The Campaign Begins

So it’s August. A very slow time in Washington. Congress will shortly head out for its vacation. The city empties out. But the presidential campaign seems to be gathering steam.

My hope for the campaign? I hope that there is an actual discussion on issues. Some of them come to mind:

Iraq and Afghanistan
What are we going to do in Iraq? Things are better or at least appear to be that way. If that is the case, then what is the plan for bringing our troops home. As Iraq seems to recede as an issue the forgotten war of Afghanistan takes center stage. If the Taliban and friends is actually reconstituting itself in Afghanistan, what are we going to do about that? Both campaigns agree that more troops need to be sent there. How are we going to accomplish this? Because of the complete incompetence and ineptness of the Bush administration, the military is stretched incredibly thin. When do we give these guys a rest? When do we replenish the equipment that’s been used in Iraq? How do we pay for it?

Energy
I have some high hopes on this. Both candidates recognize we need to do something about this. Global warming is a real issue to McCain and Obama. They don’t dispute the science as the Luddite Bush administration. Still I think there needs to be a shift on how we view our dependence on oil. First off the people who control the oil could use it against us. So oil is a national security issue. I don’t see why the Democrats don’t run with that. Also we are not dependent on oil; we are addicted to it. It’s time to face up to the harsh realities associated with our addiction.

The economy
Oil prices had leveled off some. Still the impact of them will be felt on the economy for months to come. People now have to worry about $4 for agallon of milk. Unemployment has ticked up again to 5.7 percent. This trend will probably continue for the foreseeable future.Bennigans and Steak and Ale have filled for bankruptcy and Starbucks will lay off 1,000 workers. So the cut back in spending due to high gas prices will continue to be felt.

I hope for a better debate on the economy than cut taxes from the Republicans and repeal the Bush tax cuts from the Democrats. I don’t understand why it is all or nothing on taxes. How about something more nuanced? Then again we are talking about politicians.

And what have we gotten so far? If you are looking just at the ads on television, they are out really early. This is probably the earliest I can recall ads being on television.

Obama started running his first ads around the time of the 4th of July. This were get to know Obama ads. A brief history about him. There were the feel good ads around the 4th of July. How we need to restore America. Pretty standard fair for this early in the campaign.

What have we got from John McCain?

A great deal of crap. One ad implies that Obama single handily is responsible for high oil prices. The most recent one attempts to link Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. It states that Obama is the biggest celebrity in the world. But is he ready to lead the ad asks. Who the hell thinks up this stuff? This from the campaign that said it would take the high road. It would change the tone. It wouldn’t sink to personal attacks. Sounds sort of like the Bush campaign of 2000. I guess this really is the McSame campaign.

I still have hope there will be a discussion on the issues. But the first few weeks of the campaign have been a little less than inspiring.