Given the current state of the McCain/Palin campaign (it's crashing) -- and the horrible state of the economy (it's crashing) -- you have to know some major distraction is in the pipeline from the GOP. McCain has to do something to change the subject. So, expect some vintage Rovian trick. But, this one will have to be extra ugly.
This poses a real challenge for the traditional media. The political reporters know they get played by the GOP over and over. (Read Eric Boelhert to more fully understand this.) So, the question is whether the campaign reporters continue to cover the real issues -- like the horrible state of the economy -- or whether they take the bait and cover whatever new ridiculous lie John McCain comes up with. The safe bet is that the reporters will fall for the GOP distractions AGAIN. McCain and Palin are counting on the press being gullible. And, they have good reason. The press corps always falls for it. (Think Mrs. Greenspan, Candy Crowley and all of FOX News)
And, we know that Chris Cillizza, the self-described Drudge-ologist, will do whatever Drudge tells him to do. It's actually pathetic how gullible Cillizza is. The Washington Post editors really need to read Cillizza's Drudge column paean and think about just exactly what it is they get from "The Fix" if "The Fix" just regurgitates Drudge.
In any case, possibly as soon as tomorrow, McCain's going into Red Alert distraction mode. You've been warned.
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"The people out, you know, who are the rednecks or whoever, are bitter." - McCain surrogate Her Royal Highness Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CNN, 9/17/08
Ah yes, nothing shows that John McCain understands the plight of working Americans like a woman with a royal title and $100 million referring to American voters as "rednecks" in the middle of an economic crisis. I'm thinking Her Royal Highness is about to join Carly Fiorina in a secret undisclosed location for the rest of the campaign.
Newsweek seems to think there isn't any excuse. We have one. John McCain has no clue what he's talking about when it comes to the economy. He's run this race as a war hero, and now we're finding out that, as one voter said on TV a while back, it's great that you're a war hero but how does that help me get a job? A war hero who is clueless about the economy is of little use to America during an economic crisis.
The question remains: Are the fundamentals sound? Was McCain right, or hopelessly rosy-eyed? It depends on which fundamentals you want to emphasize. There are times when all the fundamentals are unsound, as was the case in 1931. And there are times when all the fundamentals appear to be sound, as was the case in the mid- to late 1990s. The rest of the time, the fundamentals reside somewhere between the two poles (the left pole signifying we're totally screwed and the right pole signifying that happy days are here again). Today, we're closer to being totally screwed.
Consider. The U.S. needs to create about 150,000 jobs per month just to keep pace with growing population. When payroll jobs fall for eight straight months and the unemployment rate spikes, and when new weekly unemployment claims remain above 400,000, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.
When inflation in the past 12 months has run at 5.4 percent, well over the twice the level with which central bankers are comfortable, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.
When foreclosures are running at record rates and housing prices fall by nearly 16 percent year over year, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.
When the two largest financial institutions in the nation, which guarantee about half of the mortgages, fail and have to be taken over by the government, when the fourth-largest investment bank files for Chapter 11, and when the Federal Reserve effectively nationalizes a massive insurance firm that is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.
In an economy where consumption constitutes 70 percent of activity, retail sales falling two months in a row may indicate that the economy may not be fundamentally sound.
When industrial production decreases, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.
When the nation's three major automakers, some of the largest remaining manufacturing entities, report sales declines of over 20 percent and beg the taxpayers for loans, the economy may not be fundamentally sound.
ABC shows how John McCain supported the very deregulation rules that companies like AIG exploited in order to get in to the economic mess they're in. That links McCain directly to the current crisis. Transcript after the video:
CHARLIE GIBSON: And with apologies for our technical difficulties, we're going to turn back to the difficult economy, and the way the presidential candidates are dealing with it, particularly John McCain. Here's David Wright.
DAVID WRIGHT: John McCain was against the government bailout of AIG, before he was reluctantly for it. Here he was yesterday on "Today."
