So, how are you feeling about John McCain being handed the economy? It makes me nervous as I’ve listened to John McCain lately. I’m not the only one and for good reason. But the Obama campaign offered up an incredible email of research, some of which I’m going
to post. It absolutely lays out McCain’s slow, shadow responses that
basically mimic what Obama has been saying about the challenges we’re facing on the economy. If you’re someone who doesn’t
want to give Obama any credit, at the very least you have to say that his advisers
are better than McCain’s, thus preparing the candidate quite a bit more. Then there’s Obama’s demeanor, which is calm, unruffled and matter of fact. McCain’s response, starting with the Off With Cox’s Head remark, gives credence to Howard Dean’s “hot head” comment today, in describing McCain. As for other reviews, those speak for themselves and are offered at the bottom of this post. I’ll start with George Will, who eviscerated McCain today:
Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is
behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack
Obama. Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently
without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities
and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. … Conservatives who
insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end,
by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees
of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less
confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear
principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either. It is arguable
that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency.
It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless
reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can
be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying
temperament be fixed?” – George
Will
Now for some of the goodies in the Obama email:
Obama in APRIL 2007: Obama Sponsored The Shareholder Vote
On Executive Compensation Act. Obama was the chief sponsor of a bill to amend
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require a proxy, consent, or authorization
for a shareholder meeting occurring on or after January 1, 2009, to permit a
separate shareholder vote to approve executive compensation, but the vote would
not be binding on the board of directors. (110th, S. 1181, Referred to Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs, 4/20/07)
McCain in JUNE 2008: McCain Said That Under His Reforms,
All Aspects Of A CEO’s Pay Must Be Approved By Shareholders. McCain: “In
times of hardship and distress, we should be more vigilant than ever in holding
corporate abuses to account, as in the case of the housing market. Americans
are right to be offended when the extravagant salaries and severance deals of
CEO’s — in some cases, the very same CEO’s who helped to bring on these market
troubles — bear no relation to the success of the company or the wishes of
shareholders. Something is seriously wrong when the American people are left
to bear the consequences of reckless corporate conduct, while the offenders
themselves are packed off with another forty – or fifty million for the road.
If I am elected president, I intend to see that wrongdoing of this kind is called
to account by federal prosecutors. And under my reforms, all aspects of a CEO’s
pay, including any severance arrangements, must be approved by shareholders.”
(McCain Speech at NFIB, 6/10/08)
On bailout oversight, McCain parrots Obama:
On Friday, Obama Said The Plan Must Be Temporary And Coupled
With Tough New Oversight And Regulations. Obama said, “Third, this plan
must be temporary and coupled with tough new oversight and regulations of
our financial institutions, and there must be a clear process to wind down
this plan and restore private sector assets into private sector hands after
restoring stability to the system. Taxpayers must share in any upside benefit
that such stability brings.” [Obama Remarks, 9/19/08]On Monday, John McCain Said “We Need A High Level
Oversight Board To Impose Accountability.” MCCAIN: “I believe
we need a high level oversight board to impose accountability and establish
concrete criteria for who gets help and who does not. They must ensure that
throughout this crisis, the government is a careful steward of the taxpayer’s
dollars. The oversight board should be bipartisan and have qualified citizens
who have no agenda but the protection of taxpayers and the financial markets.
People like: Warren Buffet, who supports my opponent, Governor Romney, who
supports me, or Mayor Bloomberg, an independent.” (John McCain, Remarks,
9/22/08)
On protecting homeowners, John McCain parrots what Obama says again:
On Thursday, Obama Called For The Passage Of The Homeowner
And Financial Support Act, Which He Has Supported Since Last Spring. “Tomorrow
I will be convening a meeting with my top economic advisors to discuss a plan
based on the ideas I’ve been talking about with former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker
and other advisors of mine. Then I’ll call for the passage of a Homeowner
and Financial Support Act that would establish a more stable and permanent
solution than the daily improvisations that have characterized policy-making
over the last year. Specifically, it would accomplish three primary goals.
First, it will provide capital to the financial system. Second, it will provide
liquidity to enable our financial markets to function. And third, it will
do what I’ve been calling for since I supported legislation on it early last
spring, which is to get serious about helping struggling families to re-structure
their mortgages on more affordable terms so they can stay in their homes.
We’ve made a good start but we need to do much, much more. We cannot forget
that there are many homeowners who are in crisis through no fault of their
own, and a solution that does not have them at its core is no solution at
all.” (Obama Remarks, 9/18/08)On Monday, John McCain Said “We Must Keep People In
Their Home.” MCCAIN: “We must help keep people in their home. We
must protect American’s savings. And we must keep students with loans in school.”
