McCain vs. Obama: The audition
Posted: Friday, September 19, 2008 9:18 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Economy
The Fed, Treasury, and Congress are now all working together (and through the weekend) to figure out a bailout plan. "While details remain to be worked out, the plan is likely to authorize the government to buy distressed mortgages at deep discounts from banks and other institutions. The proposal could result in the most direct commitment of taxpayer funds so far in the financial crisis that Fed and Treasury officials say is the worst they have ever seen.”
“Senior aides and lawmakers said the goal was to complete the legislation by the end of next week, when Congress is scheduled to adjourn. The legislation would grant new authority to the administration and require what several officials said would be a substantial appropriation of federal dollars, though no figures were disclosed in the meeting."
The New York Times examines how this economic crisis is turning the campaign into an on-the-fly audition for handling a crisis. "McCain, who early in the week seemed to struggle to find a consistent message on the economy, also proposed a government body to relieve struggling financial institutions of some bad debt in hopes of keeping them solvent. A similar approach was being considered Thursday night by the Bush administration and Congressional leaders. Mr. McCain is expected to lay out a broader view of his approach to the crisis on Friday morning in Wisconsin.”
“His Democratic rival for president, Mr. Obama, campaigning in New Mexico, issued the outlines of his own plan later Thursday. His campaign said he would fill in the details after he met Friday with his economic advisers in Miami, his next campaign stop.”
“The actions of both men captured how they were being forced to make policy proposals and pronouncements on the fly, from one campaign rally to another, as each day’s developments in the financial markets and in Washington were overtaken by new ones the following day."
McCain called for the firing of the SEC chairman, Christopher Cox, "a fellow Republican and former 17-year House member who served on committees overseeing investor protection and US capital markets."
Where did McCain’s anti-Chris Cox rant come from? Cox has been on the sidelines and it doesn't appear he's got a lion's share of the responsibility on his shoulders. This almost seemed like a distracting mechanism by McCain to come out against someone appointed by Bush.
"Though the meltdown has decimated major financial firms and damaged untold American households, it has, strictly in political terms, been a blessing for Obama," the AP writes. "It has given him fresh ammunition to call for new leadership in Washington and jolted the campaign debate back to issues, where he is much more comfortable."
The Wall Street Journal notes that the next president will enter office with many restrictions. "Already, even before it is fully played out, the crisis means the next president -- that would be President Obama or President McCain -- will enter office with handcuffs on. Options are being reduced for the next president every day, as the real and psychological costs of the crisis mount.”
“Consider just some of the ripple effects: The domestic agenda of the next president is shrinking. Nobody, anywhere, knows how much of a financial burden the federal government has taken on in the past few weeks, but the cost of bailing out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and American International Group Inc. -- to say nothing of the potential cost of riding to the rescue of American auto makers, which looks increasingly likely -- could conceivably run into the hundreds of billions."
Politico's Roger Simon wonders why President Bush has been publicly AWOL this week. "He has not taken any questions on anything since Aug. 6. On Wednesday his press secretary, Dana Perino, explained why. ‘If you guys [i.e., reporters] had him in here, almost everything would be geared towards the election, and he is cognizant of that,’ Perino said. ‘I mean, every time that I would think about maybe having a press conference, the news of the day would be such that we might be talking about lipstick on a pig, and the president is just not going to get involved in it.’”
“In other words, the president is not going to get involved with restoring public confidence in our financial system because he is afraid somebody might ask him a question about politics. And because he doesn’t want to talk about politics (and why doesn’t he, considering he is supporting John McCain?), he won’t talk about anything.”
“Does this make any sense? Calm any fears? Soothe any troubled minds? Does the president have a magic wand that can make the current crisis go away? No. That is my point. Because the president lacks a magic wand, he must use the tools at his disposal, one of which is the bully pulpit. He needs to sit down behind that big desk in the Oval Office and have a formal address to this nation. Then he needs to hold a news conference and answer questions, even the unpleasant ones."
So who is running the country right now? "The response to the gravest financial crisis in generations has been engineered to a remarkable degree by a committee of three."
More: "all the key decisions have been made by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Timothy F. Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It is this unusual collaboration among a consummate dealmaker, a professor and a seasoned public servant that could determine how the nation weathers the most profound threat to its economy in modern times. Despite their disparate backgrounds, the three men have formed a close, informal partnership built on rapid-fire phone calls and open debate that breaks the mold of Washington policymaking."