JOHN MCCAIN: We cannot bail AIG or anybody else. We have to work through it.
WRIGHT: Asked about the same topic today on "Good Morning America" -
MCCAIN: I don't think anybody I know wanted to do that. But there are literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investments, whose insurance were at risk here. And they were going to have their lives destroyed.
WRIGHT: Senator McCain appears to have changed his tune on regulation in a fundamental way. Today on the stump, he's a champion of reigning in Wall Street with tough regulations.
MCCAIN: We're going to put an end to the reckless conduct, corruption and greed that have caused a crisis on Wall Street.
WRIGHT: But for more than 25 years in the Senate, McCain has fashioned himself as a champion of smaller government, less regulation.
MCCAIN: I am less government, less regulation, lower taxes, et cetera.
WRIGHT: In the mid 1990s, he supported a measure to ban all new government regulations. McCain supported legislation a decade ago that broke down the firewalls between commercial and investment banks and insurance companies -- the very rules companies like AIG exploited to get in the current mess. And as recently as March of this year, after the collapse of Bear Stearns, McCain was all for deregulating Wall Street.
MCCAIN: Our financial market approach should include encouraging increased capital in financial institutions by removing regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital.
GEORGE WILL: When the deregulation was the wave through Washington, he surfed that wave. Now it's not, and the populist inside John McCain is out.
WRIGHT: Today, the Wall Street Journal accused McCain of selling out his free market ideals. Said today's top editorial -- "denouncing greed and Wall Street, isn't a growth agenda,"
Oh my God. Chris Matthews just destroyed Republican congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA) on Hardball. The congressman was on as a McCain surrogate, and wow. Matthews excoriated the guy for basically, as Matthews put it, trying to change uniform mid ballgame (echoing Jackie's point in the post below). I.e., trying to claim that McCain and company aren't really Republicans, so they're not responsible for the state of the economy. Wow. Then he lectured the guy about why George Bush hasn't gone on TV to reassure the nation about the economic situation. Cantor refused to embrace and defend Bush. It was wild. It was the way Hardball and other shows used to be. They actually held their guests responsible for their BS. The above video is only 4 minutes of a 15 minute segment.
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Random thought. It seems to me an effective Obama ad campaign right now would capitalize on the fact that our nation is going down the tubes fast... on the Republicans' watch. The Republican party has run our country into the ground. McCain and Palin are Republicans. They work with Republicans. President Bush and his Republican cohorts have effectively destroyed our economy in the most spectacular fashion.
Why aren't we seeing ads all over the place connecting the dots? You are losing your house...ON THEIR WATCH. You are bailing out corporations...ON THEIR WATCH. You can't afford gas...ON THEIR WATCH.
I really am amazed how one of the unspoken rules of this election has been NOT to mention John McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal.
Let's remember that this isn't a scandal involving his home or his church. It's a scandal involving John McCain abusing his federal office. It's a scandal that cost the American taxpayer billions. It's also a scandal that deals with failed banks - kind of relevant to today. How is it that John McCain's entire record is relevant, going back to the 1960s no less, but somehow we're supposed to skip the 1980s scandal years because that would be "rude"? Seriously, I don't get it. Only the Republicans could make something John McCain did in office, and was chastised for officially on the Senate floor, and turn it into something "personal' and off-limits, like it's his daughter or his mistress. No, it's his job. And he screwed up, wilfully. And it's relevant to the very economic crisis we're discussing today. It's also relevant to any discussion of his honor.
One of the Senate's most progressive members ripped John McCain on Tuesday for offering a phony populist self-portrayal in the wake of the current crisis in the financial markets. In the process, Sherrod Brown of Ohio raised the Republican nominee's involvement in the Keating Five scandal as evidence that voters couldn't trust McCain's record on both the economy and ethics.
