Guess who’s open to ‘tax increases on wealthier Americans’?

July 14, 2008

Last week, Carly Fiorina, a leading McCain advisor/surrogate and the Republican National Committee’s “Victory Chairman,” was discussing consumer-driven health insurance when she proposed “a real, live example which I’ve been hearing a lot about from women: There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice.” When reporters asked McCain if he agrees with his top advisor, the senator was hopelessly lost.

It looks like Fiorina put McCain in yet another difficult spot this week.

In an interview, Carly Fiorina, a top adviser, explains that any tax increases on “middle- and working-class” Americans are off limits. She says if a bipartisan coalition is “creative enough” to fashion tax increases on wealthier Americans, that may prove palatable.

As Ben Smith put it, “Grover Norquist, call your office.”

It’s hard to know what to think about something like this. Fiorina is one of McCain’s top advisors, and a leading McCain campaign surrogate. Campaigns are pretty selective about who gets to speak on McCain’s behalf on “Meet the Press,” and yet, there was Fiorina yesterday, repeating demonstrably false talking points for a national television audience.

So, is Fiorina straying from the script and publicly disagreeing with the campaign because she genuinely thinks her preferred candidate is wrong, or is this some kind of clumsy effort to make McCain take both sides of every issue?

If Fiorina’s comments are accurate — the article includes a paraphrase; it’s possible the article is misleading — it steps all over the entire McCain campaign’s message. Obama is saying a tax increase on the wealthiest Americans is the only responsible move. One of McCain’s top advisors is effectively conceding that Obama is right.

In case there’s any doubt, McCain’s message is the polar opposite. In fact, in March, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked McCain if he were a “‘read my lips’ candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?” referring to George H.W. Bush’s 1988 pledge. “No new taxes,” McCain responded.

“But under circumstances would you increase taxes?” Stephanopoulos continued. “No,” McCain answered.

And yet, here’s Fiorina, delivering a very different message, either accidentally or deliberately.

So, on the one hand we have a Democratic campaign who believes bipartisan support for responsible tax increases on the wealthy would serve the nation’s interests. And on the other hand, we have a Republican campaign that believes the Democratic campaign is probably right.

Either McCain has to stop attacking Obama, or he’ll have to start attacking his own advisor.

Note to media outlets: this is what’s called a “news story.” Get to work.

Nope. It’s deliberate strategy to confuse the issue. Just like the LA times article that imples that Obama and McLame share views on everthing that is important.

  • i’m wondering if we at this blog are in some kind of fantasy disconnect. McCain is absolutely awful and yet the race is almost tied in the polls. How can this be?

  • Further proof that McCain is the logical choice to replace Bush…

    The most consistent feature of the Bush admin has been incompetence. Fiorina fits nicely in that mold. She demonstrated her incompetence at Hewlitt-Packard by almost destroying that company. Think what a great job she could do at a federal agency!

  • At this rate, the McCain campaign will soon be out of surrogates and the MSM will have to resort to Hon. Sen. McCain’s own words… imagine.

    Maybe it’s just me, but I wonder if when people hear about top marginal rates being raised to something like 40% (I say this without claiming the number has any particular veracity), that this rate applies only to taxable income (less deductions) above the minimum for the top bracket. So, if my taxable income were $250,001.00 and the top rate kicked in at $250,000.00, I pay the top rate only on $1.

  • McCain is absolutely awful and yet the race is almost tied in the polls. How can this be?

    Have you seen our media? They excuse every big mistake McCain makes, and obsess over every piddling hiccup in Obama’s campaign.

  • Ha, I have MSNBC on, and right at this moment, they’re talking about Carly Fiorina.

    However, it’s her comment on MTP that people don’t listen to surrogates. Oh, the irony.

  • Dale said:
    “i’m wondering if we at this blog are in some kind of fantasy disconnect. McCain is absolutely awful and yet the race is almost tied in the polls. How can this be?”

    Do not underestimate McCrap’s ‘base’ – the corporate news media. Their ability and willingness to present distorted ‘reporting’ of Obama and ‘non-reporting’ of McBush distorts the perceptions of the american publik in a pro-McCain way.

    My perception of the corporate news media:
    – ABC = heavily anti Obama ‘reporting’ & major under reporting of McBush ‘gaffes’
    – NBC = GE’s corporate directed outlet
    – CBS = no one watches & no one cares
    – Fox = branch of the repugnican propaganda machine
    – CNN = the most respected name in corporate propaganda
    – MSNBC = mixed bag heavily tilted for McBush

  • Amplifying on a comment I made on another blog:
    You could be the lowliest wino on skid row and if you held up cardboard sign saying that Obama had offered you a bottle of Muscatel for a blow job you’d be nationwide by sunset. On the other hand, if Obama produced a cure for cancer the media would criticize him for taking money out of doctors’ pockets.

  • Campaigns are pretty selective about who gets to speak on McCain’s behalf on “Meet the Press,” and yet, there was Fiorina yesterday, repeating demonstrably false talking points for a national television audience.

    You go on MTP with the demonstrably false talking points you have, not the talking points you wish you had.

  • It’s deliberate strategy to confuse the issue.

    I think this is the case. I think they’re attempting a “throw feces everywhere and see what sticks” method of campaigning right now. Who cares if one surrogate completely contradicts another surrogate – or even the Big Man himself. If people are looking for a reason to justify their vote for McCain instead of the Democrat then any bit of random effluvia that they can grasp to justify that vote will be “good enough”.

