BY TAYLOR MARSH
Welcome to the many editions of the politics of destruction and distraction.
Republicans have been swiftboating Democrats for so long they don’t know what
else to do. That’s because the conservative theory of economics, foreign policy
and national security has collapsed. From David
Frum:
American voters are staggering under the worst financial crisis since at
least 1982. Asset values are tumbling, consumer spending is contracting, and
a recession is visibly on the way. This crisis follows upon seven years in
which middle-class incomes have stagnated and Republican economic management
has been badly tarnished. Anybody who imagines that an election can be won
under these circumstances by banging on about William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright
is … to put it mildly … severely under-estimating the electoral
importance of pocketbook issues.We conservatives are sending a powerful, inadvertent message with
this negative campaign against Barack Obama’s associations and former associations:
that we lack a positive agenda of our own and that we don’t care about
the economic issues that are worrying American voters….
The Republicans don’t know what to do as the economic foundation of the world
economy shakes. The deregulation begun during Ronald Reagan and championed by
people like Phil Graham, an issue McCain struggles with while parroting policies
that are getting ripped apart, is rocking the Republican core message.
Just one devastating critique about McCain’s
disastrous “new” economic idea, which I linked in the TM.com headlines
yesterday:
John McCain’s new foreclosure plan is a giveaway to the banks… Put this
in perspective. Under the just-passed $700 billion bailout bill, the Federal
Housing Administration is already charged with guaranteeing and refinancing
up to $300 billion of mortgages. But there is a big difference between that
and what McCain proposes. What we already have requires that the bank get
only 85% of the face value back. Under the deal McCain is offering, the banks
could get back 100%. Why do they deserve it? … Out of the blue, McCain has
just proposed a large, no-strings-attached gift of taxpayer cash to bank executives
who failed at their business of risk management, and to bank shareholders
who failed at their business of hiring executives. That’s simply corrupt.
He was by no means the only one.
And unlike the Paulson plan, the McCain proposal appears to offer no upside
for taxpayers. – The
Wall Street Journal
“If I thought McCain was going to be elected, I’d stop paying my mortgage
now and stick my nose in the trough.” – St.
Petersburg Times
Cautious
reception for mortgage plan.
Colorado
Rocky Mountain News: Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s proposal
to spend $300 billion to buy distressed home mortgages raises questions of fairness,
the potential of people bailing on their mortgages to get a handout from Uncle
Sam and creating another huge bureaucracy, some experts said Wednesday.
McCain plan bails out everyone but taxpayers. – New
Hampshire
Paul
Krugman: “John McCain’s bailout plan manages to take everything
that’s wrong with the Paulson plan and make it worse.”
CNN Money: McCain
mortgage plan shifts costs to taxpayers.
The candidate’s debate proposal is a dubious answer to a real problem. – Washington
Post
Ambinder:
Last night, wags were referring off-handedly to the plan as the McCain
Campaign Resurgence Plan — a last ditch goodie bag that undermines his message
about spending discipline.
McCain’s latest economic offering is nothing short of a bribe.
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