It isn’t about the economy -- it's about hypocrisy

Marketplace
Monday, March 22, 2004

So what's the Presidential campaign really about? 'The economy, stupid'? Or 'the war, stupid'? Jobs? Or terrorism?

The real issue here is "honesty, stupid!" What cost Aznar his job in Spain was a clumsy attempt to blame Basque separatists and suppress evidence that Al Qaeda was behind a horrendous terrorist attack. That wasn't a victory for terrorists. It was a defeat for government hypocrisy.

So listen up, candidate Kerry, and President Bush. On the economy and on terrorism, it's hypocrisy Americans don't like.

Take the economy. It's not just that there's a jobless recovery, it's that the administration is pretending that the recovery wasn't DESIGNED to be jobless to keep profits flowing. The administration is playing down the real numbers. It's not counting those out of work for more than a year. And it's refusing to face up to outsourcing and downsizing as conscious corporate strategies.

It's the government saying that Social Security's going broke when the truth is it's in surplus. That's hypocritical when President Bush has been borrowing from it to pay for things like the war and those tax rebates for the rich.

No, this isn't about the economy, it's about hypocrisy, misrepresentation, let's call it lying.

Same deal on your voting record Senator Kerry. On the big ticket Iraq spending bill, you said: "I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars before I voted against it," !! Huh!? Don't prevaricate, just fess up and move on.

Same deal on terrorism, President Bush. A majority of Americans continue to believe overthrowing Saddam was a good thing (who doesn't?). But a majority also deplore the misrepresentations and lies with which you coaxed America into war to the tune of billions.

Spaniards, Malaysians, Taiwanese, French, they all had elections last week. They are all pretty much the same, just like us. No one wants to be lied to. Mistakes - even misdeeds - can be tolerated, cover-ups won't be. Straight talk -- that's what voters everywhere want.

In New York, this is Ben Barber for Marketplace.

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