Mark My Words - commentary on news, politics, religion, philosophy, science and social issues

Make sure your papers are in order and any personal controversies, errors, embarrassments and so on, are not documented, or known by anyone at all. Does that sound rather impossible? Well then, just never ever get involved in politics or even think that you as a private citizen can ask a media darling Presidential candidate any questions.

Much has been made of Joe the plumber, who asked Obama about wanting to raise his taxes. John McCain used that to good effect in the debate. Unfortunately, for our political process, even our freedom to speak, Joe has been subjected to more scrutiny by the mainstream media in several days than Barack Obama has in this entire campaign.

His ability to work is being threatened (thanks to HotAir) because he spoke up. The attempted narrative is that Joe is not really a plumber, couldn’t have made the $250,000 income that would be hit with Obama’s tax increase and he shouldn’t be working anyway, or something. The most silly are those who are whining about how McCain “used” Joe. One reasonably gets the impression that the question and Obama answer are deemed as inappropriate subjects by some.

All this doesn’t change the real issue, it only distracts from it by attempting to destroy the messenger. It doesn’t matter if Joe was a complete plant or fraud, the question even if hypothetical still stands, as does Obama’s answer, which reveals/confirms his natural tendencies and philosophy.

Obama is a liberal/socialist by record, not the moderate he attempts to sound like now in a general election. His gut reaction to Joe’s question is therefore not an anomaly or mere verbal slip but a confirmation.

Barack Obama’s views revealed in his interaction with Joe, was also displayed in an earlier interview with Charlie Gibson where in Obama steadfastly refused to step away from raising the capital gains tax because he wanted more fairness in the tax code.

So when will the in depth investigation of Charlie Gibson and his paperwork begin?

Obama supports the “fairness doctrine”, he has encouraged people to jamb the phone lines of a radio station twice now, to silence a critic. His minions didn’t have facts to counter what was being said; only smears and ad hominem attacks against the individual being interviewed. There would also be the race card constantly thrown when Barack Obama is criticized. It’s no wonder that Michael Barone, who has other examples, has issued the following warning.

Today's liberals seem to be taking their marching orders from other quarters. Specifically, from the college and university campuses where administrators, armed with speech codes, have for years been disciplining and subjecting to sensitivity training any students who dare to utter thoughts that liberals find offensive. The campuses that used to pride themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society.

Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech that they don't like and seem utterly oblivious to claims that this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment. In this campaign, we have seen the coming of the Obama thugocracy, suppressing free speech, and we may see its flourishing in the four or eight years ahead. (source)

At least Joe had the chance to ask his question before the demand for his papers. If Barack Obama wins will we eventually look back on that as the good old days?

Addendum:

As I was working on my post Ed Morrissey had similar views. As always, his comments are worth reading in full, so here’s the link.

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Filed under: McCain -- Politics -- Obama -- News – MSM

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