With the presidential election campaign clearly breaking toward Barack Obama with less than a month to go, John McCain is running out of tools in his bag to turn the race back into his favor. The fact that McCain has left some tools unused just makes his job that much more difficult.
Here are the remaining plays in his playbook, as I see it.
1. Remind people of the type of change they want in their leadership. Voters want a different way of doing things in Washington, DC, not a change in ideology. McCain brings the procedural change and Obama brings the ideological change. The GOP candidate has failed to clearly delineate that difference. Now he has to make it a central theme.
2. The federal government, Congress in particular, bears at least half the responsibility for the economic crisis that's struck Wall Street and shrunk the investment portfolios of voters. Unless something changes drastically, the Democrats will not only retain their rule in the next Congressional term but probably expand it. With Obama in the White House, that means Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank -- among those chiefly responsible for the disaster -- will have unchecked power. McCain needs to get voters to think hard about whether that's such a good idea.
Unfortunately, it's doubtful that either of these strategies will be adopted. The McCain campaigns assaults on Obama's associations with William Ayers came too late in the game and smelled of desperation. Attacking Congress at this point would also present difficulties since he is a member of the Senate. Besides, in the debates, all the GOP candidate has ever done is blame Wall Street greed.
Assuming McCain takes neither of these suggestions, GOP chances in the presidential race will become like those of a second-place NFL football team in December. That's when fans are calculating just what combination of factors needs to come through in order for their teams to make the playoffs. The McCain campaign very soon could be like an NFL club that no longer controls its own destiny and needs the teams ahead of them to be defeated by someone else. McCain will need Obama to make a serious gaffe -- unlikely based on his performance in the first two debates -- or for a world event akin to the Russian invasion of Georgia to remind people what a dangerous world we're in.
While I don't see Obama making a major mistake that could tilt the race toward McCain, I can envision a scenario where the Illinois senator suffers from friendly fire. No one wants Obama to win more than the Bush-despisers at the Daily KOS, Code Pink and the Huffington Post. It wouldn't surprise me to see someone get overconfident and in their special vitriolic way share plans for what they'll do beginning next Jan. 20. Something like that would damage Obama in a way he'd never do to himself.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
The End of Compassionate Conservatism
All week while congressmen debated the $700 bailout package, we've been treated to articles discussing the end of capitalism as we know it and the death of fiscal conservatism. In Thursday's vice presidential debate, Democratic candidate Joe Biden regularly mentioned the failure of the economic policies of the past eight years.
They're all wrong. What the past couple of weeks has proven more than anything is that what should be put to death is "compassionate conservatism." The is the George W. Bush creation, a follow on to the "new tone" of his father, that basically means there won't be any criticism of pet liberal programs. Compassionate conservatism is what led Bush to allow liberal icon Sen. Edward Kennedy to write the education reform bill that the left attacks so loudly.
Compassionate conservativism is also the reason why the Republicans in the executive branch and Congress were so reluctant to keep close watch on mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, why there were no investigations when there were warnings of trouble with the agencies, and why it took so long to finally take action to limit the damage that had been caused.
Congressional liberals tasked these quasi-government organizations with bringing low-cost mortgages to the masses, those who ordinarily wouldn't qualify for a home loan. Coupled with bans on red-lining, the practice of denying loans to customers in minority areas, the policies opened up the ownership society to millions who had not been able to participate in the past. Conservatives, and rightly so, love the idea of the ownership society.
But all this feeling good, liberals thinking they're helping the working poor and conservatives thinking they can improve people's lots in life by owning rather than renting, blinded everyone to the fact that a lot of these people who ended up getting mortgages were truly incapable of paying them back. So there was no oversight, and the agencies that backed the loans got in trouble.
There's obviously a lot more to the story. There was some predatory lending. There were a lot of cases of people who already owned homes who traded up and found themselves unable to handle the extra payments. There are as many foreclosed homes in rich areas as in poor areas.
It was just so nice that everyone was getting into housing ownership that there was no reason to really closely look at what was really happening to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the many private firms that have failed. We needed a cold eye to absorb reality. Compassionate conservativism failed us.
---
I was shocked when all the TV pundits, including those on MSNBC, praised GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin's debate performance. I thought she overlooked so many angles of attack on Biden and appeared so disgustingly cute and folksy that there was no way she could have won against the intense senator.
There were a couple of times when I was screaming at my television set for Palin to call Biden "mommy."
Since when did we Americans need all this government help? Excuse me, just create some conditions in which I can be successful, then get the hell out of the way.
---
Can you spell "Buyer's Remorse?"
Half the Democrats wanted to dump Obama until the financial crisis gave the Illinois senator a boost. Meanwhile, McCain's campaign has been terrible. His only highlights have been Palin's VP acceptance speech at the RNC and his suspension of his presidential campaign during negotiations over the bailout bill. Palin subsequently lost most of her gloss and McCain was unable to convert his return to the Senate into a substantial increase of support.
McCain is running out of chances, which means the Tuesday debate will be huge for him. Maybe make or break.
They're all wrong. What the past couple of weeks has proven more than anything is that what should be put to death is "compassionate conservatism." The is the George W. Bush creation, a follow on to the "new tone" of his father, that basically means there won't be any criticism of pet liberal programs. Compassionate conservatism is what led Bush to allow liberal icon Sen. Edward Kennedy to write the education reform bill that the left attacks so loudly.
Compassionate conservativism is also the reason why the Republicans in the executive branch and Congress were so reluctant to keep close watch on mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, why there were no investigations when there were warnings of trouble with the agencies, and why it took so long to finally take action to limit the damage that had been caused.
Congressional liberals tasked these quasi-government organizations with bringing low-cost mortgages to the masses, those who ordinarily wouldn't qualify for a home loan. Coupled with bans on red-lining, the practice of denying loans to customers in minority areas, the policies opened up the ownership society to millions who had not been able to participate in the past. Conservatives, and rightly so, love the idea of the ownership society.
But all this feeling good, liberals thinking they're helping the working poor and conservatives thinking they can improve people's lots in life by owning rather than renting, blinded everyone to the fact that a lot of these people who ended up getting mortgages were truly incapable of paying them back. So there was no oversight, and the agencies that backed the loans got in trouble.
There's obviously a lot more to the story. There was some predatory lending. There were a lot of cases of people who already owned homes who traded up and found themselves unable to handle the extra payments. There are as many foreclosed homes in rich areas as in poor areas.
It was just so nice that everyone was getting into housing ownership that there was no reason to really closely look at what was really happening to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the many private firms that have failed. We needed a cold eye to absorb reality. Compassionate conservativism failed us.
---
I was shocked when all the TV pundits, including those on MSNBC, praised GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin's debate performance. I thought she overlooked so many angles of attack on Biden and appeared so disgustingly cute and folksy that there was no way she could have won against the intense senator.
There were a couple of times when I was screaming at my television set for Palin to call Biden "mommy."
Since when did we Americans need all this government help? Excuse me, just create some conditions in which I can be successful, then get the hell out of the way.
---
Can you spell "Buyer's Remorse?"
Half the Democrats wanted to dump Obama until the financial crisis gave the Illinois senator a boost. Meanwhile, McCain's campaign has been terrible. His only highlights have been Palin's VP acceptance speech at the RNC and his suspension of his presidential campaign during negotiations over the bailout bill. Palin subsequently lost most of her gloss and McCain was unable to convert his return to the Senate into a substantial increase of support.
McCain is running out of chances, which means the Tuesday debate will be huge for him. Maybe make or break.
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