Comments on: McCain & Obama Visit Saddleback

By: JSpencer

JSpencer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:04:02 +0000

Good point Elrod. I'm in the rural midwest, 150K a yr. would be considered rich by many folks here. I also believe we are a society (at the risk of generalization) which has learned to take for granted many things our parents and grandparents would have considered luxuries. That said, here's an interesting observation:

“If you do surveys, 95% of people think they are middle class,” said Len Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group that has analyzed the candidates' tax proposals. “This is including people who are objectively quite poor and people who are objectively quite rich.”

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:16:16 +0000

I think Obama treated the event as more of a conversation. You could actually seem him thinking about most of his answers. McCain treated it more like a normal speaking event. McCain often avoided the question and went into stories we've heard him repeat 100s of times. They're good stories, and they invite applause, but I think it betrayed the spirit of the event itself.

So from a substantive point of view, I would say Obama won. But if we're going by who delighted the crowd more, McCain won.

By: elrod

elrod — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:49:25 +0000

JSpencer,
The point of “or less” is that one making $14,000 makes less than $150,000 and is considered poor. McCain, by contrast, said that one isn't rich until you hit $5 million.

Where I live (East TN), a $150,000 per year salary is rich. But in suburban NY or Orange County, CA (where the debate was held), $150,000 per year is the high end of middle class. Think about housing costs.

By: superdestroyer

superdestroyer — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:19:18 +0000

Davebo,

How else shoud I describe someone like Matthew Yglesias. Dalton School, Harvard, and used to work for Atlantic Monthly. After reading such blogs for a while I have realized that the reason many things run by the government are screwed up is that prep school educated, Ivy leaguers who are in the top 1% in wealth and academic achievement are setting education, transportation, and zoning policies.

By: Davebo

Davebo — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:52:02 +0000

When Senator Obama does something and none of the elite, white progressive blogs

Once again SD put's on the sheets.

By: superdestroyer

superdestroyer — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:18:59 +0000

Even thought I did not watch, if you look at Democratic Party leaning blogs versus Republican leaning blogs, it appears that Senator McCain did better. When Senator Obama does something and none of the elite, white progressive blogs bother to write about it, you know the senator's performance was lacking.

By: JSpencer

JSpencer — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:32:41 +0000

“The candidate (Obama) then said that under his tax plans all American families making less than $150,000 a year are considered middle class or poor and would receive a tax break.”

$149,999 a year would be considered middle class or poor??? That's ridiculous. Someone needs to reconnect with the real world.