What Happened to John McCain?

Most Americans had respect for John McCain whether or not they agreed with his politics. That respect has been severely strained for some and completely broken for others. He has allowed Sarah Palin to whip his supporters into such a far right frenzy with all the trappings of ignorance and prejudice that they all have lost sight of reason. This is a shame considering that John McCain was the first to declare earlier this year that he wanted to run a "clean" campaign.

The Dow has nose-dived 2000 points in the last 5 days to less than 8,600 points; my brain still cannot comprehend. The Federal Government through the treasury and the Federal Reserve has committed trillions to rescuing the economy without any negligible effect. This downturn is so serious, even the rich are losing money. Yet, all we hear from McCain-Palin is nasty attacks about Barack Obama's connection with Bill Ayers, the 60's era anti-Vietnam Domestic terrorist turned educator, who Obama worked with on education reform.

Joe Conason of RealClearPolitics.com wrote today:

"Entering the election's final weeks, the rhetoric of the former maverick and his lipstick-toting pit bull, Gov. Sarah Palin, has turned so ugly and inflammatory that their rallies have begun to sound like lynch mobs."

"What these concluding weeks have told us about the Republican candidate, to the shock and surprise of many of his admirers, is that he misunderstands the meaning of honor. Evidently he believes that the credit he accrued for suffering bravely for his country in Vietnam somehow licenses him to campaign as crudely and deceptively as he can, if that will help him to win. He seems not to realize that the respect he earned so many years ago requires him to uphold a higher standard of decency in politics."

Even Cindy McCain has jumped into the fray declaring that Obama, who has lobbed his own attacks on MCain though he has not sunk as low, has run the "dirtiest campaign in American History." What? The heights of denial to which the McCain campaign has sunk will require years of therapy to unwind, for all of us. Obama has kept calm, continues to evoke a Presidential aura and push his economic policy to salvage America; meanwhile McCain's supporters are so rabid, it is clear that they are beyond listening to his economic prescriptions. Ever thought a 1/2 black man with a funny name could be President? McCain really thinks so and he is fighting against it like mad.

Republican Platform Defies Logic

Thomas Frank writing in today's Wall Street Journal captures my thoughts today, I need not say anymore:

"OK, let me get this straight: The central axiom of conservative Republicanism is that government is inherently corrupt and can't do anything right.

Over many years of ascendancy, conservative Republicans have filled government agencies with conservative Republicans and proceeded to enact the conservative Republican policy wish list -- tax cuts, deregulation, privatization, outsourcing federal work, and so on.

And as a consequence of these policies our conservative Republican government has bungled most of the big tasks that have fallen to it. The rescue and recovery of the Gulf Coast was a disaster. The reconstruction of Iraq was a disaster. The regulatory agencies became so dumb they didn't even see the disasters they were set up to prevent. And each disaster was attributable to the conservative philosophy of government.

Yet now we are supposed to vote for more conservative Republicans because we learned from the last bunch of conservative Republicans that government just doesn't work."

2nd Presidential Debate Leans Obama

I was looking forward to the debate today because of the promise that the questions would come from the people. Apparently, 6 million questions were submitted so it was surprising that the chosen questions were quite similar to those of the first debate especially when it came to foreign policy. It sounded like the whole foreign policy section of the first debate with the same answers, almost word for word. The domestic questions were a little more personal but here again I was expecting a debate centering more on the current economic crisis.

Just like the first debate, Obama's answers were well articulated and he even explained McCain's health care policy and tax policy a little better than McCain did; McCain simply did not present enough detail of his plans. Americans are really looking for detail on how problems will be fixed going forward in light of the 2009 budget deficit of $500,000,000,000 and $1,500,000,000,000 pricetag for the 2008 bailouts thus far if you tally what the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and Congress have committed so far.

We are in serious trouble financially. Obama has some concrete ideas; McCain's plan is "trust me, I'll fix it." Either way there is plenty of spending on both sides and cutting current spending to allow for new spending effectively leaves us with the same deficits. I do worry that a democratic administration will spend more on entitlements but I worry more about where a continuation of the Republican economic ideology will take us. All we have to do is look around.

World Upside Down

On Friday, America passes $750,000,000,000 bailout bill to help ease credit markets. Today, the Federal Reserve offers $300,000,000,000 per month for the next 3 months in Term Auction Facilities or short term cash to the credit markets.

It didn't work and the stock market was down 800 points at midday eventually closing down 369 points. The Dow is now less than 10,000. World markets nosedived as well. Investors fear the worst. The credit markets are still frozen.

What do the Presidential candidates do now? Assure the American people that they have a plan to help us?

Well, the people in glass houses, McCain & Palin start throwing stones, launching a full throttle smear campaign against Obama; the same Ayers, Wright, Rezko, Hussein smears that we heard earlier this year in the democratic primaries are back with a vengeance.