"It is not so much his economic proposals but his economic record," Brown said of McCain. "His main adviser is Phil Gramm -- he was his mentor in the Senate -- and you just tie it all together. Of course John McCain supported the oil industry, he has oil lobbyists working for him. Of course John McCain supported these trade agreements, he has got Wall Street people working for him... It is all wrapped up together. John McCain is a creature of these interest groups in Washington. He is no maverick and, from the Keating Five on, his ethics have been questionable. He's not a maverick and Barack has got to just keep hammering on that."
And when McCain's people say how unscrupulous this attack is, and how they won't even dignify it with a response, someone in the media has to ask the McCain campaign "why is it sleazy and unscrupulous to mention an ethics violation that McCain has admitted to, and one he did on the job?"
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UPDATE: It's confirmed. They actually hacked Sarah Palin's yahoo email account. Wow.
UPDATE: Since the images of the alleged Palin emails were taken down, I'm posting one that I copied (before it was removed) as a sample. You can see what appears to be the discussion of work on this personal account. Again, I have no idea if this is real or if this is a hoax. But it's out there, so it is news either way. Best way to find the truth is to expose this to sunlight and let the experts have a look.
UPDATE 1:05 PM: The page has now been taken down. Jokes don't usually get taken down.
UPDATE 1PM: More evidence to suggest this might be real. Including the claim that they have more emails they haven't released yet.
Could be a hoax, could be real. Important enough to ask you guys, especially any hacking experts, to look into it and decide for yourselves.
Nouriel Roubini really lowered the boom on Wall Street and the Republican system of ignoring basic regulatory obligations. I wish CNBC would allow video to be embedded, but watch the video in this link. Roubini had been predicting this financial failure for a few years so what he has to say is always interesting. Before this implosion, the GOP economists dismissed what he had to say though today, they've all gone quiet.
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Just wait til you get your 401-k quarterly statements -- and when you do, thank George Bush and and his GOP allies, including John McCain. (I do fault John McCain.)
McCain is going to have to come up with some new technological miracle, like the Blackberry, to stimulate the economy.
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Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) gave this speech earlier this am:
Here is a rough transcript broken up in relevant segments.
The Straight Talk Express Has "Fenders Ripped Off It": McCain's Three Bad Days This Week
After eight years of this failed approach, we have what have here. On Monday, with one major investment bank headed for bankruptcy, another sold at bargain price to avoid the same fate, tens of thousands of people loosing their – tens of thousands of people losing their jobs and one of the worlds largest companies teetering, John McCain declared that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.
Now, Mr. President, the Straight-Talk Express is really in bad shape. This vehicle has fenders ripped off it. It's – there are very few seats left inside it and it hit another big wall Monday, hit another big wall on Tuesday and today it hit another big wall. The wall today is – John McCain said today – this just came out on the Associated Press – he said today that the reason for all this stuff is lack of good regulation. Huh.
How in the world could the Straight-Talk Express say that? And I think that's one reason that I'm not sure the Straight-Talk Express is even running after the last three collisions. It's in very, very bad shape.
John McCain's Flip Flop In Just Last 24 Hours
But yesterday, Even John McCain finally acknowledged what everyone else already knew. He no longer, I guess, thought that the fundamentals of the economy were great, as he had said only a day or so before that. What he said is that the economy is broken. That's some switch, isn't it. From being "fundamentally sound" to "broken?"
On Bush Administration's request for bailouts
The economy is not going to turn around overnight. We can't snap our fingers or pass a bill and expect our problems to be solved instantly. We were told that last night by Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson. The whole situation is not going to be easy. It's going to take bipartisan cooperation, and I know for certain that we're not going to fix our economy with a candidate who only yesterday woke up and realized there's a problem.
Mr. President, I would like for once, this administration to come to me with a problem that they would like to help us work on, to help the middle class. They come to us all the time to bail out that big company or that big company or this big conglomerate, but where are they for these emergency meetings to help people who can's afford gas, can't afford health insurance, can't afford to keep their kids in college?
