The McCain Economic Leadership that Might Have Been

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Just for shits and giggles, I thought I’d compare how one Villager regurgitated the myth–propagated after McCain "suspended" his campaign in September "to respond to the economic crisis"–that John McCain might lead us out of our financial woes…

Sen. John McCain’s surprise announcement that he would temporarily suspend his campaign to return to Washington to help broker a deal to save the financial industry is the latest in a series of political gambits surrounding the financial crisis on Wall Street, and is sure to reshape political calculations and voter attitudes around the volatile issue.

The move is an obvious attempt by McCain and his campaign to paint the Arizona senator as above politics, willing to put aside his campaign for the good of the country.

It comes as two new national polls — including one conducted by the Washington Post — show McCain slipping in the head-to-head matchup against Barack Obama due in large part to voters’ inclination to trust the Illinois senator to solve the financial problems of the country.

The McCain campaign believes that their candidate is at his best when he is seen as a deal-maker, willing to reach across party lines to get things done for the good of the country. This economic crisis, they believe, provides McCain a chance to show the sort of leadership that voters value in the Arizona senator.

"John McCain’s leadership and experience credentials outrank Barack Obama’s," said Sarah Simmons, a McCain campaign strategist, this morning. "[We are] walking through a crisis and people are looking to see how it is going to be handled."

With the news that, 167 days later, McCain is attempting to put together a "definitive" economic platform.

Sen. John McCain is putting together a major economic plan that will be structured, in some ways, off of Newt Gingrich’s famous Contract With America.

In an email obtained by the Huffington Post, the Arizona Republican’s chief of staff, Marc Buse, asked an outside adviser for help with a "ten principles" program that the senator could use as a "definitive" platform.

"We are looking for some guidance on a definitive plan (aka contract with america style) on the economy…principles," writes Buse. "Ten principles that JSM could point to on what MUST BE DONE to address the problems our nation faces."

Buse doesn’t offer specific suggestions of his own, save "NO TAX INCREASES."

Because that’s my definition of leadership: 167 days after a failed photo op, an attempt to outsource the search for underlying principles.

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47 replies
  1. TheraP says:

    How many houses does he have? And many homeless people is he willing to house? How many jobs can his wife provide? How many homes and jobs can he pressure others to provide?

    I’m sure the guy could come up with a program. Just not the one he’s considering.

  3. GregOPauls says:

    obama’s plan, spend, oink what else do you need to know. We need to stop spending and start planning. How about we spend money on our real citizens and not illegal aliens. It seems that if you are here illegally you have more rights and get more money then if you are a real citizen work and pay taxes.
    Does not make sense to me. Why not support our own people now in this time of crisis?

  4. brendanx says:

    emptywheel:

    The decision by a military judge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to order the release yesterday of a pleading by defendants accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was criticized by defense counsel and civil liberties groups, who said the judge was defying President Obama’s executive order to halt all military commissions.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..eheadlines

  6. brendanx says:

    I read this morning that there are 8 billion in “earmarks” in the $410 billion bill. I think one of the underestimated blows Obama landed on McCain in the debates was pointing out precisely this irrelevant, innumerate idee fixe on McCain’s part. He’s like Captain Ahab, only he’s chasing a herring instead of a whale.

  7. Gregg Levine says:

    “I am a lonely visitor, I came too late to cause a stir, though I campaign all my life towards that goal. . . .”

  9. BoxTurtle says:

    It’s real tough to come up with an economic plan when party orthodoxy requires you to base it upon unworkable assumptions and religious dogma.

    The solution to everything is tax cuts.

    Boxturtle (But if you don’t think tax cuts will work, try abstinence)

  11. GregOPauls says:

    When Reagan took office we had double digit mortgage rates double digit unemployment and with tax cuts and faith in the business community we survived and prospered.
    Reaganomics (a portmanteau of Reagan and economics attributed to Paul Harvey[1]) refers to the economic policies promoted by United States President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s. The four pillars of Reagan’s economic policy were to:[2]

    1. reduce the growth of government spending,
    2. reduce marginal tax rates on income from labor and capital,
    3. reduce government regulation of the economy,
    4. control the money supply to reduce inflation.

    In attempting to cut back on domestic spending while lowering taxes, Reagan’s approach was a departure from his immediate predecessors.

    Reagan became president during a period of high inflation and unemployment (commonly referred to as stagflation), which had largely abated by the time he left office.

    And it all worked.

      • TheraP says:

        Or soon will be. If enough people pray for an economic miracle and the Vatican can prove it’s due to Reagan.

        Surely a miracle would solve things: Could that be mccain’s secret plan?

        • readerOfTeaLeaves says:



          Could that be mccain’s secret plan?

