Obama's Best Line Yet

By Cernig

Via Steve Benen comes what I think is Obama's best line of the whole campaign.

It comes down to values -- in America, do we simply value wealth, or do we value the work that creates it?

Perfect. It encapsulates all that is wrong with the unstated Republican theology political philosphy America has lived with since Reagan. Obama continues:

"Lately, Senator McCain has been attacking my middle class tax cut. He actually said it goes to, 'those who don't pay taxes,' even though it only goes to working people who are already getting taxed on their paycheck. That's right, Missouri -- John McCain is so out of touch with the struggles you are facing that he must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for working people 'welfare.'

The only 'welfare' in this campaign is John McCain's plan to give another $200 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest corporations in America -- including $4 billion in tax breaks to big oil companies that ran up record profits under George Bush. That's who John McCain is fighting for. But we can't afford four more years like the last eight. George Bush and John McCain are out of ideas, they are out of touch, and if you stand with me in 17 days they will be out of time."

Zinger!

Comments

[anderson]

Actually, Obama is paraphrasing Lincoln, and lightly so. Probably the last president to actually say something along these lines, Lincoln expressed full-throated support for labor above capital.

While Obama's language is necessarily opaque in our age of capital worship, his suggestion is refreshingly Lincolnian.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN
1861 State of the Union Address
December 3, 1861

...

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Fightin' words!

[Steve Hynd]

Anderson, that desreves to be a follow-up post.

Regards, C

[anderson]

ok.