Obama lobs one back with high mention of the Keating 5 Savings and Loan debacle. Try as he might to talk about the economy and solutions, he is dragged down into a slug fest.

Tomorrow, the Presidential candidates debate. America is in a major recession, this is what we need to talk about. What are their plans for America going forward? This is what America needs to know. The best answer should win.

The nastiest candidate in this presidential campaign can't also be the best candidate to lead us out of this misery we are in.

Bailout Bill Stinks

Oh how our Congress people, House and Senate, held their noses to sign the new bailout bill which was suddenly more appealing because it included an additional $110,000,000,000 in what are essentially earmarks. So, the last great act of George Bush’s Presidency, which has been characterized by reckless and excessive government spending, is to alleviate the credit crisis by enacting the largest most reckless government spending bill with the purpose of bailing out Wall street in the name of saving Main street. The House and the Senate drank it, swallowed it and made it better by increasing the monetary size of it. I’m glad they got that straight…not!

Democrats and Republicans should be ashamed at their own shortsightedness that all they could do to solve the credit crisis was to take the one and only $700,000,000,000 offer from the Bush Administration, courtesy of appointees Paulson and Bernanke, and make it even more egregious than it already was. After the House bill was soundly defeated on Monday, not one solitary Congressperson or Senator could offer another approach that would achieve the same end without selling the taxpayer a bridge to nowhere? The best they could do was take the same bill, triple the number of pages and to take a phrase from Ted Stevens, almost but not totally disgraced Senator from Alaska who was head of the transportation committee when he resigned, “stuff that bill like a turkey.”

In the interim between Monday’s failure and Friday’s begrudging acceptance of this disastrous piece of legislation, the Federal Reserve pumped hundreds of billions more into the monetary system so in essence we, the taxpayer, spent more than $1,000,000,000,000 this week on the premise that we had to do something. There is a difference between needing a solution and accepting a bad solution out of sheer ineptitude. If I were Barack Obama I would abandon this race and let McCain win. He might have to repeat his “thing with Hilary” but I would let the Republicans take George Bush’s mess and go down with that ship. After all the expenditure and economic disaster yet to come, I say, let them have it.

VP Debate Delivers As Expected

The Vice Presidential debate tonight will probably deliver as expected. After all, the stakes have been set so low that as long as Sarah Palin proves she can walk and chew gum at the same time, she will have done well. No matter how well he performs, Joe Biden will be Joe Biden so he will not have any measurable affect.

Palin has been so demonstrably incoherent in her last few interviews that any stringing of words together will be an achievement. The sad fact about Sarah Palin’s position tonight is that she is the representational recipient of every prejudicial and sexist treatment that could possibly be bestowed upon a woman. Since she was chosen as John McCain’s running mate just over a month ago, she has been shielded from the usual interaction with the media that is the normal rite of passage for any candidate, male or female, who runs for higher office.

We the people have the right to ask questions and the media is typically our surrogate in this regard. However, McCain’s campaign decided to put on the white gloves with her and browbeat all of the media outlets into compliance screaming bias and elitism and every ignorant smear in the book. The result is that the most popular governor in the United States, who originally started out smart, charming, brash, and forthright, has devolved into a clueless, unworldly, fundamentally incurious sycophant right before our very eyes. When your own words are used verbatim in a comedy sketch, the only people that are still on your side are the diehard Republicans, albeit those with a lower IQ.

Unfortunately, the McCain campaign overplayed their hand and left enough room for us to draw the same conclusion they had that she was not adequately prepared to assume the role of Vice President at this juncture. They should have let her talk to her instant fans, all day, everyday, and they may have grown to love her more and may not have be doubtful of her abilities on the eve of what will prove to be her defining moment. Alas, McCain mishandled her well pretty much how he has handled all women. If we vote this woman into office, she will undo every benchmark to equality that women have fought for and kept; for this, she cannot win. Maybe she can come back in a future campaign when, having learned her lessons well, she will be equipped to completely fool us the next time around.

P.S. She delivered on style but not substance; Biden delivered on substance but not style. Tie.

Denouement

It is a foregone conclusion that the Senate will pass the aptly renamed Economic Recovery Act that the House failed to pass on Monday. It has now ballooned from 110 to over 400 pages and includes all kinds of incentives, essentially additional expenditures, to make it palatable for those who were formerly against it.

At this time, we the public are completely in the dark about what these additional expenditures are only that the bill includes an increase in the threshold for FDIC insured deposits from $100,000 to $250,000 and that it includes tax breaks for whom we do not know. Unfortunately for the taxpayers, these are unfunded tax breaks; what's another few billion added to the tab?

I still contend that there were other alternatives to loosening the credit markets, which is the fundamental problem that needs correction, without taking a bad $700,000,000,000 bill and adding sweeteners to it. The bill is still poison; it will still kill us but now it will taste better going down. Cold comfort.