(John McCain, Remarks, 9/22/08)
On protecting main street, John McCain parrots…
On Friday, Obama Called On McCain, Bush, Republicans And
Democrats To Support An Emergency Economic Plan For Working Families To Help
Main Street. Obama said, “First, we cannot only have a plan for Wall
Street. We must also help Main Street as well. I’m glad that our government
is moving so quickly in addressing the crisis that threatens some of our biggest
banks and corporations. But a similar crisis has threatened families, workers
and homeowners for months and months and Washington has done far too little
to help. For too long, this Administration has been willing to hit the fast-forward
button in helping distressed Wall Street firms while pressing pause when it
comes to saving jobs or keeping people in their homes. We already know that
the credit crisis that has emerged from our largest financial institutions
is becoming a credit crunch for small business owners, homeowners, and students
seeking loans in big cities and small towns. Now that American taxpayers are
being called on to share in this new burden, we must take equally swift and
serious action to help lift the burdens they face every day. In the same bipartisan
spirit that is being shown with regard to the crisis on Wall Street, I ask
Senator McCain, President Bush, Republicans and Democrats to join me in supporting
an emergency economic plan for working families – a plan that would
help folks cope with rising gas and food prices, spark job creation through
repair of our schools and roads, help states and cities avoid painful budget
cuts and tax increases, help homeowners stay in their homes, and provide retooling
assistance for America’s auto industry. John McCain and I can continue to
argue about our different economic agendas for next year, but we should come
together now to work on what this country urgently needs this year.”
[Obama Remarks, 9/19/08]On Monday, John McCain Said Congress Must “Put Our
Country First And Focus On What Is Best For Main Street.” MCCIAN: “As
Congress examines this package, I would encourage all members to set aside
the pressures of Washington and Wall Street. As we determine what to do, we
need to put our country first and focus on what is best for Main Street.”
(John McCain, Remarks, 9/22/08)
As for McCain’s reviews, they’re positively brutal:
George Will called McCain’s response to the crisis “unpresidential”:
“I suppose the McCain campaigns hope is that when there’s a big crisis,
people will go for age and experience. The question is, who in this crisis looked
more presidential, calm and unflustered. It wasn’t John McCain who, as usual,
substituting vehemence for coherence, said, “Let’s fire somebody.”
And he picked one of the most experienced and conservative people in the administration,
Chris Cox, and for no apparent reason, or at least none that he vouched safe,
he said, “Fire Chris Cox at the SEC.” It was unpresidential behavior
by a presidential aspirant.” – ABC This Week, 9/21/08
Al Hunt said McCain not only “flip flopped,” but couldn’t get his
hands around his very own deregulation history: “Obama,
Not McCain, Shows Steady Hand in Crisis.”
“For the first time since 1932 a presidential election is taking place
in the midst of a genuine financial crisis. The reaction of the candidates
was revealing. John McCain, railing against the ‘greed and corruption’ of
Wall Street, won the first round of the sound-bite war. He came out with a
television commercial on the “crisis” early on Monday of last week, and
over the next three days gave more than a dozen broadcast interviews. He and
running mate Sarah Palin would reform Wall Street and regulate the nefarious
fat cats that caused this fiasco. It was a great start. It then went downhill
as he stumbled over his record of championing deregulation, claimed the economy
was fundamentally strong, and flip-flopped over the government takeover of
American International Group Inc. … McCain displayed a sudden interest
in the SEC last week when he demanded that Chairman Chris Cox be fired. When
his campaign was asked if the senator had ever criticized the current commission’s
performance before, they failed to respond. … McCain has been beset
by deeper difficulties: an inchoate and inconsistent message that seems to
reflect political exigencies more than principled convictions. On the financial
crisis, last week belonged to Obama.”
Jonathan Alter also used “unpresidential,”
with “erratic and off-key” as a bonus, topped off by a “Herbert
Hoover” ending:
“McCain’s whole campaign is based on the idea that Barack Obama is risky,
untested and can’t be trusted to protect the nation in a crisis. But this
week it was McCain who seemed unpresidential, as his Zigzag Express swerved
back and forth across the median strip. His approach to the greatest financial
crisis since 1933 was erratic and off-key. Would his presidency be any different?
McCain’s first reaction to the climactic events of Sunday, Sept. 14, when
Lehman Brothers fell, Merrill Lynch was sold and AIG began to totter, was
to repeat his longstanding sound bite that ‘the fundamentals of the economy
are strong.’ When Obama predictably leapt on this clueless comment with a
TV ad, McCain quickly backtracked by saying that he was merely talking about
the strength of ‘the American worker’ and anyone who disagreed obviously had
a problem understanding the importance of working people. He told the morning
shows that he was a Republican in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt, though his
true views on free-market economics are more in tune with Herbert Hoover.”
Saving the best, meaning the worst for John McCain, last, the Wall Street
Journal tore McCain a new one over his ignorant
scapegoating of Cox:
“John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn’t understand what’s
happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does. But on Thursday,
he took his populist riffing up a notch and found his scapegoat for financial
panic — Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
… In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading
answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate
searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution. He’ll never
beat Mr. Obama by running as an angry populist like Al Gore, circa 2000.”
Hillary Clinton’s right. People vote for the top of the ticket. If the economy
remains the main issue, and if Obama can hold his own on Friday on foreign policy,
John McCain’s in for a deep, steady downward slide. A lot of “ifs,”
but I like the looks of what’s currently unfolding, because it bodes well, not
only for our side, but for the country to get back on track, which simply cannot happen with John McCain.
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