New Record, Voter Eligibitity Questions, and a "socialistic" Tax Plan

High Advertising

Sen. Barack Obama is looking to pass President Bush's record in advertising spending from 2004. Sen. Obama is expected to break that mark of $188 million this up coming week. He is reported by the NY Times to have spent four times as much as Sen. John McCain, who has spent $91 million since becoming his party's nominee months before Sen. Obama. “We’ve certainly seen heavy advertising battles before. But we’ve never seen in a presidential race one side having such a lopsided advantage.” said Kenneth M. Goldstein, the director of the Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin. Sen. Obama has been running advertisements repeatedly day and night, on local stations and on the major broadcast networks, and even on video games, such as Guitar Hero. He is expected to announce in the next few days that he raised more than $100 million in September, a figure that would shatter fund-raising records. This could turn out to be the major factor in putting Sen. Obama in the White House.

Voter Eligibility

Thousands of voters across the country must reestablish their voter eligibility in order for their vote to count on Nov. 4. New state registration systems are incorrectly rejecting voter registration. The Washington Post reported that in Wisconsin officials admit that their database is wrong one out of five times when it flags voters. It could be a problem as small as a middle initial or a typo in a birth date. The systems are questioning the registrations of many voters when discrepancies surface between their registration information and other official records, often because of errors outside voters' control. The change was required by federal law and was agreed by many as a more efficient and accurate way to keep lists up to date. As states switch from locally managed lists of voters to statewide databases, the scramble to verify voter registrations is happening. Since all this has occurred, it has led to a dozen lawsuits. Because many voters may not know that their names have been flagged, eligibility questions could cause confusion on Election Day. This could end up to have a huge impact on the election. Keep a close eye on this story.

Socialistic tax plan?

The battle of both candidates to bash each others tax plan continues, as Sen. McCain says Sen. Obama's plan "sounded a lot like socialism." And referred to it as a "phony tax cut." Sen McCain said," At least in Europe, the socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives." While in Missouri, Sen. Obama readdressed his plan stressing the fact the 95 percent of working Americans were not going to see a tax increase. Although he did not directly address Sen. McCain's use of the term "socialism," he did address the fact that Sen. McCain has been referring to his tax plan as "welfare." Sen. Obama wants to "convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency, redistributing massive amounts of wealth at the direction of politicians in Washington," Sen. McCain was reported saying by the LA Times. In response Sen. Obama had this to say: "He must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for working people 'welfare.' " Sen. Obama then reminded the people how Sen. McCain's plan is "to give another $200 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest companies in America." I see this battle continuing all the way till Nov.4, where the fate of each candidate will be in the hands of the American people.

My Opinion

It paid off for President Bush in 2004, will it pay off for Sen. Obama in 2008? only time will tell if that $188 million was money well spent.

It would be a shame if voters' right to vote gets lost because of a new system that was thought to help, but only caused problems. What's the old saying,"Don't fix whats not broken?" That didn't seemed to be the philosophy in the case of many voters having to reestablish their voter eligibility because of a new system that was thought to be more efficient and more accurate.

It's clear that time is running out for Sen. McCain. He has to put all his cards on the table to try and get into the White House. He is doing so when using terms like "socialism" and "phony tax cut." I do believe the American people are smarter than that and will not be persuaded as Sen. McCain hopes.