what does mccain mean by "weath redistribution"?

look. john mccain was awesome on SNL. and in many ways, he's probably a cool guy. but lets not pretend, even for a second, that the stump, neocon john mccain of the last 8 years hasn't put funny john mccain in the backseat. case in point: his attacks on obama concerning "socialism" and "sharing the wealth". the new republic, like many of us, has been confused about this line of attack, because americans, particularly in pennsylvania, overwhelmingly favor a progressive tax system. So why would he be using this argument?

Well, its because he's not playing on fears that Obama will take from the rich and give to the poor. He's playing on fears that Obama will redistribute wealth between 2 other groups:

The McCain campaign trying to play on fears that Obama will take money from whites and give it to blacks. Hence McCain's claims that Obama plans on "taking from one group of Americans and giving to another," that Obama would turn the IRS into "a giant welfare agency," and his television ads repeatedly flashing the word "welfare" to describe Obama's plans.

Certainly, Pennsylvanians seem to see McCain's argument here as something other than an attack on the principle of progressivity in taxation. The Boston Globe reports: "Still, there remains a deep distrust of big government programs here, and strong skepticism about Obama. A number of voters feared he would transfer wealth from the middle class to help people "who don't work" or who don't deserve it. ..."

It's not like I think that McCain has run an intolerably lowbrow campaign. His resistance to Reverend Wright references is certainly commendable. But he hasn't been above more insidious forms of race-baiting, and this is a classic example.