Forbidden Campaign Issues, Sure Winners For Republicans

Voldemort! There, I said it! I have just named he who must not be named and was not smacked down by supernatural forces. And previously, I have even middle named Barack Obama without being cast screaming into the fiery pits of hell. So why is it that, in this political season, two of the greatest challenges facing our country cannot be honestly debated?

In one of his rare honest moments during the vice presidential debate, Democrat Joe Biden “accused” John McCain of voting against biofuel subsidies. If memory serves, the number of “no” votes tallied 21. Joe smugly believed he had won one. And he did, by forfeit. Sarah Palin, probably on orders from McCain, ignored the claim. What should have been a slam dunk win for McCain/Palin, ended up as a point for Obama/Biden. The ball was set up on the tee, and Sarah Palin, as all Republicans do these days, declined to hit it out of the park.

The biofuels that Obama and Biden tout is ethanol derived from corn. They claim that it will free us from foreign oil when they know for a fact that it cannot. Surely McCain and Palin know this as well, but they elect to keep the information to themselves.

The biggest problem with corn ethanol is that it takes about as much energy to make ethanol as one gets back from burning ethanol. When one takes into account the petroleum required to plow the fields, harvest the corn, manufacture the fertilizer, transport the corn to the distillery and distill the ethanol, you’re just about breaking even. But because ethanol is so corrosive, it cannot be delivered through pipelines and must be delivered by trucks and trains. More oil burned. Using the most optimistic calculations, if we were to sow every available acre in corn and convert it to ethanol, it would reduce our current oil imports by no more than 10%. Some actually estimate that we actually have a negative energy yield in corn ethanol.

Corn ethanol has the secondary effect of causing food prices to soar. Not only is corn more expensive, but so is beef, pork, poultry and dairy products, as feed is the number one expense for the producers. In addition, the prices of other starchy crops, such as wheat and rice, will follow corn. And because so many more acres are being planted in corn for ethanol production these days, fewer acres are planted in soybeans and other staple crops. The prices of these crops have soared as well. Burning corn is creating severe food shortages in other countries. The United Nations recently cited the diversion of food to fuel as the primary contributor to a worsening worldwide food crisis.

McCain and Palin should be proud that McCain has not voted for ethanol subsidies. And in a sane world, they could hang that albatross around their opponents’ necks and win handily this November. But alas, the corn ethanol is the boondoggle that must not be named.

The same goes for the financial crisis. In an honest world, McCain and Palin should be able to hang that one around their opponents’ necks as well, and not just because Obama accepted so much money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or because Obama has disgraced former Fannie Mae CEO’s as advisors.

Using nothing but the New York Times’ archives, one can follow the whole mortgage meltdown from its origins in 1999 in Clinton Administration directives to its fruition in 2008. And you will find Democratic Party fingerprints all over it.

But Republicans so fear being called racists that they won’t take it on directly. Indeed they have already been called racists for even mentioning Bill Clinton’s over interpretation of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act in regards to the crisis. Never mind that it is easily traced back. Intending to increase home ownership among minorities, the Clinton Administration enacted rules that forced banks to give loans to people with poor credit. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac then purchased those mortgages and are now stuck with loans that will never be repaid. It’s as simple as that. But Republicans tremble in fear as Democrats blame George Bush and free markets. A free market would never have made those loans.

What better opportunity is there to speak right past mainstream media filters than during a debate? Seventy million people watched Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. Nearly as many watched Obama and McCain Tuesday.

Republicans might need a visit with the Wizard of Oz to ask for some courage.

Update: Are Republicans figuring this out?

John McCain and his Republican allies have elevated an unlikely pair of political villains to deflect blame for the slumping economy.

During a town hall in Wisconsin on Thursday, McCain called Senate Banking Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (Mass.) “willing co-conspirators” in the current financial collapse.

This comes as conservative talk radio hosts and an outside group aligned with the GOP accuse the duo of similar crimes against the economy, particularly an allegation that congressional Democrats blocked legislation to increase regulations and oversight for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

This latest back-and-forth shows how political the economic crisis has become after party leaders on both sides of the aisle helped usher legislation through Congress last week granting the Department of the Treasury historic authority to buy up to $700 billion in distressed mortgage-related assets.

Republicans and Democrats observed a tentative truce during negotiations over that bill. But this week they were back at one another’s throats, and Republicans decided that targeting Dodd and Frank – not terribly well known outside the Beltway — might make for good campaign rhetoric.