We're paying record prices for gas, for groceries, healthcare. That didn't happen yesterday. Millions of families are losing their homes to foreclosure and are seeing their home equity disappear. That didn't happen yesterday.
Monday's McCain v. Tuesday's McCain:
Monday's McCain said our economy is strong. Tuesday, McCain said our economy is broken. Wednesday's McCain said it's because of lack of regulation. Try to figure that out, Mr. President.
This is – This is a Straight-Talk Express which is broken, in bad shape and he can't find passengers anymore. Perhaps Today's McCain will explain how a candidate spent thirty years in Washington siding with Wall Street over Main Street, who changed the economy 180 degrees in 24 hours. I think he's running himself.
Is he prepared to lead us to the road of economic recovery? I don't think so.
Why we need new leadership:
The extraordinary economic challenges we now face demand leadership and a new approach. The United States Senate will continue to listen intently to any proposal that the Administration offers, but we know that the real chance we need will come only when we have a president who will act as a guardian of the American People.
UPDATE: Apparently ABC got the "Annie Mae" part wrong. Still, McCain did get Bear Sterns wrong (he wrote "Bare"), and then there's that little problem of "spic."
My wife and I are in our 40s. We've been putting money away in our respective 401k plans since 1999. When Bush took office the Dow was around 10,659 (approx.). Today the Dow is approaching the same level as when Bush took office (by contrast, Clinton added about 7000 points to the DJIA). We have lost 7 years of savings. How are we supposed to make that up? What if another Republican is elected? Another 8 years of this and we'll be in our late 40s with practically nothing saved for retirement and we'll probably be sucked dry by the health insurance costs for our family of 3 (soon to be 4) since, under McCain, it's unlikely that employers will continue to provide coverage.
On top of our retirement that's disappearing, we've got to consider exploding day care, education, fuel, and other CPI costs while our income stagnates or declines. You guys think Europe, China, or Russia are gonna go down the tubes with us? Hell no, if Americans elect another Republican those countries are going to begin isolating the U.S. in an effort to protect their own economies. Republicans are right, the End Times are near.
If only the US was the only country experiencing stock market problems. China's Shanghai exchange is about one third of its peak number last November. Russia had been experiencing a big boom in recent years courtesy of the oil run but they may be coming to an end, which could mean instability in Russia.
Russia halted stock and bond trading on Wednesday amid the worst market falls since the country's 1998 financial collapse and the Finance Ministry pledged a total of $60 billion of funds to help local banks.
Trading in shares, bonds and mutual funds on Russia's MICEX and RTS exchanges was suspended after less than two hours, preventing further selling on top of Tuesday's record-breaking falls.
It was not clear when the bourses would reopen.
"The crisis has a shade of panic to it. The decision to stop trading was motivated by the desire to remove this panic element," said Stanislav Ponomarenko, head of research for Russia at ING bank.
Russian stocks, once touted by the government as a safe haven, have now plunged around 60 percent since May.
Traders say global financial turmoil mixed with falling oil prices and Moscow's war with Georgia have formed a lethal cocktail.
"We don't give a damn anymore as to what happens in the West. The market is falling as people are in dire need for cash," said Maxim Gulevich, director of equities trading at UBS.
The Kremlin was silent on the crisis on Wednesday but Deputy Finance Minister Pyotr Kazakevich, announcing new measures to boost liquidity, said there was no fundamental problem.
"What we have on the market is mainly a confidence crisis and only secondly a liquidity crisis," Kazakevich said.
ABC's Jake Tapper quotes McCain just last December saying that he never knew this was coming at all. Such a freaking liar. Or utterly lost his mind.
[Jake Tapper quoting McCain yesterday]
"Two years ago, I warned that the oversight of Fannie and Freddie was terrible, that we were facing a crisis because of it, or certainly serious problems," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CBS this morning. "The influence that Fannie and Freddie had in the inside the Beltway, old boy network, which led to this kind of corruption is unacceptable and I warned about it a couple of years ago.”
