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| Time for McCain to Name Names |
| 2008-10-01 |
| There is but one issue in the 2008 election. The economy. Or more to the point, the economic meltdown. Whoever wins this debate will win the election. Or perhaps more accurately, whoever loses this debate will lose the election. Period. It is important to understand this for anyone trying not to lose this upcoming election. That would obstensibly include Arizona Senator John McCain. And it may not be as simple as what side of the Paulson Plan debate you are on. The housing-mortgage virus is eating up billions of dollars of wealth daily and this tends to irritate those who are losing the wealth. That would now include everyone in the country who owns any stock, mutual fund shares or real estate. In othe words, a large share of voters. When folks are this angry, there is hell to pay and "hell to pay" includes figuring out who to blame. For all of McCain's wanting to stay "above the fray" and his too-clever-by-half comment that now is not the time to assign blame, he is not hearing the public. It is indeed time to assign blame. With this kind of financial destruction on the part of most American families, someone is going to get blamed. You can count on it. Let me repeat. Someone will get blamed. You will either enter that debate or you will lose that debate. Period. And short of properly assigning blame to the liberal policies and politicians who are responsible for this mess, the blame will autmatically fall to the current Presidential administation and by extension, his party. Right or wrong, that's how our politics play out. McCain simply has no choice now. He will start doing what he claims he loves to do related to government corruption -- naming names -- or he will be thrown on the ash heap of electoral shame alongside Bob Dole, George H. W. Bush and so on. The good news for McCain, should he decide to grasp it, is that the party against which he is (supposed to be) running can easily be pegged with the lion's share of the blame regarding our economic meltdown. There is no doubt that liberal policies on energy and housing have combined to put the country in this situation, and only unwinding these policies will lead the nation out of this problem. Naming names properly will name a whole lot of folks with "D" beside their names. Congress, of course, is now led by the very people who put us into this mess to begin with. If McCain thinks he can thread the needle in a bi-partisan fashion here, he is sadly mistaken. If he does not point out the facts, then his party will take the blame for and he will not win the election. It cannot happen. As far as he has run from President Bush, he will never get as far away from Bush as Obama can. Bush has actually been on the right side of the energy production debate and the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac regulation debate all along. The President has been a feckless advocate of the correct positions on these issues to be sure, but at least one can legitimately claim that the administration was intellectually correct on Fannie, Freddie and oil. McCain himself eloquently and correctly pointed out problems with Fannie and Freddie back in 2005 and 2006, only to have the reforms he wanted defeated by Democrats in Congress. President Bush was with McCain on these issues. Obama meanwhile, garnering more Fannie Mae contributions in two years than all other senators not named Chris Dodd in the last nine, has been on the wrong side of these issues. This is a slam dunk waiting for McCain simply to take advantage of it. Recently he has been out rambling on about government spending , CEO pay and earmarks. Yawn. None of this is pertient unless you point out that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were Democrat earmarks and that the worst CEO pay abuse in recent memory is Franklin Raines' incentive compensation from Fannie triggered by fraudulent accoutning. McCain did not bother to point any of that out of course. We must not "assign blame.' The simple fact is this: if the Democrats do not get their deserved blame for this economic situation, Republicans will experience a bloodbath on Election Day. The way our elections work, it is up to McCain to make that happen. The fact that he seems not to understand it is why many conservatives loathed the idea of a McCain nomination to begin with. It can be argued that if McCain will not assign blame, he will not win the White House. He says he wants to lead. That sometimes mean calling out friends and colleagues in the opposition. We soon will see whether McCain has it in him to put his country ahead of his instinct to reach across the aisle. If he does not show this ability, he will never occupy the Oval Office. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #9 I wonder if they have a gentleman's agreement not the mention certain things. Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 By simple definition, I doubt a "gentleman's agreement" could bind either of them. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-10-01 17:33 |
| #8 You don't know what kind of doggy doo Obama has ready to throw at McCain. I wonder if they have a gentleman's agreement not the mention certain things. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2008-10-01 16:48 |
| #7 The polls indicate that a large majority of people believe that the Republicans are directly responsible for this mess. Has anyone heard any mention of the Community Re-investment Act from the media (outside of Fox news)? OR of the Demon Rats blocking of any reforms from Bush or McCain? That explains it. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-10-01 11:12 |
| #6 Glenmore, there is a trojan in your link. |
| Posted by: tipper 2008-10-01 11:01 |
| #5 [anonymous has been pooplisted.] |
| Posted by: anonymous 2008-10-01 10:48 |
| #4 The reality is that we have a totally unpalatable choice in either one of these candidates. McCain, should he win, would almost certainly be a one-term President even if he wanted a second term. Obama...I suspect he will be the most hated President in American political history if he gets elected. The ignorant fools on the Left want this guy bad enough to sell their souls to the Devil to get him. If he gets elected, I suspect it won't take long for them to get buyer's remorse. I also suspect the U.S. Secret Service is really going to earn their pay for four years in an Obama presidency. |
| Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-10-01 10:16 |
| #3 Filmstrip that explains it all: The Subprime Primer http://docs.google.com/ TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true (Can't seem to make links work so you'll have to reassemble this address; sorry.) |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-10-01 08:59 |
| #2 The polls indicate that a large majority of people believe that the Republicans are directly responsible for this mess. I guess that's the only explanation that they've heard so far. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-10-01 07:35 |
| #1 And the more general point that goes along with those made in this well done little essay: the detachment of responsibility from action, of record and accountability, will be almost complete. A very dangerous - not to mention infuriating and demoralizing - thing. GOP failure in both energy and mortgage finance consisted of failing to block, or undo, Dem policies that have, indisputably, proven disastrous. That is one sort of failure. But the donks' failures are of basic policy - their ideas were stupid, and they've led to bad consequences. Yet they stand poised to PROFIT from this record of dereliction? Ponder that for a second. And of course it goes beyond energy and finance. Think of the despicable, unprecedented (since the Civil War) behavior of many Dems, esp. their leadership, WRT life-and-death issues in the GWOT these last few years. The attempted sabotage of the final phase in Iraq. The unbelievable slander of serving US forces, even of Marines involved in a court martial. The poison dumped into our political culture with the absurd and outrageous assertions made about Bush and intentional deception on issues of war and peace. The GOP's failings and flaws are many; there are also many fine Dems who clearly have smarts and decency to spare - but the latter have not uttered a peep going on 8 years now, as their once-great party has become an irresponsible and loathsome force on key national issues. All this - easily a record of accomplishment earning the Dem party as currently configured political oblivion - will be REWARDED with the White House? With an unprepared, arrogant, cowardly, creepy nobody farcically "shouldering" the burdens of leadership? The link between action or policy and consequence and accountability seems just about gone. One can be wrong about a war - and contemptibly indecent in pushing one's views - and suffer no consequences. One can slander American warriors, trample on the emotions of the families of the fallen, cling steadfastly to policies that impoverish and disrupt, poison the political culture with preposterous claims, echo despicable foreign contempt for American sacrifice and decency in promoting security and human freedom - and prosper in an election, in America. |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2008-10-01 04:24 |