Hope and Change - I hope I get to keep the change

Last night's speech at the Obamopolis was pretty much the same formula followed by both parties for the last forty years. It's tried and true, and they've learned it well and will not depart from it.

It's also meaningless. If you found yourself inspired by it, you really need to investigate this thing called reality.

In the first place, he cannot keep any of those promises. It is literally impossible at this point to either lower taxes or increase social spending. How in the name of all that is sane can we do both? The economy in this country is stretched to the breaking point. Eight years ago, I would have said "he can't do that without printing more money and saddling us with inflation." But that is already happening to finance the war in Iraq. To squeeze any more out of that sponge, we would have to go into hyperinflation, which cannot last - just ask Mexico, or any other pitiful country that has tried it. You didn't know your dollar is worth less? Bucky, it lost 14% of its value last year. Why do you think the price of groceries went up so much?

We can't raise taxes because that will trigger the rest of the recession that we've been warding off with garlic and silver crosses. I won't use the D word (depression), because that would cause widespread panic.

We can't borrow the money, because we've already borrowed about all we can from our friends in China. Yes, folks, we are in debt to our eyeballs to the only major communist nation on Earth.

And yet we're going to start paying for college educations for anyone who wants one? That's not even close to being possible. We need - or rather, our government needs - every filthy little penny it can scrounge off the Walmart parking lot, just to avoid bankruptcy. Ron Paul is not the only politician who understood this, but he is the only one willing to tell us the truth about it. The others keep assuring us that, yes, we can! Folks... we can't!

I want to be sure that you noticed the Surely we can agree part of the speech. You know, we may differ on abortion, but surely we can agree that abortions should be as few in number as possible. This is a technique that has been developed over the years, and it's absolutely necessary for this kind of speech.

You see, most of the public doesn't pay any attention to politics. They will hear only two speeches that have to do with politics, and those are the State of the Union address, and the Nominating Acceptance speeches. When a politician makes either of those speeches, he must keep his voting base comfortable with what he says, and yet somehow make every one of those politically sleepy voters hear what he wants to hear. So he must never take a bold stand in those speeches, even if his stand is already well known to those who have paid any attention at all. So he says "surely we can agree," and those folks out there hear "I agree with you about abortion, war, taxes, spending, and your mom, and anything else you care about."

So you see Obama's deception? So you'll vote Republican? Wait til you see McCain's speech. He will do the same thing when he accepts his nomination. He'll be as humble as Obama was, if not more, and he will promise tax relief, fiscal responsibility, and new programs.

It remains a mystery to me how someone can declare that he is going to lower taxes for 95% of us, and be believed, and then tell you he is going to create a truckload of new entitlements, and again be believed! I think my problem is that I continue to overestimate the intelligence of the average voter - something that Obama or McCain will never be guilty of.