The Straitjacket Express

[babylonsister]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/carpenter/124

The Straitjacket Express
Submitted by pmcarpenter on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 7:36am. P.M. Carpenter

THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter

snip//

Starting his week of demise in Denver, McCain said at a forum that "Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace, and it’s got to be fixed."

With that, McCain had gone where no pol should ever go. It's just not wisely done, politically speaking, any more than a losing candidate would publicly insist on staying in a race because there's always the (un)happy prospect of the opposition's assassination. There are some things a pol just doesn't say or do, outside Zimbabwe. And tampering with Social Security is one of them, as George W. Bush demonstrated with (we thought) convincing finality.

McCain's keepers scurried to clear things up: The "disgrace" -- the "absolute disgrace" at that -- they said, isn't the social program itself; it's, uh, something else, one of those classic distinctions without any difference.

His staff then committed the colossal error of unleashing McCain to clarify things on his own, which he promptly sorta did/didn't the following day on CNN. "They pay their taxes, and right now their taxes are going to pay the retirement of present-day retirees. That’s why it’s broken; that’s why we can fix it," said McCain in a stupendous display of non sequitur.

The "fix," as McCain's Web site says with even less lucidity, for our system of social security that depends on current taxes is the redirection of taxes into purely personal accounts -- "but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept."

I defy anyone to cogently decipher that utterly incoherent dependent clause which supposedly addresses a Social Security "fix." But some loose analysis with the aid of political tarot cards implies just one thing: privatization. And yes, that should do it. That would really shore things up, especially on our carefree, happy-go-lucky, ever-ascending Wall Street of today.

Why Barack Obama is slinking from town-hall forum stages co-populated by a befuddled, politically suicidal mind like that is beyond me. Right, I understand, just let McCain keep digging, but a little one-on-one time might speed the process.

[nancyr]

1. He really belongs in a rest home.

He's clueless and confused.

[Merlot]

3. No, he isn't clueless and confused any more than bushco is "dumb"

He's not very good at delivering the message is all, but the message is clear. Stop cutting him slack. The message is privitazation, removal of all social netowrks (medicare, vets, etc).

It's the repub partyline.

[DCKit]

2. OMFG. Yet they claim he's competitive with Obama in the polls?

Do they expect us to believe that a full 50% of the populace does not depend on, or know anyone on social security? That we have no concern for our retirement years?

No doubt his plan to "reform" social security would be to invest it in the stock market - where it could be raided/raped monthly by his handlers.

Keep talking Asshat and you'll be in the WH before you know it.

[laststeamtrain]

4. He touched the third rail. He's done. Toast.

McCain on Social Security will be a beautiful ad.