McCain away from his comfort zone
A very bad week in review
McCain away from his comfort zone
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
Did John McCain have a bad week, or what? Take this guy out of his comfort zone (playing second banana to his ill-qualified running mate; talking about the war on terror) and, as evidenced by the latest economic turbulence, he promptly gets blown all over the sky like a prop plane in high winds.
He started his week by insisting that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," which not only seemed politically ill-timed, given the Wall Street meltdown, but seemed to conjur the worst memories of Republican President Herbert Hoover, who had declared, at the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, that "the fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis." McCain was therefore compelled within hours to amend his remarks and insist that, by "fundamentals," he was only talking about America's workers - which was hogwash anyway, because McCain has been using that "fundamentals" sound bite all year without ever claiming that he was referring only to the workers.
Barack Obama jumped all over McCain's instant revision, whereupon Sarah Palin tried to rush to the rescue by condemning Obama for his "unfair attack on the verbage...an unfair attack based on verbage." (At the risk of my being labeled an "elitist," for having the temerity to defend the English language, I'd like to point out that the correct pronunciation of the word is "verbiage").
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, McCain surrogate Carly Fiorina zapped her own candidate by telling MSNBC that "I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation," shortly after she told a St. Louis radio station that Palin couldn't run one either. These remarks didn't do much to build a case for the GOP ticket's executive expertise. I also seem to recall that, during the GOP convention, Rudy Giuliani mocked Obama because he had "never run a business," so it was at least refreshing to see Fiorina take note of the same hole in McCain's resume - giving equal time, as it were. Fiornia's mouth has since been secured with duct tape.
But McCain economic advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin has apparently escaped the duct-tape fate, even though he insisted Tuesday that McCain, as a supposedly tech-savvy Senate chairman, helped invent the Blackberry. Seriously. Holtz-Eakin held up his Blackberry to reporters and said that "you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create, and that's what he did." The McCain camp had to spend much of Tuesday knocking that one down.
Also on Tuesday, McCain declared that he opposed any federal bailout of the American International Group, the insurance behemoth known as AIG. He was applauded for that stance on Tuesday night by surrogate Mike Huckabee, who dutifully went on TV and said: "John McCain has a long history of being against an overreaching government, regulatory environment...The marketplace will correct itself."
The very next day, McCain came out in support of a federal bailout of AIG, apparently deciding that, contrary to his long-held convictions, he didn't think that the marketplace would "correct itself."
Elsewhere on the flip-flop front, McCain declared on Tuesday that he favored creation of a "9/11-type commission" to study the Wall Street situation and recommend future solutions (at least, by invoking 9/11, he got to spend a few seconds inside his comfort zone). But after it became apparent that this idea was a dog - it made him look like a ditherer, as opposed to a take-charge leader - he reversed himself and, within 48 hours, he was suddenly a pro-government activist, proposing the creation of a brand new federal agency. But he was also anxious to kick some butt, any butt, thus declaring yesterday that the president should fire Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This idea died as soon as it left McCain's mouth. Apparently our seasoned, experienced Republican candidate didn't know that presidents can't fire the chairmen of independent regulatory commissions; this prohibition was first decreed by the U.S. Supreme Court 73 years ago.
There were other embarrassments this week - such as the moment when Palin, on the stump and apparently drunk on her own celebrity, took top billing by referring to the next four years as "a Palin and McCain administration" - but perhaps the weirdest was not about the economy at all. It was about Spain.
I won't recycle all the details, which have been covered extensively elsewhere. In essence, earlier this week, when a Latino radio reporter in Miami asked McCain, repeatedly, whether he'd be willing next year to meet with the president of Spain, McCain wouldn't give a straight answer. Instead, he kept talking about our allies in Latin America and "this hemisphere." The incident has touched off considerable debate over whether McCain was having a senior moment, whether he didn't understand the questions and was somehow confusing Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero with someone on this side of the pond.
