Did McCain Plan To Unveil New Economic Proposals Today? Depends Which McCain Adviser You Ask
Senior McCain officials, hoping to dispel the sense of confusion that's emanated from the campaign over when -- or whether -- McCain would be unveiling new economic proposals, are continuing to insist that the plan has always been for McCain to announce those plans today.
Here's the latest version of events given to The New York Times by senior McCain economic adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin:
Mr. Holtz-Eakin disputed talk of disarray in the McCain campaign and said that despite reports that Mr. McCain was to announce his new economic policies on Monday and then pulled back in the midst of campaign confusion, the plan had always been for Mr. McCain to unveil the proposals on Tuesday.
But if the plan had "always" been for McCain to announce them today, why did another senior adviser -- spokesperson Tucker Bounds -- say this under 48 hours ago:
"We do not have any immediate plans to announce any policy proposals outside of the proposals that John McCain has announced, and the certain proposals that would result as economic news continues to come our way."
What changed between the times that Bounds said no new proposals were coming and Holtz-Eakin saying the plan had "always" been to release new proposals today? Well, Barack Obama made headlines with his own specific proposals, for one thing.
Either way, whichever McCain adviser offered the true version of events, the two conflicting accounts by definition amount to confusion in McCain's ranks over what to do, politically and substantively, about the economy.
(a) Neither
(b) Both
(c) Hey, look at that plane up in the sky!
October 14, 2008 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
To paraphrase Joe B.
The McCain economic plan is: A noun, a verb and Tax Cut!
October 14, 2008 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
A noun, a verb, and a turd.
October 14, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain is such a dumbass - anything he says now is overshadowed totally by Bush and nationalizing the banks.
October 14, 2008 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Which the base is just going to hate as one more step toward Socialism. And McCain isn't standing up to it, further dampening his following. My guess Barr is going to get another percentage point in places like Florida.
October 14, 2008 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's my thought acamus.
There are going to be a lot of Americans who feel like they went to bed in a capitalist country and woke up in another country all together.
October 14, 2008 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
I was listening to MPR this morning and they seemed to be under the impression that McCain was releasing his economic plan today. They even did a little analysis of the suspected proposals.
October 14, 2008 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is McCain hoping that the final debate will immediately replace his economics proposal in the news cycle? That's what I'd do if I had a really weak plan that I didn't really want to share with the public.
October 14, 2008 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well who's listening? The president just nationalized some big banks -who cares what McCain comes up with?
To me it seems pretty obvious that most people are going to walk around today saying to themselves: what the hell just happened?
And they aren't looking to McCain for answers.
October 14, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
The notion of McCain screaming his "new" economic plan into a howling, uncaring void is some small comfort. Nov 5 can't come fast enough.
October 14, 2008 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
McPalin knows few about economics and much about inciting hatred.
To counter the McPalin attempt of creating hatred against the "other", take out the moral weight: One House, One Spouse, Obama/Biden 08. http://www.cafepress.com/politics2go
October 14, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I suspect any economic plan that McCain has come up with will have all of the sophistication and mastery of Microsoft Bob.
October 14, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
His proposals don't do anything for the economy. Nothing. I expect him not to know anything about the stimulating the economy, but he has advisers. Someone has to have a damn clue.
October 14, 2008 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
What an unorganized campaign McCain has, why should we elect him to govern this country when he and his campaign can't get their act together. These times are two serious for us to put incompetence in charge, especially after experiencing 8 years of a lame duck President.
October 14, 2008 10:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Another reason to hope Obama wins ... no more Tucker Bounds! I'm tired of his Young Republican smirk!
October 14, 2008 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have no doubt these are well thought out, carefully measured proposals that were discussed over grueling session between McCain, Sarah Palin, and their team of economic advisors./wingnut stupidity
http://pufferfish.typepad.com/
October 14, 2008 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think the McCain campaign needs to take its Magic 8-ball in for repairs.
October 14, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
The problem for McCain is not whether he's releasing his plan today, tomorrow or next week -- it's that Barack Obama released his plan yesterday.
Oops.
http://thepajaampundit.com/
October 14, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
The president is talking lifting the FDIC ceiling altogether, which makes me thing they think more banks could go under which makes me want to tell McLame-Painful to shut up.
I don't care what they say -
October 14, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
More banks will go under.
October 14, 2008 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
O thank you Publicola. That makes my day.
