I think the difference is in what we’re paying attention to and what are expectations are – not in what is really going on.

For what its worth, our country has already embraced and put into effect many practices that would be considered socialistic in nature. I don’t know that voting Obama is going to necessarily move us further in that direction. A good way to rally the old Republican and social conservative base though is to point at the non-Republican runner and call him a socialist. Same tactic different election isn’t it?

I personally wish you’d scrutinize McCain and Gov. Palin as much as you do Obama

No one knew Obama was coming to the neighborhood. He came to Joe’s house. As the reporter said, the meeting was in Joe’s front yard.

Joe was thinking in the future – he may be off, he may not ever be able to buy the business but Obama’s answer was the same. If you want the country to lurch toward socialism, then Obama is your guy.

I’d be willing to let this go but McCain is on TV in the background still invoking the symbol of “Joe”. When I saw clips that showed the front of Joe’s house, I suspected that his income was at least $100,000 away from the $250,000 tax threshhold. LOL. One source reports that his actual income is $40,000. Only $210,000 away from being a victim of Obama’s tax plan.

I think we may have been hasty in trying to figure out why Joe spoke out as he did. I’m willing to concede that he wasn’t a ‘plant’ but what now appears likely is that perhaps he was ‘sucking up’ to the parts of his family that do have money. Perhaps hoping for a loan to acquire that business. Of course, that’s just speculation. There’s just something seriously wrong with the picture. Joe’s issues that he presented to Senator Obama were clearly not real and vital issues to his own life.

To those who ask why we’re making such a big deal out of finding out the truth about Joe, I’d suggest that it wouldn’t have happened if both Joe and the Republican Party didn’t try to make him a symbol of something that he isn’t. The Republicans have made Joe a part of their campaign, a part of their rhetoric. They hope we’ll only hear ‘Joe the Plumber’ and only see a simple, honest, hard-working aspirant to the American Dream; I think it’s fair to question and explore that symbol for the truthfulness of its symbolic value.

It doesn’t matter who he is related to. Obama came to his house…

http://www.OperationExposeObama.com

We have this insanely complicated tax model, which in theory should tax individuals progressively. We hear the incessant cries of socialism from the right. But what is the reality?

Top 20% (wealthiest Americans): pay 19% of income in taxes.
Bottom 20% (poorest Americans): pay 18% of income in taxes.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2003_01/000202.php

Let’s just end this farce, this silly charade. Our supposedly “progressive” tax system isn’t taxing progressively. Just have a single, flat tax across the entire country. Or if necessary, have just two rates: greater than X and less than X, and be done with it.