Fully Myelinated

Math and Editorials The Washington Post took a look at McCain's budget plan, and surprise, surprise, the numbers don't come close to matching up with reality and are intentionally and profoundly misleading. Of course, there's been all sorts of "he said, she said" articles written about how both candidates are fudging their numbers, but whereas Obama's numbers may be unrealistically optimistic, they are not that far off, and certainly bear a passing relationship to reality. McCain's-- not so much.

In an editorial, the Post simply sums it up, thusly: "The plan is not credible." The editorial goes on to deconstruct the political impossibility and fundamental dishonesty of McCain's budget plan. One thing that I found quite interesting about this, though, is that it appears as an editorial The truth is, though, there's no reason it should not run as an A1 news story. Any way you look at it, McCain's numbers do not add up, and this editorial is based on researched facts, not speculative opinions. It is a shame the Post did not have the courage to simply run this as a news story and chose to pretend this damning, fact-based criticism of McCain is opinion.

Posted by shgreene ( Jul 14 2008, 03:59:10 PM EDT ) Permalink

The internets Talk about being out of touch with ordinary Americans-- John McCain has never even used the internet. Your typical trash collector these days is probably more internet-literate than John McCain. This video wonderfully satirizes McCain's ignorance.

I'll just borrow Ezra's smart commentary on the matter:

Meanwhile, McCain's confession that he soon hopes to be able to use a computer to access the internet all by himself really throws Gore's enthusiastic promotion of his own role in helping the internet into sharper relief, doesn't it? Gore may have been infelicitous in the phrasing of his comment (which was then substantially distorted to look even worse), but he truthfully revealed himself to have been decades ahead of the political system, and indeed the country, in understanding the single most transformative technology of our times. Eight years later -- eight years in which the internet only became more important, mind you -- McCain is admitting that he's decades behind the political system, and the country, in learning to use the interwebs. Yet McCain's admission is seen as sort of cute, in a doddering oh-Grandpa-Simpson sort of way, while Gore's comments apparently revealed him as unfit to be president.

Posted by shgreene ( Jul 14 2008, 01:17:43 PM EDT ) Permalink