Cafe de Mello

As I write this there are 25 hours and 59 minutes until the polls close in California tomorrow, and hopefully we will see the end of the McCain and Palin Magical Mystery Tour. Until then, we have little choice but to endure a final round of McCain and Palin misrepresenting Obama's positions. It would be a relief, if the McCain and his running mate would spend this time trying to sell their proposals, but their proposals are so dreadful, they will instead focus on their misrepresentation of Obama.

In the last few hours McCain and Palin have been dwelling on what they characterize as Obama's anti-coal stance. They derive their belief on a partial quotation from an interview Obama gave to the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board. The quotes as McCain and Palin use them have Obama saying "I haven't been some coal booster," and "if the industry wants to build coal-fired power plants, then they can go ahead and try, he says. But they can do it only in a way that will bankrupt the coal industry."

Boy do that have that wrong. Either they don't read very well or they don't care about the truth at all.

In the interview, Obama was explaining his position on coal as an energy source as it relates to the environment. Coal, as the editorial board noted, is one of the most environmentally harmful sources of energy. Obama did say that he was not a "coal booster" and that he supported cap and trade legislation that would make it hugely expensive to produce a new coal plant and that under the cap and trade system paying to pollute that much would bankrupt the enterprise. He also says that he does not support taking coal "off the table for any ideological reason" and that he would support the use of coal, if clean coal technologies are available.

In other words, Obama's position is more complex and more correct than McCain's. Obama does not support the increased use of coal at its current rate of pollution. He is in favor of research on clean coal technology, and if that becomes effective, he will support the use of coal.

Part of McCain's proposal is to increase the exportation of coal to China, where its use is creating a huge pollution problem. Someone might mention to McCain that the world's environment is a whole, and that increased pollution in China leads to global warming, just like increased pollution in the US.

McCain and Palin's other continuing distortion is their attempt to paint Obama as a "Tax and Spend" liberal. They fail to notice that Obama's tax increase (a whooping 4% for families making $250,000 and above) is mostly their to pay for a tax cut for 95% of all American's and that this wealthiest 5% have enjoyed huge benefits from George W. Bush's tax cuts that favored the wealthy.

As far as Obama being a tax and spend liberal, for the last 8 years the Republican president has presided over a massive increase in the federal deficit. President Clinton paid down the national debt and left Bush with $5.7 trillion in national debt. Under his budgetary plan the entire debt might have been paid off by 2013. Instead of following that plan, Bush instituted massive tax cuts that went mainly to the richest 5% of Americans. This is part of what has led to the national debt almost doubling in 8 years to $10.2 trillion. The budget deficit for 2008 is projected at $407 billion dollars. If this is conservatism, it is credit card conservatism with the wealthy in America having a party and putting it on a credit card for our children to pay off.

Obama's tax cuts for the middle class are paid for, and his spending programs to not match the spending orgy the Republicans have presided over.

Now can we stop playing in McCain's fantasy world and elect someone who is really prepared to be president? Vote Barack Obama!