His campaign is on record saying they'll lie.

McCain-Palin'08:
So many lies, so many lies, so many lies...

(A lyric from Thom Yorke's "Atoms for Peace")

While the ad is obviously bullshit, it does highlight that Obama needs to put out an ad asap saying what he'd do to fix the current crisis. Attacking McCain's "fundamentals" comment is all well and good, but he also needs to put fourth his solution.

Obama can go after this easily:

* McCain's experiance with the Keating 5

* McCain's leadership with Gramm as his key financial advisor helping create the financial crunch

* McCain's leadership with Carly as a key advisor taking a huge golden 'chute while cutting 15K jobs at HP

"That's not experiance and leadership we can believe in."

Frankly, they really need to roll out McCain's Green Screen "That's Not Change We Can Believe In" and use it constantly to hammer McCain with.

John

Wait! I want my 9/11 Commission so that I can postpone thinking about Wall Street and the economy.

Did this ad use ENOUGH as its theme...erm is Mccain getting all his campaign messages from Barack.Obama.com?

It's not only that Obama doesn't have a plan, he has to drag around the members of his brain dead party who managed to accomplish nothing, not even making Republicans look bad, in this Congress.

Del did you not see Obama's speech? He did explin what he would do and Mccain has said nothing but freaking air and platitudes. Obama doesnt need to be all over TV he needs to keep doing exactly what he is doing and has been for the past few days. Economy, economy and o yeh economy. To the poster that didnt like Obama's ad this orning I humbly disagree I thought it was right on point and when Mccain makes a comment that dumb you have to slam him and that is exactly what Obama did. Man am I missing something? This day has been godawful for Mccain. His campaign has been caught flat footed on the number 1 issue, his surrogates are all over the place and Mccain is scrambling to try grab at change, experience, reform, enough is enough...yeh that is campaign message discipline we can believe in. Yesterday the election started and right now only one candidate is on point and is not Mccain not even close.

Obama's speech had lots of specifics, and clearly and forcefully showed that he actually understands what is happening, tried to prevent it, and KNOWS how to fix it.

Chance the Gardener for President!

Obama's been talking about this since, at least, March. Weren't you paying attention? Well, after yesterday you are now.

"In a major economic address at Cooper Union today, Senator Barack Obama called for immediate relief for homeowners hit by the housing crisis, modernization of our regulatory framework, and an additional $30 billion stimulus package to jumpstart the economy and help protect families from the economic slowdown. As confidence in our financial markets wanes and Americans struggle in the face of a mortgage crisis, Obama stressed the importance of pushing back on the special interests and honoring our obligation to one another—and that doing so is not just a matter of altruism but a matter of self-interest." March 27, 2008.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBNsq

Has anyone noticed that McCain's voice is a little weaker and flatter than usual in some recent appearances?

I don't want to be (excessively) ghoulish, but there's a subtle change that seems worthy of note to me. In the MSNBC clip from this morning, his posture was rather stiff, and his expression was flat. Like his voice in this ad . . . not exactly dripping with emotion.

Again, I don't want to gloat about age or ill health, which happen to us all. But I do wonder if something is up.

....if history is a guide, an Obama victory in November would lead to faster economic growth with less inequality, while a McCain victory would lead to slower economic growth with more inequality. Which part of the Obama menu don’t you like?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/business/31view.html

SEPTEMBER 18, 2007: Barack Obama calls for more open, transparent Wall St.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2007/09/18/2007-09-18_barack_obama_calls_for_more_open_transpa-2.html

Wow. McCain is soooo insightful. Such a maverick. Nice of him to get on the Obama bandwagon almost one year to the date TOO LATE!!!!

One thing that's interesting is that on the stump McCain is condemning--and saying he will end--the "corruption and greed" of Wall Street. It's a really strange moralistic approach to the economic situation that does not sound very Reaganesque to me.

First, I think even Democrats agree that greed is the driving force in Wall Street and should be the driving force--its purpose is to help people make money. So "stopping the greed" on Wall Street is not only impossible and nonsensical but goes against the purpose of Wall Street.

The implication of "corruption" is that these entities were breaking the law. But, in fact, it looks like these failing banks and lenders and brokers were probably following the laws. The real problem is that McCain's buddies let them write their own laws and they wrote them to facilitate making as much money as possible as quickly as possible in as many ways as possible but not to guard against future events.

It's nice that he says "new rules for fairness and honesty." That sounds like he's proposing regulation. But is the problem really unfairness and dishonesty? And whose unfairness and dishonesty is it? Again, it's very moralistic language that it implies bad intention on the part of these mysterious "Wall Street" entities, whoever they are. But the real problem may well be that when you allow so many creative ways of manipulating non-existent money, with no safeguards, no correlation to reality, and no oversight, then responsible brokers, corporations, and banks MUST take advantage of those avenues to profit to remain competitive and do right by their shareholders.

The real corruption and dishonesty lies with the politicians who do the bidding of a few lobbyists to put these laws in place. It is the repsonsibility of Wall Street to maximize profit. It is the responsibility of politicians to consider the greater good. That is where the corruption and greed are really faults and if McCain wants to take that on, he need look no further than the folks on his bus.

Here's what I would give anything to hear Obama say:

I'm going to resurrect the Anti-Trust Division of the Dept. of Justice and enforce what anti-trust laws that are left.

A big factor in what is wrong with our economy is that the anti-trust laws are apparently moribund. They were enacted after the Great Crash of '29 - for a reason.

From:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/09/watching-palin.html

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Watching Palin

I'm watching Palin speak right now in Vienna, Ohio.

She looks as if she is about to burst into tears.

The outcome of this election will be frightening if she and McCain are victorious.

She was placed in a position where she was unready for the tasks she was to engage in. This would be true regardless of gender.

Now, she is being buffeted by questions that she is unable to respond to, and she is wholly unready for this and cannot deal with the outcome or ramifications.

She is like a hurt young girl rather than a Vice Presidential candidate.

She looks as if her head will burst with anger and hate and hurt.

This is closer to the Palin we have heard of in Wasilla and as Governor.

Hutchinson and other candidates would not have responded in this way.

She is clearly not ready for the Presidential status she aspires to and cannot be let to have this position for the sake of the nation. This is not only valid and obviously true, but must be understood by anyone who cares about the future of this nation.

McCain is 72 and has had 4 treatments for cancer. Palin is not only unprepared, but likely to be overwhelmed by the provocations that regularly come to a President and cannot plausibly respond to issues in economic or any other area of substantive policy.

If we blindly stagger into this through the usual gathering at the trough of excitement, we will not only have a potential tragedy in the making, but a final aspect of America consuming itself through its fascination with novelty and short-term thinking in the face of an utterly unprepared holder of the nation's highest office.

Cite:

Head of State

http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/09/watching-palin.html

Corruption!

This morning on every show McCain kept saying this was due to "Corruption". The implication being that some one some place broke the rules. If there are no Rules due to his buddy Mr. Gramm how can there be any corruption? Who exactly is he going to prosecute? And how?

What "Corruption" is he going to stop if we dont have any regulations?

I too was wondering when our younger or more amnesiac voters would get a taste of some vintage Keating? The time is ripe.

Graham was responsible for blocking all of the regs on CDOs way back in 1999.