How does this claim of foresight square with this interview that McCain gave to the Keene (NH) Sentinel, discussing the subprime mortgage crisis, in December 2007?....
“But so, in this whole new derivative stuff, and SIBs and all of this kind of new ways of packaging mortgages together and all that is something that frankly I don’t know a lot about.
"But I do rely on a lot of smart people that I have that are both in my employ and acquaintances of mine. And most of them did not anticipate this. Most of them, I mean I can find some that did. But, a guy that’s on my staff named Doug Holtz-Eakin, who was once the head of the Office of Management and Budget, said that there was nervousness out there. There’s nervousness. There was nervousness that we had such a long period of prosperity without a downturn because of the history of our economy. But I don’t know of hardly anybody, with the exception of a handful, that said ‘wait a minute, this thing is getting completely out of hand and is overheating.'
"So, I’d like to tell you that I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk, I did not.”
Yeah, Doug Holtz would be the guy who claimed that McCain miraculously invented the BlackBerry. That's who McCain relies on for economic advice. The tooth fairy's best friend in the land of make-believe.
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It's a good ad. I believe Rob will be writing up an analysis of it in a bit. In the meantime, here's Greg Sargent's take (including a transcript), and here's the ad:
Creepily, McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, has an increasingly bad record when it comes to being on the side of those who have been raped and sexually abused. First, we learned that while mayor, she charged rape victims for their rape kits (she was the only mayor in the state to do so, and the state had to pass a law to get her to stop it). And now we learn that Palin says the reason she fired the trooper in her Troopergate scandal is because he was too aggressively trying to stop child predators. So twice now we have Palin siding with rapists and child molesters. Anybody else smelling an ad campaign?
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Gee, John McCain suddenly befriending a "sparkly blond" worth $100 million. Haven't we read this story before?
This is the Hillary fundraiser who is now supporting McCain, and McCain is touting it as a sign of - a sign of - what exactly? The best person John McCain could find to deliver a middle class message to Americans was some rich "lady," literally, with a "de" in her name - not to mention a "Rothschild". I guess to the McCains, having a title and $100 million makes you middle class. Ben at Politico points out the irony of John McCain's latest celebrity endorsement:
Lynn Forester de Rothschild has said she thinks Democratic nominee Barack Obama is arrogant and has a problem connecting with average Americans.
Rothschild is a member of the DNC's Democrats Abroad chapter and splits her time living in London and New York.
And here's a great quote from her talking about why she's investing in India instead of America. Apparently all the Indians want to buy Estee Lauder and Starbucks. They're not quite at Chanel, yet, according to Lady de Rothschild, but a poor untouchable can dream.
Speaking of our Lady of Rothschild's keen sense of what average Americans are like, how cool is it that her husband is named Evelyn? Imagine regular-guy Evelyn hitting the truck stops along Route 66 for John McCain. "Hi, I'm Evelyn, what's your name?" Oh the fun.
I think if history is our guide, we've had stronger economies, more wealth creation, under Democratic presidents than we have under Republican presidents. So I don't understand why all my capitalist friends aren't Democrats.
"The fact that we have reached a point where the Federal Reserve felt it had to take this unprecedented step with the American International Group is the final verdict on the failed economic philosophy of the last eight years. While we do not know all the details of this arrangement, the Fed must ensure that the plan protects the families that count on insurance. It should bolster our economy's ability to create good-paying jobs and help working Americans pay their bills and save their money. It must not bail out the shareholders or management of AIG.
"This crisis serves as a stark reminder of the failures of crony capitalism and an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all as unwise and unnecessary. It's a philosophy that lets Washington lobbyists shred consumer protections and distort our economy so it works for the special interests instead of working people; a philosophy that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to the rest.
"Instead, the pain has trickled up – from the struggles of Main Street all the way up to the crises on Wall Street.