But let's assume he was not temporarily addled by age. Let's assume instead that his campaign was giving out straight talk when it insisted yesterday that McCain had done exactly what he had intended to do - signal his refusal to take any meeting with Zapatero. If true, that stance puts McCain right in sync with President Bush and the neoconservatives - which, politically, is not necessarily the best place to be.
Zapatero has been on the outs with the Bush regime ever since he had the audacity to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq. McCain is therefore signaling - if we can believe yesterday's spin - that he would refuse to meet with a western democratic NATO ally, apparently because this ally had the smarts to separate itself from the disastrous war that McCain has always supported. The McCain position is thus a perpetuation of the Bush "you're either with us, or against us" credo, and fits squarely with the perception - already embraced by a landslide majority of Americans - that McCain as president would either advance Bush's priorities, or govern even more conservatively.
And that's the kindest interpretation of this incident; indeed, that's the interpretation in Spain, where our ally is unsurprisingly upset with McCain. All told, when McCain suffers turbulence even inside his comfort zone, you know it's been a really bad week.
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If Volcker was so bad for the economy, why did Reagan re-appoint him in 1983 after the recession. If he and his protege Greenspan were good enough for Reagan and Bush 41, then why isn't Volcker good enough for Obama. In fact, as someone working in the financial services industry, I am happy to hear that Volcker is acting as a financial advisor to Obama. He's a lot better than Gramm was for McCain with his statements about whiny Americans or Carly who was a complete bust as a CEO at H-P.— fetchez la vache- I would call 2005 a bill introduced in the 109th Congress. I addressed the 108th Congress at the time Bush introduced the concept. But all that aside, the R's still controlled Congress in 2005. If Hagel's bill died was it because of lack of support or because of a filibuster by the D's? I believe it was because of lack of support. I haven't said the R's are solely to blame. I've placed the blame at the feet of both parties. This canard of blaming the D's doesn't hold water. No procedural manuevers by the D's could have killed a bill in the House. They couldn't stop the R's from introducing bills. And wihtout a filibuster, the R's could have moved Hagel's bill forward in the Senate.— fetchez la vache
- Tom, As for people mocking you, well as I don't want to send you back to therapy or your wife again by calling you names, I'll just leave it at I disagree with your assertions on Freddie and Fannie and let you fight your own battles with people who make fun of you. You're a big boy, and I don't really have a dog in some of your other fights unless the other person is totally absurd. I agreed with your prior argument a couple weeks ago about the long-term value of housing and pointed out the flaw in some person's argument about unrealized gains versus realized gains. If someone is factually incorrect, then I'll speak up. Otherwise, don't take it too personally and stay up all night worrying about whether someone else wants to assume my role of insulting you.— fetchez la vache
- So Obama and Polman are bashing McCain for now saying O.K. to the AIG bailout. Well, Biden was also against the bailout, as was (I believe) Obama. However, neither of them are now saying if they agreed with the decision to bail them out....so are they saying it was a bad move, or are they too cowardly to say it was the right thing to do. Obama also is saying that, with the hundreds needed for the bailouts, there is still room for a middle class tax cut (even though his 95% of all taxpayers includes the 40% who pay no taxes...they'll just get a check), room for Universal Health Care, room for the $150 Billion for "green" energy....as well as all his other spending priorities (total of nearly $1 Trillion). Yeah, all this with simply rolling back the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250K. That must be a lot of money.— tom - wilmington, de
- Tom--the statement that "40%...pay no taxes" (presumably relating to federal taxes)is an oft-repeated Republican falsehood. It ignores the heavy and regressive payroll taxes (FICA and FUTA) paid by nearly every worker. And of course it ignores state and local taxes, which are generally regressive. This Republican lie is intended to convey the idea that the rich already pay too much in taxes.— liberal
- So McCain Rove-Palin have not said anything that wasn’t true?— USA#1
