Political pandering... or negative hyperbole?

My dad pointed out that the by-line(?) of our recent press release on McCain's gas-tax holiday for the Henry County Democratic party was a possibly antagonistic.

Jim Nichols, Chair of the Democratic Party in Henry County, responded today to John McCain's political pandering in a recent economic speech by the Republican nominee. In the speech, McCain called for a gas tax holiday.

For more on the issue you can go to a post I did on the Henry County Democrats site.

My dads comments were

The opening sentence of the Release referred to John McCain's "political pandering". Right off the bat that puts off those that may not yet have formed an opinion on McCain - whether they be Dems or Repubs. To me, use of that phrase - outside of your quote - immediately discounts the rest of the Release - it's clearly one-sided and shrill. Can I really glean anything useful from it? (that's my reaction).


I think it's more powerful for that phrase to be in your quote. Something like: "This is simply political pandering by John McCain" That's legit for you to say that - but not for the text of the release to say that. The text of the Release should set you up, in a neutral way - not do your work.


For what it's worth...

Part of me thinks he is probably right. I intended to point out that it is a questionable policy move, be a very astute political move. My point was that it won't help the market fundmentals. The goals should be to lower gas prices.

And while people like the idea of lowering their taxation for understandable reasons the impacts of lost revenue that would be going into fixing roads and other infrastucture needs seems like a higher social priority; espcially when most economists feel that since supply is fixed (oil producers claim they are churning out the product as quickly as they can) the only possible change in the price can come from demand going down.

The likelyhood of demand going down during the summer when people go on vacation and travel of lot seems a bit far-fetched. Are people going to walk their kids to summer camp?

So maybe I ought to start saying "putting votes before good policy," or "prioritizing votes before market fundamentals."? Nothing seems to roll off the tongue very well.

here is some stuff I found on political pandering...

definition of pander --

Pronunciation: \ˈpan-dər\
Function: intransitive verb Date: 1523
: to act as a pander; especially : to provide gratification for others' desires

Economist Russ Roberts speech on Political pandering


Economist Arnold Kling on the economics blog Econlog post in response to Roberts speech

What Roberts calls pandering, I call fear-mongering. I think that both parties do it. For those of us who believe in free markets, I believe that the Republican exaggerate not only their own commitment to free markets but also the extent to which Democrats threaten free markets.

I think that stem-cell research and Global Warming both are issues that are heavy on pandering and fear-mongering. The Bush Administration has not outlawed stem-cell research. It has only stopped Federal government funding for certain types of stem-cell research. On the other hand allowing embryonic stem-cell research would not mean the end of respect for human life.

On Global Warming, the main thing that believers do is get angry with skeptics. What sort of legislation are we seeing proposed? Anyone? Bueller?

On health care, the Left is excited about single-payer health care, and the Right fears single-payer health care. Again, where are the specific proposals for single-payer health care in terms of legislation or the platforms of leading Presidential candidates?

A reasonable theory of modern politics is that it is all melodrama. People take government less and less seriously, which makes politicians shout louder and louder to get our attention. Whenever a story breaks in the media, whether it be Terry Schiavo or the Virginia Tech killings, politicians rush to get in front of the camera to take advantage of it. That, I would suggest, is a sign of their desperation.

John McCain's Tax Pandering on economics by Kevin Drum

Now that's a shocking development, isn't it? A Republican presidential candidate prating endlessly about helping the regular guy and then offering up a tax plan that even Donald Trump would be embarrassed to ask for directly. The only thing missing was the usual sad song about some mythical Midwest striver who had to sell the family farm to pay his "death taxes."

But at least someone is noticing the two-face act this time around — though that's mostly because McCain is turning out to be unusually clumsy at this kind of stuff. In an odd way, this almost speaks well for him. The pandering he's doing is so plain and so odious that I suspect he's having a hard time making it sound like he really believes this stuff. George Bush never had that difficulty.

please feel free to comment... I'm not sure where I'm at on my Dad's point.