July 28, 2008
The man who used to be John McCain is reacting to the pressures of a campaign by becoming Meat Ax McCain with low-road attacks that raise core questions of presidential temperament.
On Monday, as Barack Obama hosted a meeting with financial leaders from across America, the anger-ridden, increasingly desperate McCain campaign accused Obama of creating a future depression.
3 comments:
I haven't heard nor read John McCain's words that Mr. B cites in his article, but I intend to. However, even without being privvy yet to McCain's comments, I think it's useful to point out that Obama has demonstrated that he does not have stellar standing on economic issues.
As Naomi Klein pointed out in The Nation: "Barack Obama waited just three days after Hillary
Clinton pulled out of the race to declare, on CNBC, 'Look. I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market.'
Demonstrating that this is spring fling, he has appointed 37-year-old Jason Furman to head his economic policy team. Furman is one of Wal-Mart's most prominent defenders, anointing the company a 'progressive success story.'"
A recent interview with Klein is at:
www.portfolio.com/views/columns/the-world-according-to/2008/07/24/An-Interview-With-Naomi-Klein
Ellen Frank is an associate professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. She said: "It is certainly encouraging that Obama acknowledges today that bad decisions in Washington, D.C. and on Wall Street have had a negative impact on millions of people's lives,
but it's somewhat discouraging to see him turn to [former head of the Federal Reserve] Paul Volcker and [former Treasury Secretary] Robert Rubin who themselves presided over the deregulation of the financial industry."
No wonder McCain goes nuts. Obama gets a pass by the media with every walk-on-water step he takes.
It appears that the acronym "fact checker" is another one of those topical oxymorons that conservative propagandists are inclined to hide behind while fashioning the "facts" to support their ideological screed.
While I heartily agree that it would be "useful to point out that Obama has demonstrated that he does not have stellar standing on economic issues," the dissembling that follows in "fact checker"'s litany of cherry picked factoids proves no such thing.
For instance, how convenient it is to avoid mentioning the legislative gutting of the legal regulation of financial markets by the likes of ex Senator Phil Gram and his fellow travellers in Congress and both the Clinton and Bush II administrations.
"Stellar standing on economic issues" would seem to be more appropriately exemplified by taking a strong position against favoring private interests over the public good, and reinstating regulatory control and effective oversight in the best interests of the majority of citizens, as opposed to the failed Strausian construct of unregulated private markets operating behind the tortured rhetoric of "free enterprize."
Uh, Anony...for your edification:
ACRONYM: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term
If you don't even know what an ACRONYM is, how can we trust you to know what your're talking about on other matters?
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