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Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Will McCain's Gutsy Move Pay Off?
Sen. John McCain shocked the political world today by announcing he was suspending his campaign to return to Washington to help pass emergency legislation to deal with the worst financial crisis facing the United States in the past century. He called on Sen. Obama to do the same and to delay Friday's scheduled presidential debate in Mississippi. Sen. Obama immediately rejected McCain's move. He said the debate is on and he has no intention of returning to Washington to work on the financial crisis unless his party's leaders ask for his help. Sen Harry Reid decided to play politics by saying McCain had nothing to offer to the process and that he should stay away. Reports that few Republicans are jumping aboard and supporting the pending plan to rescue our financial system indicates otherwise. The truth is that McCain's leadership is needed in the Senate right now; Obama's is not. McCain puts country first as usual. Obama puts his own political career first. Obama's "call me if you need" me attitude focuses attention on his complete irrelevance in getting anything done legislatively in the Senate. He's a non-entity on that front. He's spent the past four years campaigning for president instead of serving as junior senator for the state of Illinois. It's all about him. Take note America.
First of all, there is no need for Congress to do anything, because anything they do will just make the underlying problems worse. Governing, by crisis, is bad government. Who is going to bail out the government (us) when the our currency is worthless after the printing press finishes cranking out these billions of dollars that we do not have.
ReplyDeleteIf you're talking about skipping the debate specifically, I'd point out that it didn't work out too well to skip the debate against Reagan and Anderson in 1980.
ReplyDeleteI get that McCain is trying to show that he is urgently addressing an important issue. However, the public is very much against a bailout, and that's the business he is urgently pursuing.
Gotta think this is going to backfire.
McCain has "gimmick-ed" his way out of the Presidency. Palen, now this.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the move it "gutsy" by any measure. What it shows is that McCain is incapable of multitasking. God I can't wait until that lying old bastard loses his election and rides off into the sunset of forgotten politicians, selling Viagra along the way.
ReplyDeleteCitizen Kane:
ReplyDeleteI'd love your comments on the bailout plan my buddy came up with at (see www.ipopa.blogspot.com).
Sorry, but I don't see how this move is "gutsy." Did Senator McCain get a call from his caucus leaders saying, "John, we need you!" No.
Two bureaucrats (fed chair, treasury chair) are trying to make our government cough up $700 million to the people who crashed the system in the first place after contemplating this for one week, and John McCain wants to lead the fight for THAT? Talk about bad judgment. I'd rather NOT take action that is imprudent and rushed.
To spin this as some sort of self-sacrificing heroic gesture is poppycock. If McCain was truly putting country first, he wouldn't have asked Obama to suspend his campaign because he wouldn't have cared. I'm trying not to be so cynical, but I can't help but think this is a great tactic for a guy who doesn't want to get dusted in an upcoming debate because he's not ready.
Mike, It's easy for you Libertarians to oppose everything. You've never had to govern. The bottom line is that this bailout must happen or we are all screwed. The banking system will collapse. You will lose all of your deposits. There is no money to cover the FDIC losses. Small and large businesses alike will be unable to meet payroll and will shut down. The civil unrest which will erupt right here in Indianapolis and other major cities will be unlike anything you have ever seen. If you dont' own a gun, buy one. Law enforcement will be so overwhelmed it will become every man for himself. Anyone who says we can just let the banking system collapse is out of touch with reality. I'm not interested in a bailout to save banks. I'm interested in a bailout to prevent the loss of our way of life. It may be too late to save it already, but sitting on our hands and doing nothing is an absurd option. Vox and Arnie, just two partisans who care more about which party wins an election than the future of this country.
ReplyDeleteI'm an admitted partisan, AI. And I am voting for the person who I think will best help America move forward. Republican deregulation led to this disaster, and now they want us to bail out the corporate stooges who ran their companies into the ground, without assurance that the tax payers will be paid back.
ReplyDeleteIf McCain wins, I truly believe this nation is doomed.
