A Harvard Trial Lawyer for McCain [Endorsement]

American Thinker ^ | 10/19/2008 | William A. Jacobson

[cynwoody]

William A. Jacobson is Associate Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School in Ithaca, NY, and author of the Legal Insurrection Blog.

There are some nice posts in his blog. E.g.:

The Obama campaign, its supporters, and the pro-Obama mainstream media, play the race card the way Vladimir Horowitz played the piano, at times subtle and nuanced, at times dramatic and intense. But play the race card they do, time and again.

Or this:

Most commentators have focused on the "spread the wealth" language used in Obama's response, arguing that Obama seeks to use the tax code to redistribute wealth. Fair enough, but that misses the point. The "spread the wealth" language is the symptom, not the disease.

The key wording in Obama's response is "I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too." The disease is that Obama sees the economy as a zero-sum game, where one person's success deprives those "behind" him of success. The only way to ensure the success of those "behind" is taxation of those "ahead."

Obama doesn't seem to understand that Joe the Plumber's success does not deprive anyone of anything. To the contrary, the success of Joe the Plumber helps the economy, helps his employees, helps his customers, and keeps all their families from seeking government handouts. Success is not a crime which needs to be punished, provided that the success is achieved lawfully.

[TigersEye]

Those are excellent points. The fiscal conservative sees that success engenders success. The fiscal liberal believes that success is some kind of self-existent entity that some people have a relationship with and others don't. They believe that those who know success control who else gets introduced to it.

The liberal view, which anthropomorphizes "success," is entirely delusional. Success is a state of being, a mindset that one participates in like an athlete participates in gymnastics, not a being in and of itself, like a club, that one is either invited to join or excluded from.

Like the athlete you have to work and prepare yourself to participate meaningfully. Being handed a debit card that says "Member of Club Success" is like being given a uniform and a card that says "Member of the Gymnastics Team." You can't do any routines and the team score drops because you're incompetent. Pretty soon the entire team is disbanded because they can't compete.