Incoherence

Time
Posted by Joe Klein

John McCain had a fabulously loony weekend, flipping out charges and attacks like a mud tornado. The truly remarkable thing about McCain's attacks, especially on Obama's economic policies, is that McCain, in each case, is "guilty" of supporting some version of the policies he's attacking:

1. He attacks Obama for increasing "welfare" by providing refundable tax credits -- that is giving people the cash equivalent if they don't pay enough in income taxes to reap the full benefit of the credit -- but McCain's own $5000 health insurance credit is also refundable.

2. He attacks Obama for spreading "socialism," but McCain supported the bailout that enabled the Bush Administration to partially nationalize the banking system last week. If that ain't a (very mild) form of socialism, I don't know what is.

3. He attacks Obama's tax plan as a form of "spreading the wealth" -- the words Obama used when talking to Joe the Unlicensed Tax Dodger in Ohio -- because Obama would reduce taxes on the middle class and pay for it by restoring Clinton-era marginal tax rates on the wealthy. And yet, McCain proudly voted for a major tax hike and wealth redistribution scheme in his early days in his early days in Congress. In fact he touts it regularly, including on Fox News Sunday, as bipartisan cooperation at its finest:

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