THIS WEEK WAS AMONG THE BLEAKEST in Wall Street history. Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan called the economy the worst he’s ever seen. And yet John McCain says it’s “fundamentally sound” (Hoover said that right before the Great Depression). Maybe it’s fundamentally sound for people who don’t remember how many houses they own?
McCain, a proud deregulator, now wants to clean up Wall Street and stand up to the special interests. How? Almost all his senior advisors were lobbyists. His economic guru, former Senator Phil Graham, was the king of deregu-lation legislation. Infamously, Graham labeled this a “mental recession” and called Americans “whiners.” McCain has him in hiding.
At least now the focus might be on real issues, as opposed to lipstick on a pig. McCain forgot he used that expression about Hillary in 1992. He’s forgotten a lot of things lately. But I bet he still remembers what the “Bush Doctrine”is,which is more than we can say for Sarah Palin.
ABC’s Charles Gibson asked Sarah if she believed in the Bush Doctrine. Except she did-n’t know what it was. She looked like a caribou frozen in headlights. “In what respect, Charlie?”
Bill Maher said he thought she was going to ask if she could use a lifeline.
Later, after Sarah favored admitting Georgia into NATO, Gibson queried, “Wouldn’t we have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?” Palin replied nonchalantly, “Perhaps so.”That’s when I fell out of my chair.
Sarah brags about small town values, but the jacket she wore at the convention cost $2,500. She also spent $35,000 for a tanning bed installed in the governor’s mansion. Reportedly it’s to treat sunlight-deprived depression. Lovely! Meanwhile, “Ms. I’ve got nothing to hide” is fighting the Troopergate investigation.
The McCain/Palin ads are so sleazy even Karl Rove criticized them. On “The View” Joy Behar grilled McCain.“You can’t really believe Obama was calling Sarah Palin a pig?” Squirming nervously, McCain said,“Politics is a tough business.” Either he’s paranoid, and has lost his mind or, he’s lying and has lost his integrity. Speaking of Rove, he was mentored by Lee Atwater, the Godfather of political sleaze. In 1988 Atwater created the racist Willie Horton commercials that put George H.W. Bush in the White House.
Horton was a convicted murderer who committed a rape while in the Massachusetts prisoner furlough program. The furlough law had been signed by a Republican governor and yet Atwater went after Dukakis,“I will strip the bark off the little bastard and make Willie Horton his running mate.” Charming.
Fourteen months later, Atwater was diagnosed with brain cancer. During his final days he told Life Magazine “What’s missing in society is what’s missing in me, a little heart and a lot of brotherhood.” Desperate for redemption, he phoned Dukakis, who forgave him. I’m not sure I would have.
Right wing haters are hypocrites. Imagine what they’d say if Michelle Obama stole drugs from her medical relief organization, as Cindy did. Or, if Obama’s teenage daughter was pregnant and unmarried.Or,if Obama cheated on, and then dumped, a wife disfigured from a car accident. Or, if the Senate criticized Obama for “exercising poor judgment” (Keating five).
McCain’s “standing up to the good ol’boys” is laughable. After 26 years in Washington, he’s one of the good ol’ boys! He voted with Bush 90 percent of the time, and helped a Republican Congress convert record surpluses into record deficits. They waged a war for oil that will cost three trillion dollars, plus untold deaths and injuries,and charged everything on a credit card. The interest alone doomed the economy. Some maverick.
After Black Monday, imagine if Bush and McCain had succeeded in privatizing social security.And now, what’s McCain’s solution to this colossal economic crisis? Appoint a commission. Oh, brother.
No WMD’s, torture, secret prisons, in Iraq for 100 years, Katrina, $4 gas, the collapse of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Merill Lynch, AIG and more to come. These are only some legacies of Bush/McCain policies. As Obama said,“Enough is enough!”
McCain may have had an honorable military career. But lies about Obama i.e. lipstick on a pig, or sex education in kindergarten, or taxing the middle class, is anything but honorable. To fight back, perhaps Obama should mention Greenspan’s opinion, “The country can’t afford McCain’s tax cuts” (Including $4 billion for oil companies).
Or maybe Obama should quote Reagan, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”For the vast majority of Americans (excluding war profiteers and billionaires) the answer is a resounding “No!”
If McCain wins in November (I’m biting my tongue) I hope at least he’s healthy. I cringe at the thought of President Palin and tanning beds in the White House.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 19, 2008. Read the original PDF.