"Despite his eleventh hour conversion to the language of reform, Senator McCain has subscribed to this philosophy for twenty-six years in Washington and the events of this week have rendered it a colossal failure. It is time for a new economic strategy, guided by the principle that America prospers when all Americans prosper, where common-sense rules of the road ensure that competition is fair, open, and honest. That is the strategy I will pursue as President, and I will bring the change we need to restore confidence in our financial markets and strength to our economy," said Barack Obama.
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(NOTE FROM JOHN: I'm bumping Chris' analysis of the AIG bailout.)
We now own an insurance company that gambled wildly at the casino and lost. They left their mark all over the world and we will be discovering new hidden surprises for some time to come. Can the Republicans who paved the way for this hyper-capitalism (I'm looking at you, top McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm) admit they were horribly wrong? Again, where the hell are those Republicans who voted for this mess? Can the Democrats find the spine to capitalize on this monumental failure - not in six months, but now - and begin changing the way business operates in the US? When the times are good (though in fact, they really weren't) we brag to the world about how wealthy our CEOs are and the hundreds of millions they receive. The second their gambles falter, the taxpayer is expected to jump in and save the day. McCain's Keating Five bailout looks like chump change and it was compared to these nationalizations or whatever they want to call them.
At this point the AIG bailout/nationalization to the tune of $85 billion is a done deal. The American taxpayer is now responsible for the bad business practices of AIG and it's questionable whether we will ever see our money back. The bailout is expecting business to return to normal in the near future and that is pure fantasy. The US (and European) economy will not be anywhere near normal until 2010, if then. This will put much more pressure on the federal government who will either have to drastically cut back spending or raise taxes or both. As a country, we do not have this money to spend, so investing in the US will become much less attractive, driving up inflation just as it was beginning to stabilize. Again, we are propping up the biggest companies and the richest Americans at the expense of everyone else. The average American has watched their standard of living decline since the 1970s while those at the top have profited much like we see in a Third World country. It's embarrassing and against our previous American values. Sure we all should have an opportunity to move ahead and succeed financially, but that means we all should have an opportunity to move ahead and succeed financially, as in "all" and not just a few.
More later on what the Democrats ought to be saying and taking us in the future. There are a lot of lessons that we can learn from this failed Republican experiment but the Democrats must start the debate now.
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Final score: Obama wins the day... Or maybe that should be: "McCain loses the day." A day after trying to explain his way out of his suggestion that the American economy is "strong," McCain still lacked a serious, persuasive response to the week's financial upheaval. The candidate started the day with a feint toward policy talk, suggesting that a 9/11-style commission should examine the causes of the teetering market. Any substance behind that suggestion, though, got drowned out by a series of unhelpful comments made by advisors Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who implied that McCain helped invent the BlackBerry, and Carly Fiorina, who told MSNBC that Sarah Palin wouldn't be qualified to run Hewlett-Packard.
McCain campaign stumbles through day.... Top advisers to Republican presidential candidate John McCain spent much of Tuesday with their feet in their mouths.
Their comments to reporters left openings for Democratic rival Barack Obama’s campaign to exploit throughout the day.
“If John McCain hadn’t said that ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong’ on the day of one of our nation’s worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement....
Holtz-Eakin, according to reports, held up his BlackBerry as an example of “a miracle that John McCain helped create.”
Holtz-Eakin was explaining how McCain’s position on the committee helped him understand financial markets, using his BlackBerry as visual evidence. McCain has noted his computer illiteracy in several interviews. The GOP presidential candidate has also said he doesn’t use a BlackBerry, although his wife Cindy McCain is often spotted with one.
“Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee, so you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did,” Holtz-Eakin said, according to reports.
Lots of people on the GOP side have been making excuses for John McCain's statement this week that the fundamentals of our economy are strong. But, John McCain meant it. He does think the fundamentals of the economy are strong. He's thought that for awhile. He's been unabashed about saying it.
