Last night’s debate was clearly the best of the three as I predicted: McCain was at his most combative and he and Obama went at it quite vigorously over some issues, including a central issue affecting the star of the show, Joe the Plumber. Joe wants to buy the small business he’s been a part of for many years, a business which earns more than $250k per year and thus falls into Obama’s proposed tax hike for the “rich.” Obama told Joe at a recent campaign stop that rather than give him a tax break now, he would have given him the tax break years ago, when he was struggling more and didn’t earn as much, and now that he’ll be earning more he should “spread the wealth.”
What’s that, Obama? You’re going to “spread the wealth”? Who’s wealth would that be, exactly? McCain’s strongest point at the debate last night was to call Obama out over his arrogance and the inherent wrongness of taking wealth from some to give it to others. That’s not a unique idea, of course, and left-wing socialist ideas (such as the redistribution of wealth Obama wants to enhance) are a part of our system now. But it was a useful moment in the campaign: a distilling of this wrongheaded view into what it is, an infringement of the rights of people like Joe the plumber to keep the fruit of their own labor.
McCain’s best soundbite of the evening was asking Obama directly, “Why would you want to raise anybody’s taxes right now? Why would you want to do that?” It’s a damned good question. McCain elaborated today at a campaign stop:
Now what does [“Spread the wealth”] mean? He wants government to take Joe’s money and give it to somebody else – his hard earned dollars. We are not gonna stand for that. America didn’t become the greatest nation on earth by spreading the wealth. We became the greatest nation on earth by creating new wealth.
I’m no McCain fan, but he’s truly and utterly speaking my language here. For the first time since the campaign began, McCain’s words are resonating with me, and with every liberty-loving, right-thinking, economically prudent listener.