dumbed-down terms, what we sought to address in Philadelphia.
What this tells me is that, while not above pandering or capitulation or whatever you choose to call it, his first instinct is to tell the truth.
He risked an awful lot in Philadelphia and arguably paid the price for it because he was ultimately forced to deal with the same issue weeks down the road.
I see someone who wants to tell the American people the truth. He not only says as much, he does as much. Philadelphia was one example. Calling this latest gimmick a gimmick is another.
And he may well pay for it, electorally.
This, more than just about anything else, tells me the kind of politician we're dealing with.
Of course he's still mortal and yes, he's still a politician, in the worst sense of the word, but my God, he's leaps and bounds ahead of anything I've seen since perhaps Mario Cuomo.
Could he disappoint or become increasingly corrupt?
Of course, but the point is, he has light years to go before he enters Clinton territory on that count.
This is why being (relatively speaking) a "Washington neophyte" is a great strength and not a weakness at all.
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you HRC supporters really think your price/gallon will go down if there's a "gas tax holiday?"
Wake up & smell the bacon! You'll be paying the same at the pump, guaranteed. There will just be more $$ between you & the well that someone else will pocket.
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Facts
Perhaps SenatorClinton just noticed who get elected and who does not. Republicans have campaigned out of a land of Fantasy since Ronald Reagan's "Laffer Curve", and have held the White House for five of the seven terms since then.
Why do our pundits demand seven decimal place precision and perfection from Democratic candidates while Republicans pass of whoppers on an almost daily basis without a word of comment?
Democrats have to propose a guaranteed successful plan for rextricating American from Bush's quagmire in Iraq. John McCain gets to say "stay the course" and it's off to the next media barbecue.
John McCain was the one who first proposed a gas tax holiday, putting the difference on our children's credit card. But all the pundits can talk about is how "Hillary's gas tax proposal" doesn't make sense.