Undecided MD - The Undecided Voter Project (sitios de interés)
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1. Neither candidate had the courage (or, perhaps more disturbingly, the
knowledge) to stand up against the hastily written and poorly conceived
$750 billion bailout package even as major economists and investors such
as Warren Buffet and George Soros were protesting, loudly, that the
package was severely flawed. Neither candidate even raised the spectre
that this President, who never shirked from using crises as a means of
railroading his idealogically driven policies through the legislature,
was doing this once again. Obama and McCain, who have both discussed the
failed policies of the last 8 years (more so, Obama) did not, even once,
suggest that the most significant and costly of these packages might
represent the culmination of 8 years of failure by being the most
collossal failure of them all. To not even question this showed a lack
of leadership and a willingness to pander to public perception.
2. Neither candidate has proposed the kind of sweeping changes to US
transportation policies which will be needed to reduce our dependency
upon foreign oil until such time as we can mass produce more affordable
efficient automobiles. Such policies would limiting suburban sprawl by
limiting tax incentives for developers, creation of stragetic enterprise
zones, greater funding for public transportation, gasoline and
transportation tax revenue sharing with other transportation modalities
(e.g. light rail, railroads, bikeways).
3. Neither candidate has advocated an increased emphasis on the use of
alternative energy and energy efficiency aimed at the consumer through
reasonable tax credits for the use of these technologies. Most
significant financial incentives have been aimed at producers rather
than consumers which doesn't, necessarily, result in changes in
consumption. Biofuels, for example, are more expensive that dinofuels
which is a significant impediment to their use by consumers.
4. Neither candidate has recognized that principle among the reasons for
the collapse of the financial markets was that, for the first time in
history, the growth of the economy was not through the growth of fixed
assets, such as infrastructure, and that the ultimate solution to the
problem of growing our economy is the kind of investment in
infrastructure that resulted in the explosive growth in American output
in the last century.
5. Neither candidate has acknowledged that the cost of health care is
rising at such a pace that it threatens our long term prosperity and
that simple tweaks to the existing system in the form of incentives and
disincentives will do nothing to decrease costs.
6. Both parties have relied on celebrity to triumph over experience and
demonstrated ability. The Democrats, in chosing Obama as a front runner,
have chosen an educated, intelligent and glib spokesperson, over his far
more qualified choice for Vice President, Joe Biden. The Republicans
have responded with the telegenic and folksy Palin who has lost no time
in demonstrating how thoroughly unprepared she is for the role of Vice
President. This is the fault of the voters, themselves, rather than the
candidates, who are so fed up with things as they are that they would
vote for the promise of change rather than a demonstrated ability to
effect change, but the media has been complicit in this in their
allowing the entertainment value of the campaign to trump the
newsworthiness of the candidates, their platforms and their positions.
7. Both candidates are promising way more than they can deliver. After
all of the criticism of President Bush for not asking American's to
sacrifice, why is it that neither candidate has come forth and said what
everyone knows but does not want to hear, namely, that we are headed for
hard times which means that we are going to have to make sacrifices and
that the government's principle role in this process is to guarantee
that these sacrifices will be equitably distributed across the
population so that no individual or group will be asked to make a
disproportionate sacrifice.
8. In short, neither candidate has demonstrated an ability and
willingness to lead. Leadership is not telling people what they want to
hear. Leadership is telling them the truth and demonstrating that you
have a plan to deal with it.
Sean McLinden, MD
knowledge) to stand up against the hastily written and poorly conceived
$750 billion bailout package even as major economists and investors such
as Warren Buffet and George Soros were protesting, loudly, that the
package was severely flawed. Neither candidate even raised the spectre
that this President, who never shirked from using crises as a means of
railroading his idealogically driven policies through the legislature,
was doing this once again. Obama and McCain, who have both discussed the
failed policies of the last 8 years (more so, Obama) did not, even once,
suggest that the most significant and costly of these packages might
represent the culmination of 8 years of failure by being the most
collossal failure of them all. To not even question this showed a lack
of leadership and a willingness to pander to public perception.
2. Neither candidate has proposed the kind of sweeping changes to US
transportation policies which will be needed to reduce our dependency
upon foreign oil until such time as we can mass produce more affordable
efficient automobiles. Such policies would limiting suburban sprawl by
limiting tax incentives for developers, creation of stragetic enterprise
zones, greater funding for public transportation, gasoline and
transportation tax revenue sharing with other transportation modalities
(e.g. light rail, railroads, bikeways).
3. Neither candidate has advocated an increased emphasis on the use of
alternative energy and energy efficiency aimed at the consumer through
reasonable tax credits for the use of these technologies. Most
significant financial incentives have been aimed at producers rather
than consumers which doesn't, necessarily, result in changes in
consumption. Biofuels, for example, are more expensive that dinofuels
which is a significant impediment to their use by consumers.
4. Neither candidate has recognized that principle among the reasons for
the collapse of the financial markets was that, for the first time in
history, the growth of the economy was not through the growth of fixed
assets, such as infrastructure, and that the ultimate solution to the
problem of growing our economy is the kind of investment in
infrastructure that resulted in the explosive growth in American output
in the last century.
5. Neither candidate has acknowledged that the cost of health care is
rising at such a pace that it threatens our long term prosperity and
that simple tweaks to the existing system in the form of incentives and
disincentives will do nothing to decrease costs.
6. Both parties have relied on celebrity to triumph over experience and
demonstrated ability. The Democrats, in chosing Obama as a front runner,
have chosen an educated, intelligent and glib spokesperson, over his far
more qualified choice for Vice President, Joe Biden. The Republicans
have responded with the telegenic and folksy Palin who has lost no time
in demonstrating how thoroughly unprepared she is for the role of Vice
President. This is the fault of the voters, themselves, rather than the
candidates, who are so fed up with things as they are that they would
vote for the promise of change rather than a demonstrated ability to
effect change, but the media has been complicit in this in their
allowing the entertainment value of the campaign to trump the
newsworthiness of the candidates, their platforms and their positions.
7. Both candidates are promising way more than they can deliver. After
all of the criticism of President Bush for not asking American's to
sacrifice, why is it that neither candidate has come forth and said what
everyone knows but does not want to hear, namely, that we are headed for
hard times which means that we are going to have to make sacrifices and
that the government's principle role in this process is to guarantee
that these sacrifices will be equitably distributed across the
population so that no individual or group will be asked to make a
disproportionate sacrifice.
8. In short, neither candidate has demonstrated an ability and
willingness to lead. Leadership is not telling people what they want to
hear. Leadership is telling them the truth and demonstrating that you
have a plan to deal with it.
Sean McLinden, MD