Predicting McCain and Obama's Effect on Cities

Posted by: Tim Halbur

19 September 2008 - 1:00pm

Neal Pierce asks the question, 'Who's Best for Cities, McCain or Obama?' The evidence has been difficult to come by, but Pierce unearths some clues and makes some logical predictions.

"After the speeches, ads, debates, saturation media, are over and the voters have spoken, how will the new president work with the cities and metropolitan areas that a vast majority of us call home?

My short analysis: With Obama, we’re likely to get an activist federal government in areas from transit and infrastructure to housing. But it won’t be the Democrats’ historic center-city “urban policy.” Instead, Obama’s looking for ways to shift and coordinate federal programs to help boost the fortunes of entire metro regions.

McCain? One has to be a super-detective to discern any city-metro policy at all. We know what he’s against, starting with pork-barrel spending, particularly earmarks for politicians’ pet local projects. We know he’s for less government regulation and lower taxes for individuals, small businesses, corporations."

Full Story: McCain Versus Obama: Who’s Best for Cities?

Source: Citiwire.net, September 18, 2008

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some additional complexity

Submitted by Michael Lewyn on Fri, 09/19/2008 - 13:56.

Looking at the candidates' stated positions assumes that they can get those positions enacted by Congress and administrative agencies- an unlikely event, especially for issues that are not exactly first-tier issues for either candidate (especially McCain).