John McCain, Big Ideas, and Big Lies

Think Progress comments on how Bobby Jindal, appearing on Meet the Press, was unable to cite any big ideas which John McCain has had. It is actually unfair to say that John McCain has no big ideas. Making people pay even more of their health care costs out of their pocket might not be a good idea, but it is a big idea. Staying in Iraq for one hundred years is insane, but also might qualify as a big idea. Perhaps giving even bigger tax cuts to the top one tenth of one percent than George Bush gave them might also be considered a big idea. It must be tough acting as a surrogate for a candidate who has nothing but bad ideas.

I was actually bothered far more by another one of Jindal’s answers. He attacked Obama by repeating all the same lies about Obama’s tax plans which have been repeatedly debunked, including twice by Factcheck (here and here.) Host David Gregory let this go by without a follow up question. Instead he asked Tim Kaine a different question. As Obama’s surrogate, I wish that Kaine had responded to Jindal’s untrue statements as opposed to only responding to the question he was asked.

1 Comment

  1. 1
    Jerry says:

    I agree completely with your Kaine comment. Too often, Obama’s surrogates let the lies pass unchallenged.  I can understand in one sense: sometimes there are so many of them  – a nearly endless stream – that by the time the surrogate gets his turn one or two are forgotten. Still, that’s what short-term  memory exercises are for, and it would be very effective to send each lie back at the attacker.
    Kaine has not impressed me; although he did hit back at Rove, it wasn’t a powerful hit and it was not off-the-cuff, which is a skill that a “big leaguer” needs to have.

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