McCAIN’S WORST NIGHTMARE: Economic Meltdown

John McCain does not know economics. In his twenty-six year career in Washington he has only needed platitudes to describe his economic convictions: The Free Market is supreme. The market is the ultimate arbiter. Regulation is toxic to a free market economy. The government’s proper role is to stand aside and let the market play out.

When the economy is tanking and all the world knows that free market absolutism is the cause, McCain is lost in a foreign wilderness without map or compass, stumbling from one position to another like a man without a clue.

When the stock market fell into a precipitous decline, McCain proclaimed that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. When his own supporters expressed shock he suddenly shifted to blame corruption, greed, unscrupulous CEO’s, lobbyists, Barack Obama and the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Let the institutions of finance go belly up, he seemed to be arguing, until he decided he could save the day by suspending his presidential campaign and personally negotiating a trillion dollar bailout. With such a critical issue on the table, he had no time for presidential debates.

Only the memo never went out to his operatives, the campaign was never suspended, and a funny thing happened on the way to the forum we call the United States Congress. The maverick decided instead of saving the day he would throw a monkey wrench into the works.

All deals are off until we figure out where McCain stands. Is he for the bailout or against it? Does he stand with the bipartisans or the rebels? What is he demanding that was so pressing yesterday but today remains shrouded in mystery?

He is fooling no one at this point. Just as his vice presidential partner needed an intense education in foreign policy to compensate for a lifetime of indifference, McCain needed a short course on economics before he could face the cameras with the future wellbeing of the nation at stake.

It astonishes how similar John McCain and George W. Bush have turned out to be. Nothing is sacred to the devotees of Rovian politics. Their motto seems to be: You can’t fool all the people all the time but you can fool enough of the people long enough to win an election.

Country first? Whose country? Certainly not ours.

As the days blew by, instead of facing up to a crisis that McCain helped to create in a bipartisan manner, we were left wondering (a) if he would show up in Oxford, Mississippi to face the music and (b) whether or not he had taken a stand.

McCain is running scared and you can see it in his eyes. All of his platitudes have been declared null and void. Will he stand with the hardcore Republican base, informing the corporate elite that they can all go to hell, or will he side with the president and his Treasury Secretary in supporting the biggest government bailout in history?

He wants it both ways. Far from taking the lead in negotiations, he is petrified that his position might be decisive. He wants to posture as long as it does not count.

If he supports the bailout he will have to confront a rabid Republican mob. If he stops the bailout with a Republican filibuster and the market tanks, his presidential ambition is dead.

It all makes for great political theater and, after all, that’s what it’s about.

McCain’s rescue mission in the halls of congress did not exactly go as planned. Washington Mutual went belly up in what was called the largest bank failure on record, house Republicans hardened against the bailout, the bipartisan consensus turned to mud and everyone was still waiting to see where the would-be leader stands.

Apparently, McCain is no "decider." Apparently, his advisers forgot to tell him that if he wanted to lead he had to state where he wanted to go.

Even the debate that McCain so graciously consented to attend was of little help. It practically took a cattle prod to get the Senator to admit he would support whatever bailout deal was struck. In other words, he does not care what shape it takes as long as he can claim victory. Sounds a lot like his Iraq-Afghanistan policy.

In the end, the debate was of little consequence. Those who went in supporting Obama had no reason to think again. Those who were behind McCain even after compelling evidence of a looming Republican economic collapse were not about to be dissuaded. Those mysterious undecided voters saw an angry, grimacing John McCain against a calm and knowledgeable Barack Obama. The real test will be whether or not the everyday working people can connect the dots between the hard times we are facing and the policies that created them.

I’m betting the people can see through this posturing politician.

This is John McCain’s worst nightmare: We are entering the dog days of the presidential campaign with an economic meltdown dead ahead. The idea that the next president will be able to continue pouring billions down the black hole of inane foreign wars is no longer viable. The idea of a growing military empire is over.

The next president will have to pull back and rebuild his own nation. Though he would never sacrifice enough of his ambition to admit it, in his heart of hearts even McCain knows he is not the man for the job.

Placing country over politics now would mandate that the Senator from Arizona quietly step aside and let a new generation of leaders take over. It will not be easy but he had his day.

The next president will inherit a nation battered and nearly broken by the ravages of war and unfettered greed. George W. Bush is not entirely to blame but to him will rightly be attributed a lion’s share. And John McCain was with him all along the way, pushing him, prodding him and applauding his deeds.

Let us hope and pray that there is time enough and dedication enough to right the wrongs of government and correct our wayward course.

Politics aside, John McCain is a good man who served his nation faithfully if not well. Let him be remembered for what he has accomplished and not as the president who presided over a global depression and the decline of America.

Jazz.

Random Jack
Jack's Blog, Random Voices