Today, to an extent, I feel like Edward Norton here at the end of Fight Club.
It's admittedly really hard to focus on politics today. With all hyperbole set aside, America is now facing its biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Today, Lehman Brothers, a prominent securities firm, filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch narrowly avoided complete annihilation by selling itself to Bank of America for $50 billion. In addition, AIG, an "insurance giant," warned that without $40 billion from the Federal Reserve, it may only be able to survive a few more days. This all comes on the heels of the collapse of Bear Stearns and the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
This is that game-changing moment I was warning about all those months ago when this blog started. For all the punditry and predictions that fly around the media during a campaign, it can all go up in smoke when something like this happens. John McCain and Barack Obama can't control the financial markets, but to a large extent those markets will now control their campaigns, and to an extent the results of this election.
--> One important point of note as we head into this crisis, neither Obama nor McCain have really spent much time talking (at all, let alone in detail) about the financial situation in this country, nor have they spoken about what they plan to do about it. Neither of these candidates is an economist (where's Jed Bartlet when you need him?), and it's likely that neither of them really understands the complexities of the market without their advisors walking them through it. Still, they both have a narrative to tell, and will try to frame this crisis within the way they want to play this race.
Obama blames much of this current crisis on eight years of failed leadership - with a lack of consumer protection, loosened regulation, and encouraging enormous CEO bonuses while not protecting middle class Americans. McCain, on the other hand, attacks government bureaucracy and promises to use his new favorite phrase, "shake up Washington," as much as possible when describing what he and Sarah Palin are going to do.
Just an aside here, this is how I'm starting to think that John McCain and Sarah Palin view the federal government:
However, John McCain immediately went out on the stump today, and demonstrated why economics are considered his Achilles' Heel. He argued that despite today's news (and despite the fact that our current situation is very difficult), "THE FUNDAMENTALS OF OUR ECONOMY ARE STRONG." Team Obama pounced immediately on what would be considered a gaffe from any other candidate, but from John McCain is merely his economic policy. Biden, speaking in Michigan, said, "But friends, I could walk from here to Lansing, and I wouldn’t run into a single person who thought our economy was doing well, unless I ran into John McCain."
And what perfect timing that this would come the day after a McCain economic advisor prints an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing that everyone is exaggerating the current financial crisis, and that people should stop freaking out.
Or, for that matter, mere days after Alan Greenspan argued that the United States can't afford John McCain's proposed $3.3 trillion (not a typo) in tax cuts for the wealthy without cutting just as much from spending. McCain has indeed proposed ways to cut spending: limiting earmarks and pork-barrel items in Congressional legislation. That is indeed a good start, except that all those programs have TOTALED $171 billion since 2001. Oops.
Out-of-touch is once again the order of the day:
7 houses...he thinks.
"Nation of whiners."
Tax cuts for the wealthy that we can't afford.
"I don't know much about the economy."
Voted with Bush 90% of the time.
"Divorced from reality."
If this financial crisis does put the focus of every voter back on the economy, look for Barack Obama to gain significantly on McCain (and most likely surpass him) in the coming days and weeks in tracking polls. Of course, that could all change at the presidential debates. McCain's mission there will to make Obama look inexperienced and unsure of the facts about the markets. If he gets Obama to slip up or say that he doesn't know something, it'll reinforce all the doubts people have about Obama's readiness. Thus, if Obama takes the lead thanks to this crisis (and it is truly bizarre to think about a devestating financial situation in callous, political terms), he could just play defense at the debates (at least on economic issues). On the other hand, it would be in his best interests to keep firing away at McCain over his complete disconnect from the problems of average Americans.
--> This all comes right after McCain's campaign repeatedly took an elbow to the face from the media all weekend. They were called out for blatantly lying:
- first for an attack ad claiming that Barack Obama sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate to teach sexual education to kindergarteners, although the bill was merely to warn kids about the dangers of child predators
- then for continuing to claim that Sarah Palin fought the Bridge to Nowhere
- then it turned out that Sarah Palin never actually "visited" Iraq, she only stopped at the border...oh, and she also never really visited Ireland - that was a fueling stop
- then it was discovered that the McCain campaign had been exaggerated those figures of enormous crowds at the McCain-Palin rallies lately
- also, it was discovered that Sarah Palin was the earmark queen of Alaska...before she was against them.
--> McCain's ads have actually strayed so far from the truth that Mr. Political-Ethics himself decided to weigh in, and mention that they weren't exactly 100% accurate. That's right, KARL ROVE is concerned with the truthfulness and decency of John McCain's campaign. This is the guy who said, ""Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."
--> On the lighter side of things, a publishing company sends the McCain campaign a letter offering the Senator one-on-one tutoring in computer literacy from Abby Stokes, author of the book, Is This Thing On? A Computer Handbook for Late Bloomers, Technophobes, and the Kicking & Screaming. One wonders which of those three categories McCain fits into.
--> And on the even lighter side, Tina Fey appeared as Sarah Palin (or possibly the other way around, I really can't tell the difference) on SNL Saturday night (while Amy Poehler played opposite her as Senator Clinton). During the season premiere of 30 Rock, I'm going to start a stopwatch to see how long it takes before Alec Baldwin confuses Tina Fey's character with the Republican vice-presidential nominee. I'm setting the over/under at 17 minutes, although based on recent plot developments, it might take longer than that before they're in the same room together.
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