My Democratic Party Commercial

I spoke to a farrier the other day -- you know, a guy who shoes horses. I asked him how business was going and he told me the price of fuel was cutting into his profits as he has to travel from farm to farm. Meanwhile, horse owners try to go longer between shoeings. But, the farrier said, he also does some polo ponies and "those people never have to cut back."

It made me think of a possible ad strategy for the Dems. Show a man dismounting from a polo horse, in front of his BMW/Mercedes/Rolls/whatever. His "employee" takes the horse, an another hands him some champagne. He drinks the champagne, and as he tosses the glass over his shoulder, the narrarator asks, are you better off than you were 8 years ago? The rich man answers, "You bet! My hedge funds are doing great and my tax rates are lower than ever!" Then show a typical mother in the checkout lane at the supermarket -- "Are you better off than you were 8 years ago?" "Are you kidding?"

Another commercial along the same lines could start with an oil company CEO and end with a couple standing outside their home next to the "foreclosure sale" sign.

Rush Limbaugh will tell you that the top 1% pay something like 27% of all federal taxes, and the bottom 50% pay only 3%. But what people like Rush fail to mention is that the top 1% is those who make over $388,000 per year while the bottom 50% make under $32,000 a year. (Those are not averages -- that is the "threshold" amount.) The top 1% of Americans make over 18% of ALL the income. And that percentage has been rising rapidly since 2002.

BTW it takes Rush about 2 hours to earn more than $32,000.