Don't bring your bullshit line over here on what caused this meltdown, Vox. Your President Clinton signed into law the deregulation bill for the finance industry which led to this debacle. You're too uninformed to know anything about that Depression era law called Glass-Steagall, which specifically was created to erect a wall of separation from commercial and investment banking. That law was repealed with near-unanimous support of Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress and signed into law by Clinton. The commodities modernization act also happened on Clinton's watch. It was widely supported by Republicans and Democrats alike. Both parties sold out to the special interest groups and brought this on. Neither party is without blame. Your refusal to admit that fact is why I have absolutely no respect for you. People like you are why there is no hope for America. You are so self-destructive. You want this economy to crash and burn as badly as possible simply so the Democrats can have total control of everything. That's how sick you are.
ReplyDeleteI don't want this economy to crash and burn, and frankly I don't care how much or how little you respect me, especially since we don't know each other.
ReplyDeleteI know that in 1999 the principal proponent of tearing down Glass-Steagall (which prevented companies like AIG from getting involved in too many different types of the economy, if I recall) was none other than Phil Gramm of "nation of whiners" fame (aka McCain's honorary campaign chairman).
I know that Democrats, true liberal Democrats, have long called for more regulation and oversight over the financial services industry which has been blocked by conservative Democrats and Republicans alike.
OUR President, Bill Clinton, signed some seriously flawed legislation sent to him by the Republican Congress between 1995 and the end of 2000.
wow.. and since McCain has sooo many friends in the Rep caucus, he'll probably be instrumental in his economic advice. That's truly his strong suit.
ReplyDeleteBut now we find out that Obama, McCain, Bush and Congressional leaders will all have a photo-op to pose with the bailout decision..
and THEN McCain can get to MS to get his ass whooped...
Like you Gary I take pride in my political "hackdom" to point out the pitiful qualities of the opposition parties shoddier candidates and operatives. I just do not use so much gobbledegoop.
ReplyDeletegnwmann = Joh Padgett
ReplyDeleteYesterday, Harry Reid was saying McCain would have to jump in to help bring Republicans along. Today, he's telling him to get lost. Harry was worried that McCain just might make the difference. In fact, he knows McCain is needed to get that legislation passed. He just can't say so publicly.
I know both Joh Padgett and Gnwmann... they are definitely not the same person.
ReplyDeleteThat said, there is only one person on the nets that I know would use a word like "gobbledegoop."
vox..Really. I don't recall the meet-up. And I too know Joh and he is a friend. And Gnwmann you are not Joh.
ReplyDelete"Republican deregulation led to this disaster, and now they want us to bail out the corporate stooges who ran their companies into the ground, without assurance that the tax payers will be paid back."
ReplyDeleteThat is so utterly, unbelievably wrong, I don't even know where to being. When Clinton re-wrote the Community Reinvestment Act in 1994 (a Carter invention) he needed a vehicle through which to offer huge amounts of loan money without all that claptrap about down payments and credit scores. Enter Fannie and Freddie, a New Deal innovation, one part of a long list of bad social experiments that we're still feeling 70 years after inception. Basically by intervening in free markets (something D's have honed to perfection over the years) and throwing the risk side of the risk-reward equation out the window by tacitly backing Freddie and Fannie, we got where we are today. Keep the government out of the markets, period. It had absolutely nothing to do with deregulation. The seeds of this were sown in the 30's, and reaped by Clinton-era handwrining about how to "help the poor". You put a bum in a house, he's just a bum with a mortgage. This liberal canard that home ownership somehow makes a person responsible is ridiculous, and proven wrong over and over. If it really worked, HUD would MAKE money.
Lance, You make a good point on the community reinvestment, which is just code for forcing banks to loan money to uncreditworthy consumers in largely urban minority communities. Banks were scored based on the number of such loans they made. Yes, our government fully encouraged and endorsed high risk loans, which has contributed to this mortgage meltdown.
ReplyDeletePolitical Wire suggests that McCain might vote against the bailout as a way to distance himself from Congress and Bush.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you think if he did that?
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/politicalinsider/2008/09/is-mccain-preparing-to-vote-ag.html