- Interesting point, liberal. The "40% argument" also ignores fee for services. If I remember correctly during the Republican primary, Rudy charged that Mitt reduced taxes by increasing fees for government services, which was in effect another way to tax people. (http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071213/NEWS08/312130115/-1/news08)— fetchez la vache
- Polman, Satullo, and Rubin are only going to get more brutal as the elction season drags on. The state by state polls have to be troubling for the Democrats. Keeping in mind that Obama does about 5 to 7 points worse than he polls, McCain wins Michigan and Pennsylvania and maybe New Jersey. Ohio and Florida are already McCain's. Winning a state like Colorado or New Mexico might be the only consolation Obama will have when it is all over. The media knows this which is why the editorials will be more scathing than ever. To make matters worse for Obama is the fact that he has major Fannie Mae execs working for his campaign and wether he likes it or not the comfort of the telepromptor will be going bye bye when he finally has to debate. We could be looking at a McCain-Palin electoral landslide. This will be a good thing for the free world
- Swedesboro, Who are these execs working for the campaign? Just like Gramm left the McCain campaign after his "whiny Americans" remark, Johnson left the Obama campaign and does not work for them. And what role does Franklin Raines have in the campaign? But better yet, Swedesboro, since you have a problem with these former execs, could you please explain why you have a problem with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Or more exactly, what role do you believe that Fannie and Freddie have in the housing crisis?— fetchez la vache
- Through the lassez faire economic policies of the Bush Dynasty our world financial markets are in crisis. McCain is shell shocked that his McPalin ticket is headed down the same hole as the mortgage markets. He has taken ten times more from fm/fm entourage of Replikicans and I believe his sound bite lies are nauseating! Lets round some of these bank ceo's up and put them on public trial, fine them billions each to start filing in the pot holes. They gambled , lost, but took their winnings anyway and we pay. This is not America, this is third world thug politics. My God people I hope you all don't have childern, because we are leading them into a much darker reality. If we do not really CHANGE, and deep down I believe we can, we will be failing even our forefathers.— hejira33312
- FYI, regarding S190, a search of the term S190, "federal housing enterprise" and filibuster in Google News comes up with zero news accounts of any filibusters initiated against the bill. So the D's did not kill the bill with a filibuster. So the bill most likely died from lack of support in a Republican-controlled Senate. This doesn't mean that the R's alone killed the bill. But it does mean that that the D's did not kill the bill by themselves through either a filibuster or a threat of a filibuster. Said it before and I'll say it again, both sides are to blame for missing out on the opportunity to reform Freddie and Fannie.— fetchez la vache
- Overheard on the floor of the Stock Exchange on Friday: "You know Fred, I've had one bad week". "So did I, Mike, but at least we're not John McCain".— yobill626
- The Front Page of Friday's USA Today has a nice Readers' Digest version (as they typically do) of the makeup of the group of economic advisors each candidate uses & the overall economic philosophy they might roll out if elected. Again, its just a primer, but a decent one.— yobill626
- Sarah did not mispronounce "verbiage." She intentionally employed the neologism "verbage" which means verbal garbage. McCain was confused by the question about meeting with Zapatera. He thought he was being asked meet with Emiliano Zappata, another maverick, shall we say. McCain remembers the day Zappata died (in 1917) so he wondered if he was being invited to a seance and couldn't figure out if the seance vote is right wing or left. By the way, people who think the Bush administration's trillion dollar bailout of the financial industry may be a bit more than the American taxpayer should have to swallow would do well to reflect on John McCain's prescription for health care reform: "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."— JWHerrmann
- I find it interesting that all the republicans are on the heavy defense now with McCain, especially when their own conservative newspapers (ie the Wall Street Journal) and spokespeople (ie Carly Fiorina, potential running mate with McCain and CEO of HP)... Looks like america is seeing the true face of McCain now in a crisis and under pressure....not good. But hey, at least he invented the blackberry, right? lol.— storm
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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