You need to be careful in the China shop.

It has taken a few days of thought as to what to do with the "China Ad".  Here goes:

The ad is from the Elizabeth Warren campaign for U.S. Senate.  The conservatives have done a Jump a;; over" on the ad.  More than a few moderates have questioned the wisdom of the ad.  I, of the twisted political bent, have to say it is disturbing to me as an individual.

Whether this becomes a long term blunder for Warren's campaign or not, remains to be seen.

The wording for the ad is I believe as follows:

We’ve got bridges and roads in need of repair and thousands of people in need of work. Why aren’t we rebuilding America? Our competitors are putting people to work, building a future. China invests 9% of its GDP in infrastructure. America? We’re at just 2.4%. We can do better. We can build a foundation for a strong new economy and get people in MA to work right now. I’m Elizabeth Warren and I approve this message. Let’s go to work.

Comparing how the U.S. of A., or any democracy for that matter, spends its money with that of the communist stalwart of China, is quite frankly an insult to common sense.  

I could get into the actual numbers to counter the seemingly wide transparency.  I can get into the per capital arguments, human spending factor, economic freedom index and a whole host of things and rip the stated difference to shreds.

We could delve into the growing vs. mature economy rationale.

We can argue wasteful spending all day.  There is no doubt it exists, it does everywhere.  Keep in mind also what I consider wasteful, you might actually think is needed.  

But there is no need to do this.  

Common sense should tell you that the way things can happen in China are not the way things can happen here. 

You want to talk about how GDP is used, is invested, why not look to how it is invested in the people building those bridges, roads and other infrastructure.  

Don't just simply tell me we can do better.  The goal of every politician seek to be elected or re-elected should always be to do better. 

When you compare my country to China, tell me exactly how do you intend to get the money to increase spending compared to China.  Are we going to cut military spending in 1/2?  Very tempting actually.  At times I get frustrated by us playing the world's policeman to a world that seemingly doesn't want us in it, except when we are not actually there.

Even if we do that, my rough calculation leaves us about $700,000,000,000 short of the "China Standard", that is in dollars we would have to spend to meet the same 9%.

Maybe if our government was able to act with the same impunity as the Communist Chinese government, or didn't have to spend on a whole lot of social programs the Chinese do not, we could spend more on infrastructure.    

Think the environmental concerns would play a big factor in getting a pipeline built in China? Or a bridge, or a road?  The issue of how you are going to deice/salt a road in China wouldn't result in a decades long delay in connecting highways.

I was a political science major in college.  Took a whole lot of course on international politics, and more than a few related to communism.  The one inescapable fact is that whatever works in a communist society comes at an extremely high price, not in just money, but in civil rights and human rights and life.

Now it has been a long, long time since those days, but I haven't read, heard or seen anything that indicates to me that the "good" outweighs the "bad".

I pretty much have stayed away from the Indian ancestry issue.  I understand the excuse. May have been reason for checking the first box or two.  But as she moved up the professional ladder, as the full impact of checking off that box numerous times should have become readily apparent, it becomes hard to understand how one simply relies on oral history.  Explain to a judge that you simply did it because my mother told me.

I haven't said boo about her being the architect behind the Obama "you didn't do it on your own".  The fact our President essentially just reworded her prior speech wasn't much of an issue.  I understand the premise behind it, although I totally disagree with the perceived message. 

Somebody did in fact build that road for us to travel.  That isn't a problem.  Neither is having to pull my fair share of the wagon going down that road.  It might be nice though if the ever increasing number of people riding in the wagon also get out and push when you get stuck in a pothole.

But hey, it's politics right.  You pander to your audience.  

But China as an example.  Sorry.  No matter what your intention, to imply that this country is doing something wrong based on what is happening in China ain't going to make me feel blue.  It does make me see red though.

You want to use simple percentages to make a ridiculous point.  I found a site that states the tax burden in the U.S. is equal to 26.9% of GDP.  In China it is only 18%.  If China can do so much with that lower %, why can't we.  Let's go to work on that one.

Speaking of percentages ...

Absent something big happening, indications would seem out President will be re-elected.  Not that is as of today.  The polls are showing a 2% lead.  The "solid" states gives him a substantial lead in electoral votes.  While there are still plenty of toss ups to swing it, the problem for Romney is he has to win those coin flips big time.

In Mass. the lead for Obama is staggering based on the polls.  Averaging 19.2%.  Here something really, really big would have to happen.  for Warren, in a tight senate race, that Obama lead is really, really important.

There is no escaping the fact that despite the "unenrolled", state wide this is a pretty solid party ticket state.  In a national election, coat tails are important here especially in a state wide race.  

More locally ...

I have been pondering a great deal about why we hold elections in the spring.  Believe it or not, there is actually some state law relative to towns doing so.  In ties in with the town meeting.  It actually can be changed by charter.

Might be interesting to see what happens in a town election held the same time as other elections.  certainly could save on costs.  Could certainly help the turnout by opening the polls earlier as is done for every other election.

Now I am not advocating making local elections partisanship.   It would be a hoot to see the attempts to jump on coattails, or off of them depending on what was going on.  We actually see that now.

Still, I think it makes sense.  Need to look into that more at some point.  

What do you think?