"Counting on Joe"

The American idea is in danger. The vision of limited government and unlimited opportunity that the United States cherished long after other nations succumbed to the false temptations of socialism is hours away from execution. It is being killed by a vain radicalism that lost the political and ideological battles of the Cold War but has returned in the guise of pragmatism and the personality cult of Barack Obama.

Obama has enthralled many, myself among them, in his short time on the national stage. His gift is to appear all things to all people while avoiding blame for broken promises, lies and contradictions. He is hailed as a leader, yet even his most devoted supporters have trouble naming a single thing he has achieved. He is described as a unifier, yet he has the most extreme left-wing voting record in the U.S. Senate.

He has the kinds of associations Jacob Zuma would envy: a wealthy criminal who helped him buy his house and bankrolled his early political career; self-professed terrorists and anarchists who hosted one of his first political meetings; advisers who extol the virtues of corruption in government, calling it "a well-oiled machine." Any one of these flaws would have sunk any other presidential candidate. Not Obama.

His campaign has indulged in thuggery worthy of third-world autocracies. In amassing a $600 million war chest, Obama has accepted donations from stolen and untraceable credit cards. He paid nearly $1 million to a group that has been caught filing fraudulent voter registrations across the country. Those who dare to question him in public have had details of their private lives brazenly exposed in the media.

And yet Obama is about to become the most powerful man in the world. Most polls suggest he has built a convincing lead over his rival, John McCain, though they disagree on the margin. In order to believe that McCain can still win, it is necessary to believe nearly every poll has miscalculated likely voter turnout, or that potential McCain supporters have stopped telling pollsters the truth about their choice.

The media has inflamed worries about a so-called "Bradley effect"-wherein white voters, afraid of openly opposing a black candidate, hide their true intentions. But if race has played any role in this campaign, it has helped Obama. It has lent his campaign historic importance, and in so doing it has insulated him from criticism. Even comedians are reluctant to joke about him; their audiences are afraid to laugh.

I was once taken in by Obama. I voted for him as my Senator. I even offered to work for his campaign, in its early stages. Like many others, I saw Obama's intelligence and cool demeanour as a sign of ideological openness. I composed a speech I thought he should give, in which I imagined him committing to fiscal responsibility and free trade. I saw him as a potential centrist, in the mould of president Bill Clinton.

How wrong I was. Most presidential campaigns start at the political extremes and move to the middle. But Obama's campaign has moved further and further left. His trick has been to sell wealth redistribution and government expansion as a "middle-class tax cut." Never mind that some poor families will pay higher effective marginal tax rates under Obama than the rich do today. The gimmick worked.

America's intellectual and financial elites, suffering a crisis of confidence, have thrown their support to the man whose policies aim to destroy them. I asked one distinguished professor to explain why he thought Obama was more qualified than McCain's deputy, Governor Sarah Palin. "He seems to have heard of the issues," he replied, though he had to admit that he disagrees with Obama on said "issues."

Wishful thinking and self-deception are the order of the day. The only Americans who seem to have kept their wits are the ordinary men and women who pay taxes, run small businesses and dream of a better life. It was one such-"Joe the Plumber" of Ohio-who asked Obama about his tax policy, eliciting the now-infamous response: "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

The America that Obama offers will no longer be the world's great exception or its exemplar of freedom. It will be the "European social democracy" that Obama once praised in a speech to the Democratic Socialists of America. It will be a land of high taxes and expanding bureaucracy, a land where opportunities are determined by access to power, a land where the press is cowed before the cult it has cultivated.

Whatever opposition remains to this vision will be very difficult to muster after Obama's victory. The Democrats are poised to win the executive and sweep the legislature. All that stands in their way are the millions of Joes who have not lost faith in the American dream, despite the failures of the Bush presidency. They are fighting for a cause greater than McCain. If they show up to vote, all is not lost.

*The writer is a third-year student at Harvard Law School, and the author of "The Kasrils Affair: Jews and Minority Politics in South Africa." He is a McCain campaign volunteer.

