Hey, look over there!

MANIFESTO

It's pretty clear that the McCainiacs have used the politics of indignation to divert attention from their heinous ideas, but perhaps that dust is settling, and real issues can be exposed.

Certainly, Bob Herbert is trying to do his part as he points out that

A study coming out Tuesday from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan.

There is nothing secret about Senator McCain’s far-reaching proposals, but they haven’t gotten much attention because the chatter in this campaign has mostly been about nonsense — lipstick, celebrities and “Drill, baby, drill!”

For starters, the McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on.

This is obviously an issue that Democrats should hammer at daily—yea, hourly—as the Republicans' assault on the middle and lower classes continues.

BTW, I was in Pennsylvania over the weekend and actually saw some political commercials in that swing state. (Needless to say, I haven't seen one in dark blue Connecticut.) They're about as expected: stupid (McCain) and earnest (Obama). But the xenophobes in the Keystone State apparently think that Obama is a Muslim, so many will vote for the party that'll make their day-to-day lives appreciably more onerous.

Sigh.

UPDATE — Steve Benen concurs.