I am never gonna try to claim (for better or worse) that one man is behind a political movement, campaign, or leadership, it is always a team of people. However John McCain needs to find some better people to bring aboard his team. The facts that he doesn’t use computers (and therefore is oblivious to the needs and threats of the virtual world) was one thing. Now McCain is showing he really doesn’t understand the economy and isn’t resourceful enough to find someone to advise him on it.
Before I start posting videos that make John McCain look silly, understand I LOVE John McCain, he has fought for some amazing things in his life (this country being one of them) and has brought about some great change. I also would have voted for this man 4 or 8 years ago, but now it is too late. I fear he has lost a lot of his edge, I fear he isn’t completely relevant anymore (for a lack of a better word). The world has changed, politics needs to change, I don’t necessarily want someone leading this country towards new relationships with the rest of the world with the experience of an old world and old politics. Sorry.
John McCain speaking on the economy.
“These are very, very difficult times.”
“The fundamentals of our economy are strong”
John, seriously? I threw that first quote in so it wouldn’t look like I was pulling out only the negative from his statement. He also acknowledges these are very difficult times, awesome, he can see the obvious. What everyone misses about this financial crisis is the fundamentals of our economic structure are what are most wrong. Whether we talk about the fundamentals that allow finance sector businesses government aid or golden umbrellas for the CEO’s of failing corporations, the fundamentals are what led us here. For years things went under regulated, Greenspan kept coming out to see his shadow every few months, CEO’s took risk after risk because they have nothing to lose (to read a great article on this topic, head over to my good friend Mark Cuban’s blog) and millions to pocket if they are fired, and our society became speculators who react more to media coverage than to actual trends. Those things combined (leadership of financial sector jobs, regulation of the businesses that drive our economy, the Government control of interest rates and funds, investor confidence and competence) are pretty much the fundamentals of our economy. Any one of those things changes and it affects the economy in huge drastic swoops, all of them change at once and we get to where we are today.
After John McCain’s campaign then put out an ad that said “The economy is in crisis”, Matt Lauer (and all of us) needed an explanation.
John McCain on The Today Show
“Well it’s obviously true that the workers of America are the fundamentals of our economy, and our strength, and our future.”“There is nothing wrong with the workers of America, I believe they are the fundamentals”
Sure those quotes sound bad out of context, but that last one up there sounds even worse when you hear where Lauer is trying to lead him before he says that. Lauer gives McCain a complete chance to make the statement about “the fundamentals causing the nightmares we are seeing” in the economy, and McCain just clings on to the fact that the workers are the fundamentals.
A lot of people always bring up flip-flopping politicians, and I’m sure McCain is grasping to not look like he flip-flops on his statements. However it also makes him look unintelligent and stubborn, and makes him look like someone who cannot find advisors to keep him up to date on relevant topics. I hated the fact the Kerry flip-flopped so much 4 years ago, but what I hated even more about Kerry was that the person he was as a Presidential Candidate was a dumbed down, manipulated version of the man who stood proudly speaking in protest of the Vietnam War. McCain is starting to look like a shell of his former self as well, John, come out and say you see the things fundamentally wrong with our economy, come out and say you are learning to use a computer, stop being so afraid of a little change, be it of mind, opinion or technology.
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COMMENTS / ONE COMMENT
Joel Goodman added these clever words on Sep 19 08 at 7:22 amI’m confused though. Given, I am mostly likely voting McCain this year. But putting partisan politics aside, I am confused as to why this is being played as a crisis. And I think most people are confused about what our “economic fundamentals” are. No, I don’t think they are people and workers… that’s… dumb.
But I also don’t think our nation’s economy has ever centered on debt – Now, I think it plays a major role, but it constitutes layers and layers on top of a foundation of capitalism that is based on supply and demand. Those fundamentals are strong. People can still earn money and control (to most extents) the demand while businesses control the supply.
By saying our economic fundamentals are weak is basically inferring that capitalism is a weak system and doesn’t work (which I would disagree with on the grounds of historical evidence).
To bring partisan politics back into this – GWB floated a proposal to regulate heavily Freddie and Fannie, only to be blocked in Congress. John McCain worked to do the same again in 2005 to be derailed by a democratic Congress. McCain predicted this would happen. That shows he’s not as dumb as his speechwriters seem to be making him look.
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