Where to start…. I guess you heard by now that John “Deregulation at Any Cost” McCain wants out of Friday’s debate, right? It’s absolutely amazing. He says he needs time to focus on the economy, so he can’t debate Obama on foreign relations, which was to be the subject of their first televised event. He’s trying to spin it as “patriotic” – that he’s selflessly taking time away from his campaign to help save the U.S. from a depression – but it’s obvious that he’s just scared shitless of being on TV with Obama. Every time he opens his mouth to talk about economics, his polling numbers drop. His best bet now, and he knows it, is to just follow Palin’s lead and hide from the press until election day.
Speaking of Palin, who has talked with only one reporter since being introduced as McCain’s running-mate a month ago, it seems as though the “National Enquirer” isn’t about to let up on her alledged affair with her husband’s old “snow machine” buddy. According to the magazine’s website, they now have signed afidavits backed up by polygraph tests. But that’s probably the least of McCain’s worries right now, as the press coverage intensifies around America’s financial meltdown.
Word on the Hill is that he may have to fire his campaign manager, Rick Davis over all of this, as he was, until last month, on the Freddie Mac lobbying payroll to the tune of $15k a month – something that McCain either wasn’t aware of yesterday, or lied to the press about. It’s hard to imagine that things could go much worse for McCain, but losing the man running his campaign in the final stretch may be the straw that broke the old maverick’s back.
Thankfully, the Democrats didn’t give in immediately when Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson asked for $700 billion free and clear of any oversight in order to “take care of” the fiscal crisis. Paulson and other administration appointees warned that a global depression was iminent if we didn’t take immediate action, but it looks as though that wasn’t the case. It’s been a few days now, and the world doesn’t seem to have ended.
Something is happening, though. The has FBI is launching a probe into possible criminal activities on Wall Street.
Most Democrats acknowledge that a bailout in some form has to happen. It’s just a matter at this point of how much, and how it’s structured.
Paulson initially balked when Democrats, like Barney Frank, had the audicity to suggest that a bailout not include multi-million dollar pay-outs for his Wall Street friends – the corporate executives who brought this situation about in the first place. (Paulson, it’s worth noting, was paid $38m in salary, shares and options when he was Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, prior to joining the Treasury.) Fortunately, the Dems showed a little backbone, and didn’t immediately hand over the keys to our Nation’s Treasury. They were quick to bring the country’s attention to the golden parachutes that Paulson wanted to fund for his well-heeled cronies. It bought them time. And now they’re getting more into the details. Yesterday, Represnetative Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) floated the idea that, if we the people put up the money to rescue these failing institutions, then we the people should get equity in said companies so that we might share in the prosperity when things are good. (This assumes of course that we experience good times again.) It’s apparently not that crazy of a suggestion either. According to the “New York Times” today, Sweden did just that in 1992, and it’s worked out well for them.
The bottom line is that we shouldn’t give a blank check to anyone in this administration ever again, and, if we do bail these institutions out, we should make damned sure that we get the best deal possible for the American people (i.e. not paying above market value for trash).
In other related news, it seems that it’s not just polar bears resorting to canibalism these days. No, Republicans are eating their own as well. It’s amazing what environmental change can cause to happen, isn’t it?
Oh, and for what it’s worth bin Laden has declared victory today, saying that he’s now successfully bankrupted the U.S. just like he’d done the Soviet Union.
And – this just in – McCain not only backed out of Friday’s debate, but tonight’s Letterman Show. Here’s an advance peak:
“What Are You Going To Do If You’re Elected And Things Get Tough? Suspend Being President?” -David Letterman
The good news is, Letterman got Olberman to sit in at the last minute. It should be good.
