Democrats crush the American Dream

Ruben Navarrette:

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What worries me is that the Democrats aren't what they pretend to be.

Obama supporters like to talk about how the Democratic presidential nominee has lived the American Dream. So why is it to so hard for them to conceive of a situation where someone dreams of earning more money a few years from now than they earn today. Has Barack Obama consumed all the social mobility this country has to offer, so there isn't any left for the rest of us?

Now, the Obama-Biden boosters have refocused their attention on their earlier irritant, Sarah Palin.

The latest media template is that the vice presidential nominee is a drag on the GOP ticket. Pundits detect a backlash, not just among Democrats who love to hate Sarah Palin but also among women, independents and seniors. They cite polls showing Palin with an unfavorable rating of 50 percent.

So what? We're in the post-Clinton, post-Bush era of polarization where any politician with a pulse -- Sorry, Joe Biden -- will be loved by half the country and hated by the other half.

It's surreal. Before McCain put Palin on the ticket, he was getting 200 people at campaign rallies, and now, when he appears when Palin, he gets 20,000. Yes, definitely a drag. iReport.com: Rock star welcome for Palin in Ohio

McCain oversold it when he said Palin was the most qualified vice presidential candidate in recent history. Better than Dick Cheney? Could she be worse? Obama might have paid Biden the same compliment if his running mate hadn't already told supporters that Hillary Clinton would have been a better choice.

Then there is the faux-scandal that the Republican National Committee shelled out $150,000 in the past several weeks on Palin and her family for campaign wardrobe, accessories, makeup, etc.

Many Americans don't see why it's a story. Fellow hockey mom Page Growney of New Canaan, Conn., asked The Associated Press, "What did you want to see her in, a turtleneck from L.L. Bean?"

Still, we're told, this tempest in a Gucci bag has some Republicans worrying that shopping sprees at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue might undermine Palin's everywoman image. To think, just last month, the criticism was that Sarah the Moose Hunter wasn't sufficiently sophisticated or glamorous. Now her wardrobe signals the hockey mom is high-maintenance.

Just how many more caricatures -- some of them contradictory -- can we expect the left to throw at Sarah Palin before time runs out on this election?

If the guy who earns more than $250,000 a year spends the money on a new yacht instead of paying higher taxes, he is giving the money to someone who has hired workers who make much less than $250,000 a year to produce something of value.

If, instead, he is required to give the money to Obama so that he can give it to someone who has produced nothing in order to receive it what does that tell us about the incentives that Democrats are promoting? Instead of incentive's for wealth creation, money is put into an economic sinkhole created by government. That is not spreading the wealth, it is destroying it.

Navarrette is right about the enthusiasm Palin has brought to the ticket. The media and the Democrats have been trying to suppress that enthusiasm with faux stories of hate speech and goofy analysis of Palin hurting the ticket. That is just nonsense.