I’ve had a persistent thought the past couple days that John McCain has been going easy on Barack Obama and the Congressional Democrats on purpose.
I saw McCain’s performance during the debate and it baffled me why he wasn’t more aggressive toward Obama on the bailout question. It’s not as if he didn’t have plenty of ammunition to hammer Obama on the contributions he’s taken from the GSEs, his taking advice from two corrupt former Fannie Mae CEOs, his party’s shameless protection of the GSEs even as they drove us to this very crisis, and the blatant conflict of interest inherent in having Chris Dodd and Barney Frank write huge swaths of the bailout legislation. And it’s driven such folks as Ann Althouse to say today that, because of his campaign’s rather lackluster work in the media this weekend, he has “no real insight about our financial market issues and no political courage in offering a solution”.
I don’t think that’s true in McCain’s case, but, still, you can’t blame folks for thinking that at this point. So why didn’t he bury Obama in a steaming pile of his own hypocrisy? Why didn’t his campaign come out swinging today?
The answer, it occurs to me, is that he pulled his punches on Obama and the Democrats for the same reason he suspended his campaign and went back to Washington. John McCain cares a whole lot more for the welfare of the country than he does his Presidential campaign.
Let me explain.
It’s no secret that most of the principles involved in the bailout talks on the Democratic side are a bunch of vain, petty, politically scummy individuals. First, there’s Nancy Pelosi, who slammed the Republicans for not showing up to a meeting to which they had never been invited. Then there’s Harry Reid who first begged John McCain to come back to Washington, then, when it seemed that the political winds were at McCain’s back if he came back, tried to order him to stay home. Of course there’s the Tweedle Dee/Tweedle Dum/Tweedle Dummer trio of Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer, and Barney Frank about whom I’ve written already. This is not a group who takes being savaged on national television particularly well.
Consider also that the bailout is not a done deal. The word is that there likely won’t even be a vote until at least Wednesday. There is still plenty of time for shenanigans from the Democratic leadership.
Let’s say that McCain had come out and taken a brickbat to the Democratic leadership for their 15 years of avarice that’s led us to the brink of meltdown. Let’s say that he gave us chapter and verse on ACORN and the Democrats who, even this weekend, were trying to cut them in on a piece of the action. Let’s say that Johnny Mac broke bad on the Obamessiah and got him good and fired up. Do you really think that we wouldn’t see Democrats walking away from any reasonable negotiations and toward the friendly television cameras to complain about how the “mean-spirited” John McCain cast a pall over the whole deal and that they just can’t negotiate in good faith with such a polarizing figure? It’d take two weeks just to coax them out of their sullen pouts and petty revenge schemes.
Were I John McCain, I’d consider the likelihood that Pelosi, Reid, and the gang might box the deal to score a few more political points and exact a little revenge a non-trivial concern. It would be prudent for him to hold his tongue until the deal is really done.
Yes, it’s possible that John McCain really doesn’t know what he’s talking about and has decided, for whatever insane reason, to display his ignorance all weekend long. I think, though, that’s it’s worth considering that the real reason we haven’t seen the pugnacious John McCain this weekend is because he’s decided, at the risk of his campaign, to be the adult here. This bailout deal is important to him, more important than a few points in the polls and more important than taking the opportunity to savage his opponent.
(Althouse link via Glenn Reynolds)
Tags: Barack Obama, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Democrats, Fannie Mae, Harry Reid, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi
While that’s a pretty interesting tale, I don’t think it accurately reflects what actually happened the last few days. I found it interesting that it took John McCain 22 hours to arrive in Washington (from NYC), after “suspending his campaign”. Where was he all this time (when he wasn’t grandstanding on television)? Do you even know where McCain was when final touches were made in the crucial negotiations process?
IT’S NOT HARD TO FIND OUT
Hmmm…so what, exactly, is your theory here?
Oh, and just so you know, your facts are more than a little bit off. The evidence, as has been amply reported this weekend, is just the opposite of what you said it is. He has been pretty directly involved in the negotiations.
There may be more. This quote is taken from a Jim DeMint interview, linked at Rightwingnews. Assuming it’s correct info, then the bailout is truly important. Frankly, without this info, I’d be dead set against it.
“The biggest creditor is China and that’s a big part of this equation that’s not being talked about. If America was not in such deep debt, we could deal with this problem much more effectively — but China has essentially told the U.S. that we make good on all the debt that they’re holding, which is nearly a trillion dollars, or they’re going to stop lending us money. To show that they’re serious, they’ve already stopped lending us money and if we can’t borrow money every day, literally hundreds of billions of dollars, we default on the loans that are coming due.”
Flopping Aces has a couple of good articles today:
http://www.floppingaces.net/20.....taxpayers/
http://www.floppingaces.net/20.....in-common/
[...] Robert Stacy McCain (no relation) of the Washington Times. First, here’s Jimmie, who asks, “Is John McCain Putting Country in Front of Campaign Again?” I saw McCain’s performance during the debate and it baffled me why he wasn’t more aggressive [...]