image: Money! (cc) Tracy O

The most fascinating thing about the conversations surrounding the Obama campaign is how his near proximity to the center of the political spectrum seems to attract the ire of both the extreme left and the extreme right side of politics. The far-right conservatives accuse Obama of being the most extreme liberal presidential candidate the US has ever had, and frequently bring up his vote on on the partial-birth abortion ban (he voted present); the far-left liberals accuse Obama of pandering to the Christian right, particularly on the issue of Obama's consideration of voting for Justice Roberts, which would have added a conservative judge in favor of pro-life groups.

Obama finds himself is a rather interesting place, and I find it hilarious that the two extreme edges of politics are using the same issues to argue that Obama is the polar opposite of themselves. I've argued from the beginning that Obama's position is actually just barely left-of-center, which is where I pull my own political ideology. On some issues, Obama actually falls on the right side of politics, particularly on the issue of fiscal responsibility and, strangely enough, taxes.

The DailyKOS just posted a report about Obama's and McCain's tax proposal, and as it turns out, nearly 90% of the US population will actually pay less taxes under Obama's plan than they would under McCain's.



As you can see, if you're making less than $112,000 a year (and that's 89% of us, according to the IRS), you'll actually pay less taxes if Obama is president than if McCain is president.

That's rather odd, considering Obama is supposed to be super liberal on every possible issue, according to the far-right conservatives. Of course, I'm sure that the far-left liberals will complain that Obama is not raising taxes even more.