Friday, November 14, 2008
McCain's Loss
Frankly, I think that's silly.
McCain's candidacy was done in by the rapid collapse of the US economy and financial system, which accelerated beginning in mid-September. McCain the candidate made a calculation that Palin would help him rally the base (which she did) from which he was largely alienated. That worked out pretty well. What he didn't anticipate was that the war and foreign policy would literally vanish as campaign issues. And McCain just isn't terribly credible on economic matters, and he knows it. He opposed Bush's tax cuts (which were quite popular and helped us out of the last recession). His best economic argument appeared in the form of Joe the Plumber - and that was mostly a critique of Obama's redistributionism, not a forceful set of policies oriented toward dealing with a financial crisis and recession. His grandstanding during the TARP congressional debate essentially failed and made him look horrible, since the plan initially was rejected.
Let's see how our next government fares on the economy. That's what they were elected to deal with. Pretty simple - intelligently directed, and sizeable, fiscal stimulus.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Nov 14, 10:28:00 AM:
Well Professor Krugman has now proposed $600B.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/opinion/14krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Why not a $1T? . . . .
Nobel prize or not, he has no clue. Not very long ago we passed $10T. With Forbes latest numbers we will be approaching $15T. With 'policies' like this we will hit $20T before 2009 is over. Spending has gone exponential. People already see spending as the problem and this will just drive the retrenchment even deeper as they know the outcome.
By 
Mrs. Davis, at
Fri Nov 14, 10:29:00 AM:
McCain's campaign was done in by his suspension of activities in mid-September. Not a Presidential move. Barry looked like the calm leader in control ready to deal with the next challenge. McCain looked like a frightened legislator returning to the cocoon. Not true, perhaps. But that was the appearance. And it was fatal.
By , at
Fri Nov 14, 10:49:00 AM:
McCain was an adequate candidate in a time when celebrity was key. McCain could not energize tha Republican base and many of them stayed home and did not vote. This made the dem/ACORN thefts in so many places enough to steal the whole election for Obama.
Obama is an illegitimate president who stole the election and McCain wasn't exciting enough to stop the theft.
By , at
Fri Nov 14, 10:55:00 AM:
CP,
That's about as accurate a brief summary as possible. Kudos on sharply coming to the point.
The one other variable (invariable) was the media slant (both news and entertainment) against McCain-Palin.
Reload.
-David
By , at
Fri Nov 14, 12:45:00 PM:
Anybody know what Soros was doing all this time?
He along with Ayres, et. al. kept a pretty low profile during the campaign and then Soros shows up at a congressional hearing this week.
JLW III
By Counter Trey, at
Fri Nov 14, 01:47:00 PM:
Any fiscal stimulus package designed by liberal Democrats is doomed to fail. In these situations liberals take their cue from Keynes and FDR and offer New Deal type programs, which do little more than give a temporary sugar high while permanently expanding the unproductive class (i.e. government).
There is only one plan that will get us out of this mess:
1. Dramatically cut income taxes with a permanent low flat tax;
2. Cut all taxes on capital to zero;
3. Temporary flood the economy with money through FOMC operations;
Low and flat taxes will get the most productive members of our country to take risks and work harder and produce exponentially more than the least productive members of our country.
Cutting all taxes on capital will result in a tsunami of investment from foreign sources which still see the US as the most stable political entity and economy in the world.
Flooding the US with money ensures that we do not repeat the mistake of the Great Depression. And it can always be pulled back. There is no threat of inflation now.
