The Blog @ Spolitics

It’s Talk. But Is It Straight?

From WaPo:

At every stop, [John McCain] went out of his way to make comments unpopular with many Republicans, saying he does not support drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and giving them “straight talk” by vowing that if elected he would never allow torture. The audience applauded heartily at that, even though his position runs counter to the way many in his party view controversial interrogation tactics.

McCain also told reporters that any candidate who says traditional auto manufacturing jobs “are coming back is either naive or is not talking straight with the people of Michigan and America.” Instead, he said, business and political leaders should “embrace green technologies,” adding: “That’s the future. That’s what we want.”

When I hear comments like this from Senator McCain, two things come to mind.

1) If he’s hoping to win Michigan with the support of Democrats and Independent voters, then, in the examples above, isn’t he just telling them exactly what they want to hear?

2) His “straight talk” – at least with regards to the economy — reminds me of when Jimmy Carter told the American people they needed to sacrifice. It makes me wonder: is it that it can’t be done — that the auto industry cannot be revived with lower corporate taxes, less regulation and more government funding for innovation — or simply that John McCain can’t get it done. After all, his solution for the job exodus is job training. Someone should point out to the senator that there is little to be gained from training someone to do a job that doesn’t exist.

According to the rhetoric, Mitt wants to send people to work and John wants to send them to school. We’ll find out later today where the voters of Michigan want to go.