The past couple days have been great for the Obama campaign. They've all gotten more aggressive -- including the candidate. And, the ads have been better. On the other hand, McCain's been a disaster...he's made gaffes, his aides have made gaffes. It's clear he doesn't understand the economy. And, he hasn't cared all that much about it.
Now, of course, this all means McCain and the RNC are going to have to launch another distraction. They're trying hard to make an issue of Obama's fundraiser in Los Angeles last night. On the TODAY Show, both Matt Lauer and Mrs. Greenspan brought it up repeatedly. They're being played by McCain again. Totally played. And, they get played so often, they don't even know it.
If the political types want to talk about fundraisers this year instead of real issues like the economy, Mrs. Greenspan and Matt Lauer should pay more attention to McCain's chief fundraiser: George Bush. McCain is running for Bush's third time but trying to hide the relationship. It's like McCain is having yet another affair. But, that the president of the United States can "quietly" raise large sums for McCain is a reflection on the ineptitude of the press corps (click photo for larger image):
There is no end in sight to the problems in US banking and finance. Washington Mutual (WaMu) has also been the center of rumors so today is there day for the Feds to locate a buyer. You know, a "buyer" just like the "buyer" of AIG. How soon before taxpayers get stuck nationalizing these bums as well? Surely we have billions more laying around to spend on another company who gambled wildly, paid everyone millions and then went kaput. Heck, let's just throw in tens of millions to the exec team, just because. Just don't ask for money if you are an individual or small business because you're not really important. To even ask would be offensive and a violation of our great capitalist system. Even thinking about it makes you a freeloader.
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What this article misses, of course, is McCain's personal fight with US regulators who wanted to investigate his friend Charles Keating and and his failing S&L.; Yes, he personally intervened to protect a wealthy donor. Why McCain continues to gets a free pass on that expensive financial failure escapes me. Nevertheless, it's obvious to everyone that John McCain has fought against regulating almost everything, until the meltdown on Wall Street kicked in. Regulation goes against his 26 year history in Washington. When McCain said in March of 2008 "I'm always for less regulation" shouldn't we believe him? Doesn't his own history back up that statement?
In 2002, McCain introduced a bill to deregulate the broadband Internet market, warning that "the potential for government interference with market forces is not limited to federal regulation." Three years earlier, McCain had joined with other Republicans to push through landmark legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (Tex.), who is now an economic adviser to his campaign. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country's financial institutions competitive by removing the Depression-era walls between banking, investment and insurance companies.
That bill allowed AIG to participate in the gold rush of a rapidly expanding global banking and investment market. But the legislation also helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments.
McCain now condemns the executives at those companies for pursuing the ambitions that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act made possible, saying that "in an endless quest for easy money, they dreamed up investment schemes that they themselves don't even understand."
So McCain is shocked that Wall Street did what the Gramm bill proposed and he voted for? Is he confused again or just plain stupid?
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It seems to me that the challenge posed by increasingly shorter news cycles and the proliferation of media outlets is to figure out a way to ride the news wave. The most important thing a campaign can do in the morning is figure out where the zeitgeist is and tailor their action items to it So for example, if Lehman is the issue of the day, figure out a way to make news on that issue in a way that advances your overall message goals.
Oh please. The Sarah Palin tax record is pretty clear at this point and it's all about raising taxes and since that's not enough for the rugged individuals of Alaska, gobbling federal tax money at a rate higher than any other state in the union. With a record like hers, it's no wonder she's lying yet again and distorting the Obama tax cuts for most Americans.
As if it couldn't support itself, Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Its ratio of federal spending received to federal taxes paid ranks third among the 50 states, and in the absolute amount it receives from Washington over and above the amount it sends to Washington, Alaska ranks No. 1.
Under the state constitution, the governor of Alaska has unusually strong powers to shape the state budget. At the Republican National Convention, Palin bragged that she had vetoed "nearly $500 million" in state spending during her two years as governor. This amounts to less than 2% of the proposed budget. That's how much this warrior for you (the people) against it (the government) could find in wasteful spending under her control.
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