Month: September 2008

I asked the question facetiously a little while ago. Kristol, reaching new heights of hackery, makes the argument. Marc, meanwhile, wants to know if McCain will share in the blame since he wanted to grab the credit.

Steve Chapman has a sobering article on the bailout in Reason:

In the next three decades, the government’s official debt is on track to triple. But at some point, the Treasury predicts, "the world’s financial markets would likely cease lending to the United States."

Then what?

    David Henderson, a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and editor of The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, ticks off the options: We could close the budget gap by drastically cutting spending or raising taxes. The Federal Reserve could print a lot of money, reducing the real value of the debt and making it easier to pay off. Or the government could default—in short, declare bankruptcy.

He thinks the failure of the bailout will force a reckoning now, rather than a worse reckoning later. I don’t know. But I do think that anything that focuses the US on the insane debt already accumulated is a good thing.

(Photo: A trader gestures as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange September 29, 2008 in New York City. U.S. stocks took a nosedive in reaction to the global credit crisis and as the U.S. House of Representatives rejected the $700 billion rescue package, 228-205. Dow Jones Industrials fell as much as 700 points in midday trading. By Spencer Platt/Getty Images).

McCain’s gob-smacking spin:

“Just before the vote, when the outcome was still in doubt, Speaker Pelosi gave a strongly worded partisan speech and poisoned the outcome. 

“This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country.”

I would say that each representative is responsible for his or her own vote; and that the partisan split obviously reflects greater opposition to the bailout from Republicans than from Democrats. Duh. A vote like this should not be made on the basis of anyone’s pre-vote rhetoric. The issues are too profound. More Democrats could have voted aye. But many, many more Republicans could have. It was 60 – 40 aye among the Dems and 67 – 33 nay among the Republicans. That’s all you need to know, it seems to me.

The media is barred from any real access, but this website web can help you generate Palin-answers. My favorite so far:

Q: What is the role of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan?

PALIN: Afghanistan will lead to further security of our economy. It is, somebody was saying this morning, a toxic waste there on the verbiage that Senator McCain chose to use them. So we have got to get that gas line built, so pray for that. I see the collapse that we’re seeing today, you know that there are very, very appropriate role in the stringent oversight, making sure that those abuses stop. Well, you know, kids who perhaps graduate college and their allies, including the United States as being a force for good in the trade sector today we’ve got to play an appropriate role in the sense of the earth.

A reader writes:

One of the most striking things about the failure of the "bailout" to pass is the fact that John McCain, who came to Washington and claimed success in bringing House Republicans to the table for a compromise, does not have sufficient political capital within his own party to persuade even a majority of his base to fall in line.  The real political questions now become:  What did John McCain actually do from his campaign office in Arlington?  Did anybody listen to him when he called? 

If he is to receive, or at least claim, credit for a compromise is he now to blame for the failure of the compromise? Will he now abandon his newly found populism and go back to being the free market zealot that he once claimed to be given that the base of his party has spoken so loudly?   In short – I think this puts John McCain in an even more difficult position.  "His" compromise failed and now he must stay in Washington until this is resolved or admit that the suspension of his campaign was in fact nothing but a stunt!

Nate Silver plucks out this data point:

Among 38 incumbent congressmen in races rated as "toss-up" or "lean" by Swing State Project, just 8 voted for the bailout as opposed to 30 against: a batting average of .211.

By comparison, the vote among congressmen who don’t have as much to worry about was essentially even: 197 for, 198 against.

In the end, they were worried about re-election.

He was just asking:

Fort Mill Mayor Danny Funderburk says he was “just curious” when he forwarded a chain e-mail suggesting Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is the biblical antichrist. “I was just curious if there was any validity to it,” Funderburk said in a telephone interview. “I was trying to get documentation if there was any scripture to back it up.”

Notice where one looks for empirical evidence when one is a South Carolina Republican.

Noah Millman is dazed:

There are lots and lots of reasons not to like this bill. But most of those reasons are Democratic talking points. The GOP alternative proposal was borderline illiterate.

I’m writing this in haste, without a lot of reflection. But the whole way this has played out has been something of a watershed moment for me. There is only one party in Congress that thinks we are in a financial crisis, only one party in Congress with a functioning leadership.

Will McCain suspend his campaign again?

A reader writes:

It dawned on me this morning just how bad a pick Sarah Palin is. Driving to work, I realized that I understand the pertinent issues of the day far more than she does. I realized that I would be a better pick for VP. In that moment: fear.

She dared to expose the Palin farce and so she is penalized. That’s what they do to journalists who won’t play ball. I bet they wouldn’t bar Howie Kurtz, would they? He’s far too useful to Schmidt and Goldfarb. Why: he’ll quote anything they want and won’t even fact-check it. He’s a busy guy.