McCain=Chump Change

After eight years of George W. Bush, most Americans have an acute case of voter remorse. The guy who was offerred up as someone we might like to sit down and have a beer with has brought our country close to disaster. A failing economy, energy and financial crises, and foreign policy, rising costs, lower wages, poor healthcare, and crumbling infastructure leave us feeling cheated,
scammed, and bamboozled. Every four years, we seem to be suckered in. Why are Republicans so good at convincing us to vote against our own self-interests? Are we that gullible? We're no chumps! But we may wind up on the losing end again.

Change is the big slogan for this election. Obama has been talking about bringing real change, a new day, to Washington for nearly two years. The McCain camp jumped on the change bandwagon at the RNC in Minneapolis, in an attempt to steal the ball. The contrast between the two candidates lies in the kind of change each offers. The question for American voters is: Are we going to cast our votes for real change, or are we going to wind up with chump change?

John McCain characterizes himself as a straight talker, He even named his campaign bus the Straight Talk Express. However, McCain's pride in straight talk conceals a sly deflection strategy. It has served him well. To avoid being hit and run over by the bus, we need to recognize McCain's clever strategy to understand the kind of change he offers.

Listen to McCain's speeches and ads. Listen to how his deflection strategy works. McCain begins by promising to level with Americans. He offers listeners a little "straight talk." Rare for most politicians, he volunteers to confess to a few faults. By claiming to be frank and up front with voters, McCain pre-empts immediate criticism. After he apologizes for his past transgressions and promises that it will never happen again, he praises the American people by speaking about their honest hard work, their struggles, and recognizes their outrage. Like a cheating boyfriend who promises never to again stray, the deflection strategy allows McCain to keep on repeating the same mistakes and lies. The result is that McCain continues to get away with it.

Here is a recent example. As John McCain addressed this week's financial crisis, he swore to rout out greed and corruption on Wall Street. However, his voting record, his website, and decades of his rhetoric show that for decades, he supported smaller government and deregulation. These planks form the core of his party's platform. Knowing that McCain's campaign is staffed with lobbyists like Phil Gramm who fought hard for deregulation and with advisors like Carly Fiorina, who has profited from deregulation, McCain's promises just don't add up. In regard to a number of issues, John McCain tells voters what they want to hear even though his record supports opposing policies. There is a truth, integrity, and credibility problem in the McCain campaign.

Will Americans allow themselves to be sucker punched in November? Will America wind up with the insultingly insignificant change that continues to allow fat cats and lobbyists to prosper? Or will we clean out the old guard and bring about real change for the middle class? After the multiple disasters of the past 8 years, do the Republicans deserve another chance? Will American voters allow themselves to be duped again?

As I see it, the choice between John McCain and Barack Obama is a choice between chump change and change we can believe in.
No McCain, no Palin, no way!