| ON THIS PAGE: McCain-Palin keep on flip, flop, flippin' into the future. One u-turn after the other on economy | LINK UP: The Newsweek Cover scandal. Storm in a naughty monkey .../ McCain regrets choosing Palin |
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Flip Flop Flippin' on Wall Street: McCain wants more regulation, more government, then less, then more by Athina Simonidou There's a nasty brand of politics called populism. You lick your finger, hold it in the air and feel which way the wind is blowing. Then you head in that direction. Sarah Palin is, and always has been, a populist. Principle is less important to her than being popular. McCain used to be different. Integrity and sincerity used to matter to John McCain.
It sort of makes sense if you don't know much about business, or if you don't care about worker rights and benefits. Are you convinced? Think what football would be like without rules? Would the freedom of no rules make the game better, more entertaining? Is Brett Favre prevented from becoming an even greater star by the silly rules and regulations of the NFL? Of course not, the rules make the game. The rules encourage fairness and sportsmanship. They prevent anarchy. They prevent a player picking up the ball and running with it back to the locker room because that is what he feels like doing. In the past few days on Wall Street, quite a few players have picked up the ball, or dropped it, and scattered in all sorts of directions. McCain and Palin, big supporters of no-rules football, have been shocked by the scenes. Wasn't deregulation supposed to stop this sort of thing? Weren't bankers and mortgage lenders and Wall Street supposed to be responsible institutions, serving our best interests. Doesn't look that way, does it?
It's your money, taxpayers' money, but using that money wisely, plus sensible, long term regulation, is better than seeing your money disappear in bankruptcy after bankruptcy, which might well have happened if Washington had done as Palin wanted. Only a couple of days ago, she said she was happy to see that President Bush had no intention of helping ailing financial institutions. Regulation isn't always a bad thing. McCain-Palin learned that lesson this week. Listen to them on the stump this week. They sound like fresh converts to a new idea. They want more regulation of Wall Street. They are beginning to sound like Democrats. McCain keeps on flippin', floppin', flippin' into the future. MORE: Speaking informally in Cleveland, Sarah Palin said: ""Certainly AIG though with the construction bonds that they're holding and with the insurance that they are holding very, very impactful for Americans, so you know the shot that has been called by the Feds - it's understandable but very, very disappointing that taxpayers are called upon for another one," she said."
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McCain's Mortgage Buy-Up Plan Angers Conservatives You have to doubt whether John McCain, a self-professed conservative, is conservative at all. He's not a liberal of course, but nor is he centrist. He's a conservative with a strong populist streak, who dreams up and promotes ideas without thinking them through. Take his idea to spend $300 of taxpayers' money to buy up distressed mortgages. It sounds convincing until you realize it's more government in people's lives, it rewards irresponsible lenders and borrowers, and punishes those who kept their house in order. It's as far from a conservative plan as you could imagine, which is why so many leading conservatives have shot it down before it had a chance to sprout wings. In the words of CNN, "It's a proposal that is fundamentally at odds with the conservative principle of individual responsibility, and is the latest in a string of public spats conservatives have had over the years and in this election with their party's standard bearer."
John McCain: Can anyone keep up with him? Summer's over, but McCain is still strutting in his best flip flops: "Don't bail out the banks ... hey, we need a plan ... I'm suspending my campaign ... greed and corruption is the cause ... pork barrel spending ... less government ... more government ..and don't build the Adler planetarium in Chicago ... oh, yeah, spend $300 billion buying distressed mortgages ... no, change that, it won't work."
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