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The lesser of two evils There is a lot of things I agree with in your article, however, none of those are good arguments FOR voting for McCain, and in the end, that's what it's all about. Voting for a candidate, not against one. The Neo-Con rot that has beset the . .more Republican party will be it's own undoing. Gone are the Taft and Goldwater limited government conservatives. They have been replaced with warmongering big government neo-cons. That's why people are voting for Obama. The things you say about him may be true, but in comparison with McCain and the neo-con, big government Republicans, he's the lesser of two evils. . .less by Verster Du Plessis on November 03 2008, 18:32 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Response to Jean Racine I don't mind if you disagree with me about the subject of my article, but the rest of your factual claims are ridiculous. I was not, for example, "turfed out" of the "Not In My Name" campaign. I dissociated myself from Kasrils and his efforts when it . .more became clear he was neither interested in facts nor dialogue. These are matters of public record. Whether the Cato Institute--a libertarian think-tank--is "right-wing" is open to debate, but given your preference for personal attacks over truth I doubt you care. . .less by Joel Pollak on November 03 2008, 21:04 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Joe Schmoe 2 Joel Interesting that either you or Myburgh, putative "Liberals", have seen fit to resort to censorship and remove my earlier post. Be that as it may. One can disagree with Obama's candidature on its merits, without hyperbole. GOP . .more dog-whistles like "The American idea is in danger" serve to demean both the readers of this column and you Joel, for whatever your ideological bent, an unthinking hack you never were. Hence my deliberate rehashing of a one-sided interpretation of what transpired between you and Kasrils. I still maintain though, that your article is inaccurate and deliberate scare-mongering, which is not surprising since you now work for the McBush campaign. The GOP copy-book, which has veered from a desperate distortion to another, may work for the residents of Hicksville in Appalachian mountains, but when writing for a South African audience, I'd have thought a bit more dispassionate analysis would suffice. Put simply: ease up on the dog-whistles, there are no votes to be had here. . .less by Jean Racine on November 04 2008, 10:52 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Who's Joel? .."He is hailed as a leader, yet even his most devoted supporters have trouble naming a single thing he has achieved" Could be 1st black USA Pres...Thats not bad! by Buddhamate on November 04 2008, 12:07 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Mistake u make, Joel: Your copy is evidence of your belief that you can recite a losing campaign's losing talking points for the "benefit" of us poor folk back home who can barely read, let alone use this internetz thingy. You're clearly caught up in the calamitous hysteria of . .more all the losers. "American idea in danger"? Please man, pull the other one. "Third world thuggery"? Grow up. When last were u here? Third world thuggery is what happens in Zimbabwe. To equate the Obama campaign with third world thuggery merely demeans and trivialises the horrors inflicted on people in Zim and elsewhere. You are simply reciting variations on the Ayers/Wright/ACORN continuum. You missed an opportunity to go and on about his birth certificate, his wife allegedly referring to "whitey", etc, etc. How about coming back later today with the cut-and-paste about how he purposefully had his granny bumped off just before the election so that he could catch a couple of sympathy votes?? What seems to have happened here is that your boyish attempt to curry favour in the ranks of the Repugnicans cannot even pass muster with one of the other Michelles (Malkin or Bachmann). So, why not foist this junk on a South African web site? At least you can say you were "published", right? Really, this stuff belongs on Free Republic, or RedState.org or Weekly Standard or some such. . .less by Anonandon with finger trouble on November 04 2008, 14:11 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

At Anon Couldn't have put it better meself! History lesson for the young ones: This is what happens when you spend too much time carrying bags and writing speeches for The Vozhd (Leader), Tony Leon! by Jean Racine on November 04 2008, 14:23 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@ Jean Your comments were probably deleted because you engaged in a vitriolic personal attack, and weren't contributing anything to the discussion. Try to discuss the issues raised in the article, rather than concern yourself with Mr. Pollak himself. by Verster Du Plessis on November 04 2008, 16:18 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

OBAMA The Man the moment Joe did you ever hear of Phillip Kottler when he said"there is nothing to beat an idea whose time has come"Obama is a phenomena, smart , confident and a child of the universe. he is not ashamed of his background, he traverses both the black and white . .more world with confidence and oomph. i hope the american people do not let their prejudices prevent them from making history. Obama's win will reveberatew across the worlds it will say race is more more a bugbear, it will mean even in a nation dominated by a white race , a black individual with ability can be appointed to the highest position because he is the right candidate.the effects of this will hopefully spill into my country as well where colour is still a determinant for many things, we will for rthe first time learn about race relations from america, how wonderful would this be, power to Obama and hopefully death to prejudice. . .less by Mototoane Borole on November 04 2008, 17:55 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Verster All this is rather academic now, isn't it? I still struggle to see what issues Joel raised in the article, apart from the same GOP smears. As I posted above, it's very easy to play the smear game, which doesn't get us anywhere. I expect better from young . .more Pollak. YES WE CAN!!! . .less by Jean Racine on November 05 2008, 09:39 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Hey Joel, Vanity being what it is, one feels certain you'll be back here at some point to check out how many responses your school essay generated. Just to say, here's another one to add to your traffic figures. Oh, and also -- LOSER. Next time, why not back a different "Joe"? You . .more know, one that doesn't lie about his job status, his tax status and his delusions about actually owning a business one day. A "Joe" that does not try the celebrity short cut by signing an immediate publicity deal on the basis of one question he happened to be filmed asking. A "Joe" that grew up poor and who genuinely knows what it's like to struggle, what it's like to lose a spouse in an accident, what it's like to bring up kids on your own. A "Joe" who, when he speaks nonsense and makes gaffes is nevertheless entertaining as heck. . .less by Anon with the gloating on November 05 2008, 11:18 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

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