The other evening I attended one of senatorial candidate Mike McGavick's "Open Mike" sessions. It was informative and interesting. Mr. McGavick is a smart guy. He wraps his message in principles that have broad appeal: breaking the cycle of poverty, deficit reduction, effective and available healthcare, responsible foreign policy, and so forth. But the problem lies in the tactics he proposes to implement those principles.
For poverty he proposes drug tests for welfare recipients. The consequence for a failed test? Cutting off the aid. So how does increasing poverty break the cycle of poverty? That's a bad idea.
For deficit reduction he floats the standard canard that restricting spending and reducing more taxes will automatically make government more efficient. It will also make government less effective at anything it does. Especially when spending is reduced everywhere except for corporate welfare.
Since he is a product of the insurance industry it's not the least bit surprising that his healthcare tactics are all insurance industry related. If you like your medicare prescription drug program you will love Mike's healthcare plans.
In foreign policy he give the Bush (hswib) administration a "by" on getting us into Iraq in the first place. No point in questioning how we got there in the first place. The only concern is how to pull out a "win". He has no real answer for that. Just to keep doing the same things we are doing now.
So while Mike does a great deal of talking about being an independent in his party he is really not-so-much. He has been handpicked by the Republican party to have some appeal in this deeply blue state, just enough appeal to fool the unwary.
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