The ghosts of Reagan and Roosevelt

Is the choice between Obama and McCain a choice between the legacies of two presidential icons?

This muddy campaign is concluding "on a remarkably substantive argument," said E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post. Barack Obama promises to end the Republican experiment of trickle-down economics, which hinges on the idea that "the way to help struggling working people is to give more money to the wealthy." Obama's novel idea is to make "the wealthy pay more so that most Americans can pay less."

Precisely, said National Review Online in an editorial. Obama isn't just liberal—he advocates higher tax rates than any Democrat in 20 years. John McCain is a moderate who "has a solid record of opposing economically damaging tax increases." McCain would make a fine commander-in-chief, and he'd also make sure that Obama and other liberals in Congress "do not have a free hand to remake our country."

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