John McCain's descendant polling numbers are threatening to solidify, the Washington Post reports at some length, although his aides argue he can still reverse the trend by hammering Barack Obama as an unprepared commander in chief as well as a typical tax-and-spend Democrat who "will make our economy worse" (if that's possible).
But I smell an enormous, head-faking rat. The above, publicly stated strategy is just more of the same, the last thing the McCain campaign needs at this, their perilous juncture.
No, they need a real game-changer. And it just so happens there is one sitting -- perhaps irresistibly -- right in their lap.
For most of the weekend McCain vanished into a kind of vague, Dick Cheney obscurity. He "remained largely out of sight … working the phones with congressional leaders, monitoring the pace of negotiations over [the] financial rescue package." And the Politico reported that "McCain has been calling House Republicans to test support for the rescue plan."
It's no secret what McCain heard from House Republicans. And, as the L.A. Times reported last week, it's no secret what all members of Congress are hearing from their constituents:
"As congressional leaders struggled to craft a bailout plan for the nation's troubled financial system … angry protesters mobbed Wall Street [and] telephones rang off the hook in House and Senate offices…. The increasingly loud roar coming from all corners of the nation shows that the idea of a bailout has touched a particularly sensitive nerve among the public."
Locally, the Times' noted, Sen. Dianne Feinstein's "five offices had doubled staffing to deal with the constantly ringing phones … with the overwhelming majority of constituents against [the plan]." And Rep. Linda Sanchez's office was being deluged by a level of public outrage that one expects only in a Frank Capra film: "This is an illegal power grab by the White House and their richest friends on Wall Street," her constituents are screaming.
Meanwhile, Mr. McCain was beaming mixed signals. On the one hand he told House Republicans "that he was initially skeptical about [Henry] Paulson’s grave economic warnings" --especially, I suppose, since the economy's fundamentals are so damn strong. But he also told them "he became convinced after a series of briefings that the need [for unspecified countermeasures] was very real."
Then, ineluctably, came the political calculations -- you know, the stuff that McCain promised he wouldn't dare insert: "he told the group that [Speaker] Pelosi … could either allow her negotiators to craft a package that Republicans would accept" or she could, of course, ram through a more partisan deal. "If she chose the latter category, McCain told the Republican leaders that they could vote against the hugely unpopular measure and he would help them make that vote a campaign issue on the trail" (my emphasis).
The little wheels of his scheming mind, I think, were turning.
Because this -- for McCain, in time, to emerge as the nation's champion opponent of the bailout -- could be the only trend-reversing maneuver that's left to him. And if it's not the only one, it is certainly, from a purely political point of view, the best one.
After all, he's left himself so many escape clauses in the lead-up to the bailout's approval, it's safe to say that his previously favorable statements on the fiscal package would make little difference. They can always be muddled beyond comprehension, and that in itself only fits the pattern of his flip-flopping campaign.
Hence he can still emerge as a William Jennings Bryan of modern populist hysteria, as the voice of "the people" being crucified on a cross of undemocratic betrayal, as the courageous battler of Wall Street fat cats and their best friends, Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
He could, quite simply, demagogue this thing to victory; or at the very least, he could profoundly shake up the polling numbers, with vastly disturbing consequences for Obama. Having to unilaterally defend this political turkey of a rescue bill would be no easy task.
Yesterday, appearing on ABC News’ "This Week," McCain said he was yet uncommitted but "hopefully, yes," he would vote in support of a bailout. "This is something that all of us will swallow hard and go forward with," he said.
But again, from a purely political point of view?
McCain has already demonstrated that he's willing to say or do anything to win. And given his craps-shooting penchant for operatic flair, I'm not at all convinced that he'll "swallow hard and go forward with" anything but another demagogic stunt.
Buzz this on Buzzflash.net
Give credit where credit is due!
Which candidate foresaw the credit crisis and tried to do something about it? As it turns out, John McCain did — and partnered with three other Senate Republicans to reform the government’s involvement in lending three years ago, after an attempt by the Bush administration died in Congress two years earlier. McCain spoke forcefully on May 25, 2006, on behalf of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 (via Beltway Snark):
"Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.
The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.
For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.
I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.
I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation."
In this speech, McCain managed to predict the entire collapse that has forced the government to eat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with Bear Stearns and AIG. He hammers the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this year. McCain also noted the power of their lobbying efforts to forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and weeks.
Used to be an Obama supporter
Nailed it
The Pelosi-Paulson BAILOUT pgk LEAVES DEMS the Blame!
And already FOX noise is BLAMING Rep. Sanders and BLAMING Senator Dodd for these WALL St. GROSS FAILURES !!!
And ALREADY Wall St. - the VERY IDIOTS and LIARS and CON-MEN who GOT US IN THIS MESS - are LINING UP trying to GET THEIR PAWS ON that pot of gold - that LOOT of BILLIONS OF _taxpayer_ DOLLARS, dollars that are REALLY _DEBT_ PILED on America's existing credit debt !!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/22lobby.html Below swiped wholesale from an e-mail that hit my in-box:
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No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/22lobby.html
"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it. "Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages. "At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees. "Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions." Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.
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(end copy/paste)
The year...........2005
Seems McCain was on top of this a long time ago.
During this time, Shelby and McCain worked a bill to the floor of the senate to regulate Freddie and Fannie to avert the likelihood of a potential coming disaster if failed mortgages from F&F flooded the market. Former Democratic President Bill Clinton sided with Shelby and company.
This was 2005. What happened to that bill? Democratic senators such as Chris Dodd (D, Con) successfully killed it even against the sage advice of Alan Greenspan who (uncharacteristically) made it very clear that Fannie and Freddie were playing with fire.
Fast forward to 2008. Dodd et al are barking about Republicans who are blocking their attempts to fix the problem that bloggers and posters on sites such as this one venomously cite Republicans as being the authors of.
Sorry liberals. Even Bill Clinton came out yesterday and reminded everyone that the current situation would have been avoided if the congressional democrats of 2005 had just listened to reason (Shelby, McCain, Greenspan, Clinton, et al).
All we see now are pictures of Barney Frank, Chuckie Schumer, and Chris Dodd in front of cameras saying how they have saved the day. Of course what they are really engaged in is a transparent process that perpetuates the notion that "Democrats have all the answers" while "Republicans cause all the problems and stoppages".
You liberals just keep on the track you are on. You may have the MSM on your side protecting your image, but you can hide behind an image only for so long.
Conservative Communists, I
Bush-Obama Billionaire Bailout Bill
With the election at stake, Obama has made it clear that his allegiance is with Wall Street bribes rather than honest American votes. His corrupt decision will hurt America badly.
Neocon Nancy Pelosi has always made it clear that protecting Bush-Cheney from impeachment is priority one. While pretending to oppose the Iraq War she has pushed through hundreds of billions to fund the war, not once but over and over again. By funding the Bush-Obama Billionaire Bailout Bill, Pelosi allows the Republicans to paint Bush-Cheney as an out of control administration more aligned with Democrats than Republicans, which makes the Republicans the party of change.
If Congress pays off the extortionists now, the extortionists will be back for more in a few weeks. The cycle has repeated over and over since the summer of 2007. The Treasury had already spent hundreds of billions under old rules before coming to Congress for new permission to double-down on its long string of losing bets.
The economy is headed south anyway. The fat cats just want to ride through the recession on a trillion dollar cash cushion paid for by America's grandchildren.
All honest Americans just say HELL NO to the Bush-Obama Billionaire Bailout Bill.
Bailout= Republican Election Trick