Month: September 2008

That’s Bush’s approval level in ARG. It’s far too high.

Obama’s new ad takes aim at an article McCain ‘wrote’:

Fallows thinks the article was written by a staffer "with no built in expectation that the results would ever be part of general press consciousness."

In graduate school in political theory, I read Plato on the way democracies are actually more susceptible to becoming dictatorships than oligarchies or aristocracies. Plato’s striking argument – and you have to read the dialogue carefully and see that Plato is engaging in conversation, not dictating some absolute truth – is that freedom’s excesses, and the refusal of many in a democracy to accept any limits on what they can get or buy or conquer eventually hit reality. And when the reality hits, the frustration and insolence at finding that money does not grow on trees or that the world cannot be hammered into the shape our ideology demands easily gives way to a new form of government. That new government promises to remove all the perils and difficulties of self-government in favor of the certainty and security of raw executive power.

In the last few years, we have seen the executive branch declare itself outside the law – in prosecuting a war on terror. The law against torture has been suspended. The balance between the executive and legislative branch has been dismissed by signing statements and the theory of the unitary executive. The executive has declared its right to suspend habeas corpus indefinitely, to tap anyone’s phones without court warrants and to detain and torture anyone it decides is an "enemy combatant." In that sense, we have already left the realm of constitutional government in favor of a protectorate outside the law promising to keep us safe (but never from itself).

But this new move to create a de facto dictator for the financial markets, to invest a Treasury secretary with unprecedented powers to buy and sell at close to a trillion dollar level – with no oversight or accountability: this is a new collapse in democratic life and constitutional norms.

These measures are enabling acts of a sort. And they are what Plato feared. I have been derided as a hysteric for my fear about what this administration has done to the constitution and to ancient liberties. My current worry is that I haven’t been afraid enough.

(Photo: Tim Sloan/Getty.)

James Pethokoukis calculates the cost of doing nothing:

What would be the dollar cost of not bailing out Wall Street? Try a number north of $30 trillion. (The awful math is detailed below.) That’s why Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke were so scared last week. And, yes, I think "scared" isn’t too strong a word. You don’t think they convened an emergency nighttime meeting of congressional leaders and then walked out with something close to a blank check for a trillion bucks because they thought we were headed for an outright recession, even a fairly nasty one?

This could be it, couldn’t it?

He is vindicated by the day. Here’s his September 15 prediction of what happened last week. Watch him here. The Dow is headed toward 8,000. And we all deserve it.

Bill Maher attacked people of faith by making fun of those who believe in guardian angels. But according to a new study, non-believers are far more superstitious than believers.

Yet more commentary on the economics and politics of the financial crisis. Noah Millman:

The temptation for Congress is going to be to horse-trade, to try to get homeowner relief tacked on to Wall Street relief – basically, to give the Treasury what it wants and ask for some other goodies in exchange. This temptation has to be resisted. The urgent thing is to get the bailout itself right, and not to agree to something foolish and dangerous because of panic.

The Economist:

This is a black week. Those of us who have supported financial capitalism are open to the charge that the system we championed has merely enabled a few spivs to get rich. But it helped produce healthy economic growth and low inflation for a generation. It would take a very big recession indeed to wipe out those gains. Do not forget that in the debate ahead.

Bill Kristol:

Critics would charge that in opposing the bailout, in standing against an apparent bipartisan consensus, McCain was being irresponsible.

Or would this be an act of responsibility and courage?

Paul Krugman:

Mr. Paulson insists that he wants a “clean” plan. “Clean,” in this context, means a taxpayer-financed bailout with no strings attached — no quid pro quo on the part of those being bailed out. Why is that a good thing? Add to this the fact that Mr. Paulson is also demanding dictatorial authority, plus immunity from review “by any court of law or any administrative agency,” and this adds up to an unacceptable proposal.

Clive Crook:

I’m a little reluctant to second-guess the proposal put together by Bernanke and Paulson because I don’t know everything the Fed knows about the fragility of the credit markets and the urgency of the case…It will be interesting to see whether Congress insists on a debate of these and other alternative strategies, or concentrates merely on larding the Paulson-Bernanke approach with additional subsidies for distressed home-buyers.

Yuval Levin:

Even if Hank Paulson were the all knowing god of economics, would it make sense to give this kind of power to the treasury secretary for the next two years just forty days before an election? Shall we go through our mental list of who an Obama administration (or a McCain administration for that matter) is likely to put in that post? And doesn’t it make sense to establish some kind of process for deciding how specifically to use the money? To put in place some criteria of prioritization? Some real-time oversight?  Isn’t transparency crucial to the proper functioning of our modern financial system? And how is everyone in both parties suddenly satisfied that this approach is the only one that could work?

I’ve never been prouder that I endorsed the only truth-teller in this circus of lies called Washington:

Stop dreaming. Start thinking.

An interesting precedent in Alaska:

[Todd Palin] did step in when KTUU-TV, the dominant broadcast station in Alaska, aired a segment describing the many personnel complaints the Palins had brought against Wooten. Todd Palin called to complain. The segment’s producer, John Herbst, later resigned after he was reprimanded for failing to treat elected officials with "respect."

The only rational response to the Palin selection is fear.

This despicable:

"Whether it’s a reversal in war, or an economic emergency, [Obama] reacts as a politician and not as a leader, seeking an advantage for himself instead of a solution for his country," McCain said.

Projection, anyone? But note again McCain’s willingness to accuse his opponent of a knowing desire to hurt his own country for personal political gain. The demonization of his opponents is a McCain trade-mark, but he has taken it to new lows in the past month and a half.