K&C Quotables

Some notable quotes from last night's Kudlow & Company:

Overcoming the Obama Effect The only way you overcome the Obama effect is not with atmospherics—he’s going to outdo you on eloquence and that kind of thing. The only way you can do it is with substance. That is, sharply contrast taxes. [Obama] wants to raise them, McCain wants to cut them. Social Security—Obama wants more taxes, McCain wants to allow private accounts to supplement Social Security. Healthcare—more patient control, which McCain wants, versus Obama having Katrina-like bureaucrats run the system. These are very basic differences. And if people recognize them, I think not only can McCain beat Senator Obama, but also inoculate even a Democratic Congress from going down that road.

-Steve Forbes, Forbes president & CEO

The Future of Microsoft I think Microsoft really needed the Yahoo deal. Because it’s not just advertising on the Internet, it’s distribution of software over the next few years, over the Internet. [That's] where their competition is going to be. And I was really disappointed that [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer didn’t finish up on what he had started there. I think that they have this incredible machine that gives them more cash flow than they really know what to do with. And what they have to do is look around the corner, a little bit, and decide how is the business going to get distributed over the next three years…While they have this dominating position, they’ve got to use that domination to get to where they need to be over three to five years. To me that’s on the Internet. And I think they have to come back after Yahoo.

-Vince Farrell, managing director, Scotsman Capital

McCain’s Climate Change Solution One of my big concerns is the competitive disadvantage that cap-and-trade would put American industry versus industry from China, India, and other developing countries. If we put this new tax on our American companies, for the electricity and energy that they use, aren’t you going to see a migration of capital and jobs out of the United States to countries like China and India?

-Steve Moore, senior economics writer, Wall Street Journal