Monday, July 21, 2008
Controlling the Game
I'm not a political news junkie. I follow the campaign without dissecting stuff I think won't last much longer than a 24 hour news cycle except on Fox. I know how I'm voting in November. I'm a reasonably attentive Democratic voter. I have noticed that media cannot get a firm handle on John McCain. This seems to be because Obama is controlling the game so well. Everything McCain says & does is in reaction to what Obama says & does. It's like watching a good basketball team establish a pace. Even when Obama does something questionable, or something questionable occurs, McCain rushes his shots. When McCain says this or that wouldn't be possible in Iraq without the surge working, he reminds everyone that the surge was a desperate attempt by Bush to get a war he shouldn't even have started under control, & anyway by the time McCain reacted to Obama, Obama was having his photo ops in Afghanistan, reminding everyone which nation was our original response to 9/11 & that we haven't settled it or caught Bin Laden. The whole "time horizon" thing was Bush's reaction to our Iraqi government generally agreeing with Obama, & McCain came across like a guy on the sidelines reacting to Bush. You mean they want us to leave?
On the economy, McCain believes big lender banks are the victims, which they are in his universe. It's OK to bail out investors who made bad investments in banks that made bad investments in banks that made bad investments in individuals who were trying to make good investments in real estate but shouldn't have qualified for mortgages. Hell, if a bank tells you you can handle a mortgage, who you gonna believe, the bank or the doubtful voice in your head? The bank of course. You can trust banks. But you can't trust whining hoi polloi. When that line of reasoning didn't go over with Americans he had to dump Phil Gramm on a Friday hoping hardly anyone noticed, & it probably worked. Now he has to find another "advisor" since polls show he's considered extremely weak on domestic issues, he's so intent on running for commander-in-chief. But there's a problem with that. In domestic matters, commander-in-chief doesn't mean squat, or isn't supposed to except when levees break in New Orleans or foreigners fly jets into buildings. In peaceful foreign policy, commander-in-chief is the Big Stick other nations know the president carries but would prefer not to have waved about in their faces if they pose no serious military threat to us.
McCain doesn't have a prayer running on the economy. This is dangerous.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
On the economy, McCain believes big lender banks are the victims, which they are in his universe. It's OK to bail out investors who made bad investments in banks that made bad investments in banks that made bad investments in individuals who were trying to make good investments in real estate but shouldn't have qualified for mortgages. Hell, if a bank tells you you can handle a mortgage, who you gonna believe, the bank or the doubtful voice in your head? The bank of course. You can trust banks. But you can't trust whining hoi polloi. When that line of reasoning didn't go over with Americans he had to dump Phil Gramm on a Friday hoping hardly anyone noticed, & it probably worked. Now he has to find another "advisor" since polls show he's considered extremely weak on domestic issues, he's so intent on running for commander-in-chief. But there's a problem with that. In domestic matters, commander-in-chief doesn't mean squat, or isn't supposed to except when levees break in New Orleans or foreigners fly jets into buildings. In peaceful foreign policy, commander-in-chief is the Big Stick other nations know the president carries but would prefer not to have waved about in their faces if they pose no serious military threat to us.
McCain doesn't have a prayer running on the economy. This is dangerous.
Labels: THE election
