As we come upon the first 100 days of President Barack Obama's administration, everyone has a grade and opinion. However, I think, that in assessing Obama's 100 days that we also ought to look at what could have been had things gone differently Nov. 4, 2008. While this is not an original idea (there is a snarky stab at this by Walter Shapiro on aol), I think my fictionalized take may have hewed closer to the meta-reality. Follow me in to the bizzaro world of What McCain Have Done...
The temporary suspension of the McCain Campaign was a stroke of genius. It served only to amplify McCain's stature as a warrior statesman and cast Obama as a callow, feckless, inexperience celebrity. Seated to the right of President Bush, McCain became a vociferous voice for "American Capitalism". Phil Gramm, McCain's economic adviser, did the full "Ginsberg", hammering away at proposals that he and McCain/ Palin suggested would lead America into Socialism. Palin, for her part, successfully conflated facts and factoid to a simple truthiness that a vote for Obama was a vote for tyranny.
The election was close. North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, and Florida were not resolved until after election night, propelling the election once again to the Supreme Court, which dutifully affirmed McCain's "right" to become President. Justice Roberts writing for the 5-4 majority: "as the eligibility of the plaintiff as a natural born citizen is a valid legal question, we find that while the votes of 64 million people may be ignored. The Constitution is silent on the presidential candidate winning the popular vote but it is clear in requiring that the President be "natural borne".
Despite the close election, the Bush WH all but abdicated actual policy making once it was clear that McCain would prevail. As McCain's top economic adviser and Treasury secretary designee, Phil Gramm strongly argued for free market response to the financial crisis. The Dow immediately sank to pre-1990's levels when it was announced that AIG, Bank of America,Citigroup, GM and Chrysler would be allowed to fail. "A nation of drunks and whiners" bellowed Gramm, echoing Bush's pronouncement of Wall Street's ails. By January 20, when McCain took office, the official unemployment rate was 12.5%, with 25% of Michigan's working population unemployed. Despite calling for unity, McCain in his
inaugural address, called foreclosed homeowners "unfit, unsound, and
morally bankrupt", laying the seeds of the financial troubles at the feet of "a misbegotten attempt to socially engineer the poor into the middle class". McCain called for an across the board tax cut for all taxpayers earning more than $250,000, stating that taxpayers would be better arbiters of stimulus spending than the government. McCain's meetings at the G-20 did not fare as well, with McCain and France's Sarkozy coming to blows over financial regulations. McCain,stormed out of the G-20, stating that he was not elected president to join the European Union. China's Hu, visibly disturbed by the instability of the new American President, signaled that China would not participate in the next sale of Treasury bonds. And that's just the beginning...