          I thought that involved Soviet Georgia…? Was I wrong?

          ;-))

        • TheraP says:

          Perhaps there’s more than one secret plan?

          I kinda like the miracle idea myself. That would definitely pull the fundies back in. I hear they’re straying from the repub fold.

          We could start a movement! Spread the word: Pray for the economic miracle! Pray to st. reagan or st. mccain.

        • readerOfTeaLeaves says:

          Miracles?
          Do tell.
          Lemme guess: McCain and his pals get all the loaves.
          The rest of us get all the fishes; turns out there are only five and they’re three-day-old, rotten little minnows, and we’re supposed to make them go around for all 300,000,000 of us.

          If any of us want a crumb of bread to go with our molecule of fishes, we have to pay 22% interest to borrow $1,000 to buy the crumb of bread. Oh, and even more miraculously, we get to LOAN the McCainiacEconomicMensas the money to loan us out at that 22%.

          Except that they swapped the money we loaned them via credit derivatives, so they actually spent $10 to ‘hedge’ the fact that the international fisheries would collapse, on the bet that they’d make $300 per swap. The only way to assure their return on the hedges was to make sure that the fisheries did indeed collapse. So they did a little naked short selling on the fisheries and lo! A miracle! The made $300 per hedge!

          So if they had $1000 to hedge, and they split it into $10 bets, they had 100 times in which their $10 bets turned into $300 via The Miracle Of Naked Short Selling!! So they made $30,000.
          None of which we will ever see, since they sent it offshore to avoid US taxes. Wheeeeeeee!!

          Oh, and we still owe them monthly interest at 22% for our molecules of fish and our crumbs of bread.

          That may not be ‘leadership’, but it sure is a miracle.

          Jon Stewart may not be ‘God’, but he’s sure looking ’saintly’ to me this morning!

          Loaves!! Fishes!!
          Ah, the miracle of John McCain’s asshole, head-up-the-ass version of ‘leadership’.

        • TheraP says:

          We can get a lot of comedy out of these miracles. That will at least save our mental health!

          That’s probably the plan for everything. Health care? Try faith healing!

        • BayStateLibrul says:

          What does it profit a hedge fund manager, if he gains the whole world
          but loses his immortal soul?

        • BoxTurtle says:

          I’m gonna put that profit at about 50 trillion, assuming the value of a hedge fund manager’s soul at $0, $7 trillion from the government for buying the banks, and normal closing costs.

          Boxturtle (What, it wasn’t a serious question?)

        • Petrocelli says:

          *standing on chair, applauding !*

          This comment is a keeper … I’ll be sharing it with others.

  12. Minnesotachuck says:

    Sen. John McCain is putting together a major economic plan that will be structured, in some ways, off of Newt Gingrich’s famous Contract With America.

    To a considerable extent, the American society and economy is where it is today because of the “success” of Gingrich’s Contract On America.

  14. readerOfTeaLeaves says:

    Lordy, I clicked over here from TPM, which has a clip of Jon Stewart (ahem) ‘lamenting’ his little tete a tete with Jim Cramer and it’s laugh-out-loud funny. Then I saw the title of this post and it hit me as so wildly funny that I’m still wiping tears of laughter from my eyes.

    The words ‘McCain‘, ‘Economic‘, and ‘Leadership‘ all in the same sentence have me convulsing in fits of laughter. I kid you not — my abdomen’s starting to hurt from all this hearty laughter so early in the day.

    • Petrocelli says:

      Jim Cramer is going to be on TDS with Jon, on Thursday … another sign that Cramer is incapable of making a wise decision.

      • readerOfTeaLeaves says:

        Ah, The Ego will land at TDS.
        Delusion vs Reality, coming this Thursday to your InternetMachine.

        • Waccamaw says:

          Agreeing to appear is another indicator that cramer is definitely more than one slice short a loaf.

        • Petrocelli says:

          Apparently, Carlson & Carville did not tell Cramer what would happen if he takes on Stewart/Colbert.

        • readerOfTeaLeaves says:

          Oh, as you wrote that, I was thinking through my ‘loaves and fishes and the Miracle of John McCain’s (not so Biblical) view of economics’. You got me chuckling again — thanks ;-))

        • Leen says:

          What do I know about the economy? Very little, but when I watched the Wall Street Bailout and the Auto hearings I realized I was not alone.

          Anyway when Jim Kramer suggested awhile back…. reducing the interest rate to 4% across the board. So that those who have not made borrowing mistakes and those who consciously or unconsciously made serious mistakes would not be at each others throats. That a 4% interest rate would stimulate borrowing in the sector of folks who did not make mistakes.

          Who knows what is right or wrong with Kramer’s suggestion?

    • klynn says:

      After reading you @ 18 I went to view dear Jon.

