McCain's greatest challenge - the last 18 days

The Brookings Institution hosted the third seminar in a series on "Issues, Ideology, Gender and Race in the 2008 Election" featuring Sunshine Hillygus, Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University; Daron Shaw, Associate Professor of Government at University of Texas at Austin; and Shankar Vedantam, columnist for the Washington Post.

The panelists discussed specific factors pertaining to the 2008 Election such as; campaign tactics, youth involvement, the role of race, gender, ideology, character, and party identification. All three panelists agreed that voters participate in "proximity voting" whereby they determine their own vague ideas on an issue and gravitate towards the candidate that seems the most similar. In this way, they rationalize their own vote choice based on the comfort they feel from their candidate. The youth vote was a large
point of discussion due to the efficiency with which the Obama campaign has used first-time voters and the new millennial generation to his advantage.

The challenge they outlined for Senator McCain, who has fallen behind in recent polls particularly due to the economy, is for him to swing voters who "have a foot in each camp." Those voters, such as pro-life Democrats, have a large decision to make and it will be up to both candidates to convince those voters that the issues that matter to them are the issues each respective candidate can support.

McCain campaign continues to attack Obama campaign’s relation to ACORN

Rick Davis, adviser for the McCain/Palin campaign, continued speculation about the Barack Obama campaign's involvement in the "emerging scandal relating to ACORN." Davis accused Obama of not utilizing the time he was given during the final Presidntial debate to "spell out his historic involvement with ACORN". Davis would like to see the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) asked, "what exactly happened with that $830 thousand given to you by the Obama campaign?"

As for the McCain campaign's stance on ACORN and their voter registration, Davis said, "I believe the power the media has to bring scrutiny to these issues will help reform the process." In response to the fact that the Supreme Court just sided with Democratic election officials in Ohio over the voter registration dispute, Davis said the Supreme Court "did not make the decision based on the merits of the case."

Davis expressed his concern for lack of honesty in this election, and that there's a "cloud of suspicion hanging over this election." Davis further stated that "when John McCain gets elected President, we want to know that these are the most honest elections that Americans will have confidence in."

ACORN: Sen. McCain's proposals are an embarrassment to America

ACORN held a conference call today, dismissing the attacks made by Sen. John McCain. McCain's ad claims that ACORN forced banks to issue risky home loans, the same loans that have caused the financial crisis.

Austin King, ACORN Executive, said that McCain's idea is a "180 degree turn from the reality of what ACORN was actually trying to do." King went on to say that "while ACORN has been using every tool in the toolbox to help find solutions to the crisis, John McCain hasn't done anything but want to deregulate the system more."

Carolyn Patmon, Florida ACORN board member, said that instead of allowing families to get into risky loans, ACORN has actually been fighting against the predetory lenders and building more than $6 billion of wealth through homeownership.

ACORN Executive Director, Steve Kest, believes that if people look into McCain's voting record and his proposals, the public will see the truth behind his campaign and the negativity he will bring to the country. "John McCain's record on predetory lending is so limited that it is an embarrassment. There is not a single mention of predetory lending on documents from his senate website," Kest said during the conference call.

McCain-Palin campaign attacks Obama's tax proposals

"The reality is not that Barack Obama has a tax-cut, or even a plan to make jobs. The reality is that he has a plan that is riddled with bad incentives, full of targeted handouts, and fundamentally based on redistribution of wealth, and stands in sharp contrast to John McCain's approach." This was stated by Doug Holtz-Eakin, Senior Policy Adviser for the McCain-Palin campaign, in response to Senator Barack Obama's (D-IIll.) tax reform plan. Nancy Pfotenhauer, Senior Policy Adviser for the McCain-Palin campaign, said Obama's tax plan "punishes achievement".

The campaign advisers claim Obama's tax reforms amount to "sending checks to individuals, many of whom may not be working, and who certainly do not have a tax liability". They added that Obama's tax cuts for job creation in American businesses are "too little too late", and too small to offset the supposed damages his own policies would do. Pfotenhauer said, "if this is his prescription for our economy, at a time when we're already ailing, I cannot think of any kind of medicine that could be worse".

"Barack Obama's overall economic policy can be characterized as the Europeanization of the american economy, because it is effectively a high tax, high spending protectionist approach," Pfotenhauer said, "and it doesn't work. All you need to do is look at the economies in say Germany or France, where you have, even in our tough economic time, unemployment rates that are significantly higher, growth rates that are significantly lower, and a quality of life or living that is about a third lower than in the United States." Holtz-Eakin and Pfotenhauer were participating in a conference call on Obama's tax plan, which according to the McCain advisers, includes approximately a trillion dollars of new spending and increased tax credits for Americans that do not pay income taxes.

Senators attack McCain's health care plan

"[Senator John McCain's health care] plan would be a disaster," said former Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.) at the start of a conference call discussing McCain's health care plan. Graham and current Senator Bob Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.) both made statements about how "out of touch" McCain is with the American people and their hopes for health care reform. Casey spoke about McCain's $1.3 trillion cuts in Medicaid and Medicare over the next ten years and his readjustment from employer based health care to a $5,000 credit system for households, which is less than half of the price of most health care plans. Both men promoted Senator Barack Obama's plan by emphasizing its focus on middle class families.