Bonus Blog!! Or Shall I call it a ‘Blonus?’

Interesting article in this week’s Aviation Week (AW) about the effect of John McCain or Barack Obama on the Aerospace and Defense Industries. I don’t really have to summarize much as you probably already know the AW verdict:

Barry Obama – Don’t Know Enough About Him.

John McCain – We May Know Him Too Well.

AW could have simply summed it up in the aforementioned two bullet points because that is the general idea. A few interesting specifics though:

1 – The article cited Obama’s brief mentions of the Orion CEV, Delta and Atlas programs. He originally stated he wanted to cut funding to throw that money at the bloated education system that doesn’t work (all the while throwing hard-working, educated engineers out on the street.) But wait WAIT!!! He later hedged and said he supports the return to the moon. IS ALL THIS SOUNDING FAMILIAR? McCain has changed stances in a career that spans decades (and let’s face it…I feel different about some things that I believe 20 years ago as well.) Obama CANNOT SEEM TO GET THROUGH A MONTH without going back and hedging on his statements. I know the far lefties hate it when they hear ‘Obama changes his web page every 2-3 weeks.’ The fact is he DOES and you can literally find transcripts of his speeches for the last 7 months where key points are directly contradicted. Is the ‘CHANGE’ he is talking about refer to daily changes of stance? When I see his tax stance and voting history you can be sure of this…HE WANTS YOUR CHANGE. Any loose change you have laying around….he and Nancy Pelosi will be bathing in it if you vote his way.

2 - McCain is highly critical of spending on many programs, including the F-22, F-35 and a few other programs near and dear to my heart. AW specifically pointed out McCain would trim defense budgets, however my impression is he wants to get rid of wasteful spending so that more defense programs can be enacted. The AW article also critized the fact that McCain does tend to ‘bite’ people verbally and step on toes. This can be good or bad depending on your point of view. Politically this is poor as you may need to come back to certain people for money someday. This is definitely a ‘skill’ that favors Obama (and in the past favored B. Clinton)….they know how to speak without saying anything and promising MUCH and delivering little. McCain is a little closer to my sideline since I can be a bit too blunt and honest….just ask my In-laws. Make no mistake, I DO NOT trust everything McCain says…I feel this way about EVERY politician. However, the politician ‘SPEECH METER’ does not read ‘lie’ on one end and ‘truth’ on the other….it’s usually some degree of ‘Mostly BS’ to ‘Mostly Realistic and Consumable’. McCain registers MUCH farther the ‘mostly realistic’ side than Obama. The problem is too many people are too dense to actually research Obama’s record or they just plain hate GW Bush.

3 – One major point that the article had: Obama DOES want to cut funding to put it in education, but he somehow believes he can entice top performing math and science students in college to go directly to public school teaching. This is interesting because he appears to want to remove high paying engineering and scientific jobs to make brilliant people low paying school-teachers. What??? First off, top performers want to get PAID. If you remove the ‘carrot’ of a high payday, where is the enticement to excel in the first place? Also, if Obama is so brilliant and yet so noble, why isn’t he teaching basic law at University of Hawaii? Oh yeah, he went for the high paying, relevant job. McCain’s idea is to try to move retiring boomers and retiring military personnel towards the classroom with inter-military programs. This idea is MUCH more realistic (and in fact is what I want to do in about 20 years….go back and teach college history.) MANY people WANT to teach…the problem is there is no money in it, 80% of the kids could care less and only 58% of the money taxed for public schools actually makes it to the classroom (at least that’s the stat for AZ…one of the worst states for public education)….teachers and parents are asked to foot more of the bill out of pocket. Now my belief is more Libertarian in the first place…education needs to be OUT of the government (along with Social Security, medical, etc.) Is this so radical? Tell me this….what was the last program that moved under the government umbrella that you said ‘MAN!!! The COST got LOWER and the QUALITY got BETTER!’ Anyone? EVERYTHING that falls under a government umbrella declines in quality and only becomes a future tax increase. Always has, always will. And no matter HOW Obama wants to sell it, the ONLY WAY TO GET TOP PERFORMERS OUT OF COLLEGE TO TAKE TEACHING JOBS IS TO REMOVE THE HIGH PAYING JOBS AVAILABLE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Sounds like socialism, doesn’t it? I firmly believe top performers should be rewarded with higher pay…..a ‘flat class’ society is an unproductive, uncompetitive society.

So finally, what have I learned from this and you can take away? It’s actually right down party lines….Obama wants to tax and spend and cut defense funding. At least ALLEGEDLY…it depends on what he says tomorrow. There are 4 months to election….that means at least 5 more changes to Obama’s ‘Moving Target’ web site.

And remember this one fundamental statement that was given to me by a coworker:

Republicans = We’re all the same at the STARTING line.
Democrats = We’re all the same at the FINISH line.

McCain in ’08!!