...that John McCain should have kicked off on Friday by properly responding to Senator Obama's lies and demagoguery on the financial crisis. It's exactly what Fred Thompson would have done, but I fear that out of a misplaced sense of collegiality, McCain won't do it.
The problem is, that in his heart, McCain doesn't really believe in free markets, any more than his opponents do. He has an emotional stake in "honor" and "service" over profit, and it makes it tough for him (as Glenn said) to go for the jugular against the corrupt rent seekers and collectivists in Washington, of both parties. Instead, he placidly and pallidly aims for the capillary.
He really needs to read this. As he notes, the problem isn't capitalism. It's politicians.
It's exactly what Fred Thompson would have done, but I fear that out of a misplaced sense of collegiality, McCain won't do it.
There is a rare point of agreement between you and Barack Obama: Both of you would have wanted Fred Thompson as the Republican nominee.
It is an amazing fantasy that a conservative who was too fossilized to win the Republican nomination would somehow be the magic man in the election.
For his part, McCain already is running the sort of aggressive attack ads that Kenneth Anderson wants him to run. He already has ads that say that Fannie Mae + Freddie Mac = Barack Obama. They just haven't been working. They have also created a dangerous opening for Obama which he hasn't much yet used, because Freddie Mac didn't just give money to John McCain, they share his campaign manager. Or maybe McCain's ad was meant to cover for that opening; but there are times when a preemptive strike lands you in the drink instead of on top.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/161218
Um, Jim, you don't think there's a bit of a difference between Freddie Mac signing a consulting deal with McCain's campaign manager's former firm, which he left in 2006, and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac making direct contributions of $111,000 to Barack Obama?
Like, if I leave my job to go work for McCain's campaign, and then six months later my company lands a contracting deal with Freddie Mac -- my God corruption! It somehow spreads from my former company to me, through some magical secret subetheric vibrations?
But if Fannie and Freddie execs just up and give $111,000 to Obama, that's perfectly innocent, of course.
And, of course, y'all would be ignoring the fact that it was McCain, not Obama, who called long ago for better oversight of these monsters. That it was the Democrats, not the Republicans, who insisted on shoveling out the mortgage money to people who couldn't pay it back on houses that were worth a quarter of their price.
I saw a typical Democratic voter on CNN the other day, being interviewed for her reaction to the financial bailout. She said: Well, I'm a realtor, and I've helped a lot of first-time buyers get their first home. And now...you know, they can't do it anymore. They don't have down payments, and now everyone wants down payments. Some people say that if you don't have the income, you shouldn't have the house, but I don't think that's right.
That, in a nutshell, is Democratic governing philosophy. Why should you have to forgo life's wonderful things -- a home of your own, the best of health care -- merely because you "can't" pay for it? Make someone else, "the rich," pay for it instead. The philosophy of thieves.