    A normal candidate couldn’t get away with this approach – it would be pounced on and devoured by the jackals in the media. But I think McCain’s campaign saw how willing the media was to carry their water during the whole Scheiffer/Clarke commentary blowup and they’ve decided to take the risk with the “monkey-throwing-feces” gambit. They’ve got very little to lose unless the journalists in the media actually get offended at being played for chumps and start doing some actual reportage.

    (Not that actual reportage would hurt McCain in this gambit at this point – it would help to shore up some support with “conservatives” who don’t like the fact that the media lurves John McCain because the media are “liberal” and “the enemy”. So if the media were to turn on McCain the rabid “conservative” base would probably flock to his defense with more vigor than we’ve seen so far this campaign cycle.)

  • I think she doesn’t realize just how irrational many of the opbligatory GOP positions are and just how much Democratic polcies make more sense, overall, than GOP policies.

  • Maybe they discovered after their previous positioning that a big majority of small business people are not wealthy americans. Do campaigns ever have staff and candidates who stop and read anything once in a while?

  • This just seems to be another instance of McCain’s campaign having no message discipline. Probably because they don’t seem to have an actual message. McCain, right now, seems to be going trying to be “all things to all people” and the campaign is probably turning people off as much as it is helping itself. At this point, it seems that Obama needs to do little more than keep putting out his own message and then get out of the way and let McCain crash and burn. I like the “monkey-throwing-feces” gambit name though.

    What is more troubling seems to be the general lack of coverage of how poor the McCain campaign has been in general. I do not know if this is from a “corporate conspiracy” to elect McCain, or a desire to keep the race close, but it is frustrating. How can anyone expect people to make an informed choice if they aren’t getting decent information. I realize there is some room for debate on the issues, but a campaign run this poorly should be a punchline by now.

    I also wonder about how will this type of coverage translate to after the campaign and can anything be done about it? Is the next democratic (probably Obama, but no point in jinxing anything) presidency going to be similar to the Clinton presidency, drowned in a mess of irrevelant issues and having to work twice as hard just to get anything done. There certainly hasn’t been any problem with that in the current one.

  • Where are the Obama surrogates hiding? They should be all over this on the news. Oh, that’s right, they have to be asked onto these “low information voter” programs.I am coming very, very close to packing it in. It’s too obvious and way too painful for anyone with intelligence to follow this horse shit any longer. The fix is on. Good luck to you Steve. Until I see some sort of awakening in the MSM I can’t continue to blog to the choir…good luck.

  • Don’t know about anyone else but I am getting a little tired of Mrs Alan Greenspan on MSNBC, she phrases her questions (to her republican friends) at every chance ‘Do you think Obama’s stance on (whatever subject) will hurt him, never mentions any of McCain’s many flip flops or downright lies.

  • I thought we had all come to the conclusion long ago that nobody in the McCain camp has the first clue about what they’re doing.

  • I thought Fiorino on MTP was a disaster. First Brokaw let her stage a filibuster, the Russert never would have allowed. In between the inappropriate smiles, she then loaded in some absolute howlers, like the claim that McCain opposed Bush’s war strategy all along, and that he’s going to impose a massive tax cut and simultaneously balance the budget in four years. I actually lost count of how many lies she told on the show, but it got to the point that everything out of her mouth has to be presumed a lie until it can be proven otherwise.

    My wife and I were watching and when Fiorino claimed Obama wanted to pursue a policy of “isolation,” my wife asked “where the f… did she get that?” I tried to explain what I thought Fiorino was trying to argue, and my wife gave me one of “those looks” and said “I know what isolationism is, thank you, but what part of anything Obama has ever said or written could even give rise to a claim like that.” I said, any factual basis from anything that happens in the real world is not required in forming a Republican talking point.

    For a while I thought Fiorino might be a decent VP choice for McCain, especially if Obama picks a male candidate, but I’ve changed my mind after the MTP appearance, I think she’s terrible as a spokesperson for their side.

  • The stock price of HP jumped several dollars when it was announced that Ms. Fiorina was about to leave. If McCain wins, what is that likely to mean for the dollar? Will it then drop even more than it has been?

  • Note to media outlets: this is what’s called a “news story.”

    Note to Steve: The media doesn’t do real news anymore.

  • Next up, Fiorina says that, even though it’s an absolute disgrace, Social Security is a pretty good program that helps a lot of people.

  • I agree with Dale. I watch McCain stumble around on tv and I wonder how this can be considered a race at all; that the polls are effectively tied. Is it simply a racist issue? Is that what’s keeping things this close? I don’t get it.

  • So, is Fiorina straying from the script and publicly disagreeing with the campaign because she genuinely thinks her preferred candidate is wrong, or is this some kind of clumsy effort to make McCain take both sides of every issue? — CB

    She probably has no idea what McCain’s positions on any issues *are*, given that he changes them every few minutes. So, she just says whatever seems to make the best sense to her. Thankfully, she’s also smart enough to know that nobody ever listens to surrogates…

  • First off, ignore the polls. They’re currently worthless. It was discussed over on kos and other sites that the demos of those polled changed significantly. More older people this time (over-40) and more whites than the last time, and it’s disproportionate to the national demo breakdown. Second, many of the pollsters are too cheap to manually call cell phones. A growing number of the population – most notably, Obama’s key demos – are only on cell phones, thus less likely to be polled.

    I’m not saying it’s definitely going to be a rout for Obama, just that the latest round of polling is heavily skewed away from a core group of potential Obama suporters, and towards a likely group of McCain supporters. Next week, they’ll only poll Klan members & McCain’s family, and whatdyaknow? Suddenly Obama’s down down down! Will he be the comeback kid? Consider me on pins and/or needles.

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