Some Observation on the Recent Presidential Election

Political historians and planners will be studying the recent election under a microscope. I have a few observations of my own.

1. The End of Campaign Reform
I think that if only one conclusion is drawn from the recent election, it is that adhering to the discipline of campaign reform, as Sen. McCain did, is political suicide. There is no way to compensate when the spending is about 10 to 1 against you. The Obama campaign directly spent about $650 million dollars on his election bid. However, that does not include the amounts raised by the Democratic National Committee or Political Action Committees (PACs). While it is true that PACs are regulated to the extent that they directly contribute to a candidate, there is no limit to how much PACs can spend on advertising in support of candidates or in promotion of their agendas or beliefs, or against competing candidates.

How much the various PACs raise is available at the Federal Election Commission website. PACs are required under law to register with the commission and file detailed financial reports of monies raised and spent. Link: Federal Election Commission Candidate PAC Finances

2. The Death of the Political Intellectuals
On November 9, the New York Times ran an Op-ed piece about the Obama win being a win for "intellectuals". I am not so confident of that assessment. True, Governor Sarah Palin was a surprise candidate for Vice President. Her credentials were questionable and her educational background includes "only" a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from the University of Idaho. Both Governor Palin and Sen. McCain's lack of educational "fiber" were widely reported in the populist press. However, her opposite, Vice-President Elect Joe Biden graduated 76th in a class of 85 from Syracuse University College of Law. He was nearly expelled for plagiarism while at that school. Link: New York Times: Biden Admits Plagiarism in School According to the 1987 article "Mr. Biden released a 65-page file, obtained by the Senator from the Syracuse University College of Law, that he said contained all the records of his years there. It disclosed relatively poor grades in college and law school, mixed evaluations from teachers and details of the plagiarism".

Sen. Barack Obama was also a surprise candidate who did attend Harvard Law School after attending Occidental College and Columbia University. He graduated from Columbia University without honors, which indicates a GPA of less than 3.3. However, he did later graduate from Harvard Law School magna cum laude which according to that school puts him in the top 10% of his class. As Pres. Elect Obama has not released his transcripts of any college, it is unknown what his true GPAs were.

3. The Triumph of Populism over Brains.
If the Obama campaign was a triumph of "intellectuals" as has been posed by certain "journalists" including the New York Times, that was not reflected in the economics or the math. Both the McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden campaigns were marked by overt populism. The Obama-Biden campaign made consistent promises to protect the "Middle Class", but with little substance to back that up. Sen. Biden was effectively muzzled toward the end of the campaign, in part by a willing press, which ignored his gaffes, most notably his October 28 statement that the tax breaks "should go to middle-class people, people who make $150,000 a year." This was in direct conflict with the official statements of the Obama-Biden Campaign.

The McCain-Palin campaign also waffled in and out of populism, but candidate Sen. McCain seemed to have difficulty in this area, as his message was inconsistent and he could not effectively articulate the details of his health plan. It is pure speculation on my part, but this may have been because Sen. McCain was well aware that the Federal Government will have great difficulty in funding and delivering the current Social Security and Medicare plans, much less the expansionism promoted by his and the Obama-Biden campaigns. In March 2007, the former Comptroller General of the US stated that the current plans "are mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren at record rates, and that is not only an issue of fiscal irresponsibility, it's an issue of immorality." Link: Comptroller General Walker on the 60 Minutes Show

The campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton was also marked by more and more populism as it ground on and on, and gradually imploded. It also suffered with an inconsistent message, as she attempted to extend her message, and made more and more promises in her bid to win the Democratic Party nomination.

I attribute much of the inability of all of the opponents to the Obama juggernaut to clearly and concisely deliver their message, to an difficulty to make outlandish, populist promises that the more seasoned candidates knew they cannot deliver. Obama, in his naivete or political populist bent, had no such problems, no history and no difficulty articulating something for everybody which would easily be accomplished by "spreading the wealth around."

The platforms of all of the candidates included "tax breaks" for the middle and lower classes. However, the Obama-Biden campaign went far beyond this to include the protection of Social Security and Medicare, the expansion of Prescription Drug benefits, additional health care subsidies, the elimination of income taxes on lower income ($50,000) seniors, tax cuts for working families, energy rebates for all Americans, increasing the military by 92,000 men, protection and enhanced programs for veterans, eliminating 2.5 million barrels of imported oil per day by 2018, additional tax cuts, etc., etc. and the simultaneous restoration of fiscal discipline in Washington. All this would be accomplished while the economy is melting down and some economists are articulating massive unemployment, substantially reduced tax revenues, terrible deficits and possibly a depression.

In his November 9 article in the NYT, author Nicolas D. Kristof while lauding Obama's Intellectual win, stated that "We can’t solve our educational challenges when, according to polls, Americans are approximately as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution, and when one-fifth of Americans believe that the sun orbits the Earth." However, those same Americans can vote, and vote they did! That was the triumph of the election. Link: Obama and the War on Brains

4. The Naked Bias of the Media
There is little doubt that the media chose to ignore certain controversial aspects of Barack Obama during the primary and election processes. This was not questioned.

It was reported that certain members of the Democratic congress and party went beyond this one-sidedness to call for restoration of "fairness" laws to gag opponents, most notably right leaning talk shows. I am referring to the FCC "Fairness Doctrine" a policy that required radio and TV stations to, in effect, provide equal time on matters of public importance. Not doing so would be the basis for repealing the broadcast license of the station. During the recent election, there were calls to reinstate this doctrine. However, right leaning radio station commentators turned this into such a controversy, that it is really difficult to ultimately determine whether there was a true push for the doctrine. As is usually the case, if either the right or the left stirs up their followers, the resulting "data storm" obliterates most of the traces. There is no doubt that the Obama campaign did issue a "wire" to democrats to block the call-in lines to a WGN radio program the night of August 27.

This type of behaviour should be of concern to Americans, but it apparently is not. It is of great concern to me. When a political party is reaching for power and predicting a landslide "victory", and then goes further and attempts to impede or prevent free speech, that is of grave concern to me. Of greater concern is the complicity of the media which raises no alarm bells and does not question overt attempts to limit one's free speech under the constitution. This does not bode well for individual freedom in this country.

5. A Power Shift, of Sorts
To win the primary and the election, the Obama campaign had to beat not only Hillary Clinton, but also the Democratic block from the liberal east and from the south. The fact that Obama did this and is now assembling a team including Mid-Westerners, signals a geographic shift in power in the country. Pres. elect Obama won as a liberal, or at least, as someone far more liberal than his Democratic opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton. He also beat back challengers from the Southern Democrats. It remains to be seen if there is any permanent significance to this. However, it was a significant event in the Democratic party.