I may have shown bias in the past, but I have not been to blatant about endorsing a specific candidate or anything. Okay, maybe I have. Anyway, I was watching the debate last night and came out with some impressions.

The biggest thing I noticed is that McCain lies a lot. I know that all politicians lie, especially if you take into account things they promised they'd do and didn't or couldn't get done. But McCain lies about things that have already happened and are verifiable.

Examples: (Update 10/29 - math and fact-checking)

Oil Imports: John McCain continuously states that we send $700 billion to countries that "don't like us very much."

According to the DOE the US imports about 13,000 13 million barrels of petroleum per day. Assuming a cost per barrel of $100, which is probably fair for this year since we started high and are currently in the $40/barrel range, the cost of that petroleum is around $474 billion per year. So already he's a little off in saying that we send more money for oil to countries that "don't like us very much" than we actually spend on oil. It's only 47% more though, so lets call that hyperbole.

Also according to the DOE, the two countries of the top 15 from which we import petroleum that you could say we have uneasy relations with are Iraq and Russia. Since McCain would also say that Iraq is our friend, I'll give him the benefit of counting Iraq as our friend who "doesn't like us very much". That means that we import about 1200 1.1 million barrels per day from countries that "don't like us very much" for an annual cost of $42 million $41 billion. I don't know anyone who thinks that $42 million $41 billion is anywhere close to $700 billion.

(note: even after these corrections due to my mis-reading of the numbers as barrels/day rather than 1000s of barrels/day, McCain is off by a factor of 20. Not as bad as 20,000, but quite far from the mark.)

Taxes: We also heard about a guy named Joe the Plumber, AKA Joe Wurzelbacher. According to McCain, he's got a double doozey coming. Apparently he wants to buy the plumbing business he's been working for and that will put him over the $250,000 per year income level, meaning that, under Obaba's plan, he'll see an increase in his tax rates. And he's also supposed to be in for a fine for not providing health insurance for his new employees.

As it turns out, that part of Obama's plan is for personal income tax, so if he incorporated, the argument becomes completely different. So let's say Joe doesn't incorporate. He would need a gross adjusted income of over $250,000 per year in order to end up with higher taxes. That means that after paying his employees and buying the extremely expensive copper pipe he probably uses, he'd need to have a quarter of a million dollars left over. If I had that kind of income, I'd be happy to pay higher taxes. As Oliver Wendel Holmes said "I like paying taxes. With them, I buy civilization."

Joe would also get additional tax breaks under Obama's plan in the form of the elimination of capital gains taxes for small businesses and credits for creating new jobs if he decides to hire more people. So, while we haven't seen the results of Obama's plan, it really looks like Joe would have to be in pretty good shape before his taxes would go up. Actually, if he has enough money to buy a plumbing business, he probably makes over $250,000 per year already.

As for the fine for not providing health insurance. That's a little backwards. The Obama-Biden plan gives a tax credit to small businesses that do provide health insurance. So, if Joe decided not to provide health insurance to his employees, he wouldn't be fined, he just wouldn't get a tax credit. Talk about "mis-representation."

Overhead Projectors: Dang, have you seen this thing? It is totally not an overhead projector. Except that it projects things over people's heads. Do you remember going to the planetarium? Do you remember the giant, death-star-like thing in the middle of the room that shot beams of light everywhere? That's what McCain is talking about when he says "overhead projector." I haven't been to a planetarium since I was in grade school, but I'm honestly thinking about finding one and checking it out now. Here in downtown Minneapolis, we don't get to see much of the sky. I'd guess that it's worse in downtown Chicago.

So basically, McCain's point is that earmarks are bad. Well, it's hard not to agree with that in principal. On the other hand, Minneapolis wouldn't have light-rail without earmarks. There are thousands of projects in states all across the US that have been funded by federal earmarks. The Zeiss Universarium Model IX that was for Illinois (which didn't get funding by the way) is one. Alaskas Gravina Island bridge (which Palin got funding for but didn't get built) is another. One of the benefits of statehood and representation is getting funding from the Federal Government for local projects. Huh, I guess it isn't hard not to agree. Earmarks aren't inherrently bad, we just don't all agree how the money should be spent.

Anyway, I know polititians lie. They just shouldn't lie so obviously.

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