This is it. The issue that will swing the election. The economy is in crisis, and everyone is waiting for the government's response. President Bush offered a ridiculous solution that partisans on both sides of the aisle scoffed at as irresponsible. So what gives?
Could this be a play to bone up McCain's "maverick" credentials in real time? Here's how it plays out: Bush offers up a ridiculous "Bush proposal". Everyone rejects it (already happened). The Democratic-controlled Congress offers up a proposal, negotiated by Dodd (a Senator wholly in bed with the banking industry, mind you) and Pelosi signs on. McCain rejects the Bush-Pelosi proposal, while Obama, buying into the crisis, accepts it.
Voila. McCain is the populist: against big government AND the deregulated Wall-street crisis. Although his party's penchant for rampant deregulation caused this crisis, the old veteran will be able to cast this albatross around Obama's neck by opposing the solution to the problem.
It is imperative that Democrats, and Barack Obama in particular, think long and hard about what move they make to respond to the crisis on Wall Street.
Hopefully the Obama campaign is aware of this play, because Republicans are already gearing up for this fight by penning the solution the "Bush-Pelosi bail out:"
Republican incumbents in close races have the easiest vote of their lives coming up this week: No on the Bush-Pelosi Wall Street bailout.
God Himself couldn't have given rank-and-file Republicans a better opportunity to create political space between themselves and the Administration. That's why I want to see 40 Republican No votes in the Senate, and 150+ in the House. If a bailout is to pass, let it be with Democratic votes. Let this be the political establishment (Bush Republicans in the White House + Democrats in Congress) saddling the taxpayers with hundreds of billions in debt (more than the Iraq War, conjured up in a single weekend, and enabled by Pelosi, btw), while principled Republicans say "No" and go to the country with a stinging indictment of the majority in Congress....
In an ideal world, McCain opposes this because of all the Democratic add-ons and shows up to vote Nay while Obama punts.
History has shown us that "inevitable" "emergency" legislation like the Patriot Act or Sarbanes-Oxley is never more popular than on the day it is passed -- and this isn't all that popular to begin with. All the upside comes with voting against it.
And Digby agrees:
He's right. If they go this way, McCain gets to distance himself from Bush by standing on the sidelines wielding a phony pitchfork while Obama, as the head of the Democratic party and thus the leader of the congress, gets splashed in all this muck. It's quite ingenious and a very possible scenario in my opinion.
We will see the rebirth of the phony fiscal conservative image before our very eyes as our brave POW hero, John McCain, takes on the great malefactors of wealth while the soft, liberal elites behave like toadies to the rich. It's a neat trick for a man who owns seven houses and thirteen cars, but in America, you can be a multimillionaire and still be a man of the people as long as you drink a beer the right way.
Let's hope the netroots are up to the challenge of stopping this thing DEAD in its tracks.
No Bail Out until after the election. No Blank Check. Wall Street gets its ass saved, then we get our asses saved.
What do we want?
- Healthcare
- Regulated Markets
- An End to the War
- Progressive Taxation
- A 21st Century Energy Policy
This Bail-Out is a losing proposition. Approving it will give McCain the chance to distance himself from Bush while stealing the Democrats "change" message. Worse, its exorbitant cost will hamstring our efforts to push a progressive agenda once Obama takes office.
Do you really want to swallow this poison pill?