      I laughed so much my little klynn is scared something is wrong!

      That is classic. Stewart is a genius.

      Cramer not so much. Unless it is mediocrity. Or “cry baby” marketing.

      • Mauimom says:

        Cramer not so much. Unless it is mediocrity. Or “cry baby” marketing.

        I watched Jon last night on the latest round re Cramer. What I really liked [in addition to Jon’s “F*** You] was Cramer’s saying, “well the whole stock market went down, so any stock I recommended, or could have recommended, went down.”

        Hey, Nimrod, if you’re such a genius, why didn’t you foresee that ALL stocks would be going down, describe why [other than “Obama The Meanie Got Elected”] and advise appropriate action??

        And for this they pay you the big bucks?

  15. MsAnnaNOLA says:

    At least there is a grown up in the White House. He may be royally screwed out of any possibility of fixing this giant shitpile, but at least he is a grownup.

  16. wavpeac says:

    Kramer is cooked…you have to see this video.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/business/

    This video reinforces nicely that Reagan and Bush were simply crooks paving the way for illegality that has ruined our economy.

    It was Reagan that let in millions of immigrants…same thing happened under bushco…Republicans like to loosen the boarders, let em in, lower labor costs, create a slave labor market and then foment hatred for them. Gotta love those christians!!

  19. BoxTurtle says:

    Pixie dust. If he had more pixie dust, everything would work out.

    Boxturtle (Run, Tinkerbell! He LIKES young blondes)

  21. readerOfTeaLeaves says:

    Just a ‘big hug’ to everyone here this morning who got my day started off with more laughter than I usually experience before 8 am West Coast time.

    And thanks for all linkies, as well!
    You folks are the greatest.

    (As for Freep, IIRC, he’s generally a late-nighter and as a general rule doesn’t tend to post early in the day… but that’s only a fuzzy recollection.)

  22. anwaya says:

    I’ve been wondering what McGrumpy and the Wonder Bimbo would have been up to by now if they’d won: pushing through a stimulus which was mostly tax cuts, moving aggressively on Iran if not already bombing, the DJI at 5,000, most of Detroit shuttered?

    I’d love to know what the bullet we missed would have done. Any further thoughts?

  23. Minnesotachuck says:

    OT: Apparently Sen. David Vitter thinks that showing up the last minute at the airline gate is no different than doing so at the cat house door:

    Roll Call reports that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), the staunch social conservative whose career became bogged down in the 2007 D.C. Madam prostitution scandal, was sighted this past Thursday night having an incident of airport rage at Dulles Airport. . . Vitter arrived 20 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart, and found the gate locked. He then opened the door, setting off the alarm and inviting the attention of an airline worker:

    h/t TPM

    • Mauimom says:

      Oh, crap, I was flying out of Dulles yesterday. Why didn’t that happen where I could see it?

      I guess the Planes to Hell depart from a different terminal.

  24. radiofreewill says:

    Good leadership is no miracle, except, of course, that it so rarely occurs with Gooper Politicians!

    Here’s an attendee’s notes – for Sen. McCain to crib from, natch – from a Stormin’ Norman Schwartzkopf speech back in ‘97:

    “After spending a “life time” in the field and leading in many situations, Schwarzkopf learned key lessons of his life in one day. He moved to the Pentagon for less than a month when the chief told him to take his place while he spends about one month visiting troops around the world. Schwarzkopf was astonished by the task that he now needs to handle without him being ready for it. He followed the chief to the corridor: “What am I going to do about such and such plan, should I make the decision or wait until you come back…” The reply came: “Apply Rule 13.” “Yes, Sir, Salute. Rule 13! eh, What’s that?” The chief gave him one of the lessons he will never forget:

    “When Placed in command, take charge.” As he was going back to his office and thinking about the great lesson he just learned, he felt that his worries started to ease.

    He remembered more things he needed to worry about and went back running in the corridor. “Should I decide on this issue this way or that way? And on this other issue, do we need to decide now or could we wait?” The reply came: “Norman, Apply Rule 14.” “Yes, Sir, Salute. Rule 14! eh, What’s that?” He now got his 2nd lesson:

    “Do What’s Right.”"

    167 days…of McCain ‘taking charge’ and ‘doing what’s right’…’for the good of the Country, my friends.’

  25. freepatriot says:

    if you was running for President, wouldn’t you do something like this BEFORE you run:

    Sen. John McCain is putting together a major economic plan that will be structured, in some ways, off of Newt Gingrich’s famous Contract With America.

    what’s the fucking point ???

    here’s what I would have done if you had elected me ???

    is THAT what he’s sayin ???

    hey, john mcstain, Mr De Mill is ready for your close-up now, dude

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