October 14, 2008 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry to break it to you, but it's true. And my reading of the tea leaves says that a pretty large one will fail. And frankly, that's a good thing. The guys that made obscene profits on the credit default swap market and other derivatives, now need to pay the piper. It is what it is. Our economy will recover.
October 14, 2008 10:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
I know it will.
I'm being sarcastic, which I think you got.
I read the piece on the front page about this whole thing and I agree - the only people who haven't paid a price are the big investment bankers who got us here, along with Commander Coocoo, Grover Norquist (where is Grover? Haven't heard one word out of Drown it in the Bathtub since the crash - no ideas, Grover?)
October 14, 2008 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
My tea leaf reader says it's likely to be Citigroup, having failed to get their hands on Wachovia's deposit assets.
October 14, 2008 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Senior McCain officials, hoping to dispel the sense of confusion ...."
REALLY???
Can we trust anything from these folks - except confusion?
October 14, 2008 10:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just imagine for a second -- OK, I try not to but it's worth the exercise -- that somehow, these clowns got in the White House. Can you imagine the chaos? Can you imagine the market gyrations resulting from a president who lurches from one approach to the next from day to day and even hour to hour, and a staff operation that has its head up its ass?
October 14, 2008 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have to be honest, Moose - I'm still thinking about Bush and the idea that Commander Coocoo, of all people, is going to nationalize the banks.
I can't Poppy hasn't already had a fit and fallen it.
October 14, 2008 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can't believe Poppy hasn't had a fit and fallen in it.
See the thing about preview is that it only works if you use it.
;)
October 14, 2008 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Right, or you use it but you don't catch your typo anyway.
Which is why TPM should now get rid of preview - because we no longer have any excuses for our miserable typing/proofreading skills.
October 14, 2008 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Would that be the John McCain approach to running a website?
October 14, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, the McCain aproach wood be denying their are any typoos.
October 14, 2008 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Stop it, bvd! My boss wants to know why I'm laughing out loud.
October 14, 2008 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Somehow, I'm guessing Poppy's view of W. isn't all that different from Don Corleone's view of Fredo.
But if you look past the rhetoric to W.'s actions as president, it's really not that far of a leap to nationalization. Bush was never a real free-marketer -- his administration has been about using the power of the presidency to reward and enrich corporate cronies. Think of Halliburton and all of the other defense contractors. Think of the companies that benefited from the wholesale privatization of the federal government. Think of how much Bush's policies enriched Big Oil.
Nationalizing the banks is designed to save them, not necessarily enrich them -- at least I hope not -- but if you've already used the levers of power to pick winners in the private sector, this is not as much of a departure as it might seem.
October 14, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree, but you know as well as I do that their facade has always been about free markets, no regs, robber barons.
So this is about as radical a step as I can imagine for a Republican to take. That's how I know how bad it is.
October 14, 2008 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
But fortunately for the Corleones, Fredo never ran the family.
October 14, 2008 10:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, Jeb never "took care" of the situation the way Michael did.
October 14, 2008 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's that rascally McCain Talking Points lead time. It takes approximately 72 hours for a blowhard to change their tune. There is no immediate turn around with these guys, you need to shut them down, reprogram them, and get them going again.
Anyone else notice that Tucker Bounds is about 5 weeks overdue for a haircut?
October 14, 2008 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, natch. 72 hours is about the best turnaround you can hope for when you use the Pony Express. McCain in (18)'08!
October 14, 2008 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
If one assumes, as I do, that, by "immediate," Tucker Bounds meant simply "within the next 24 hours," he actually was being quite precise.
And what else could he say? The McCain campaign obviously isn't planning -- and doesn't have the capacity to plan -- any further ahead than that.
October 14, 2008 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
I heard an interview with McCain late yesterday on Potus08 in which he was asked if he would be coming out with an economic plan today. He said, We'll let you know.
October 14, 2008 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just last night I was reading the book "The Little Ice Age," and in the penultimate chapter it discussed the utterly ruinous reaction of the British authorities to the famine caused by the potato blight in Ireland in 1845-52.
Devout free-traders, they rejected the local solution that had worked to avoid famine a century earlier - banning export of grain - and instead dispatched troops to Ireland to protect grain shipments leaving the country. Of course, that greatly exacerbated the famine that ultimately killed millions.
This is McCain all over. No-strings money to bank criminals, tax cuts for the rich, slash spending ... it's shipping our last economic food out of the country while the nation starves.
October 14, 2008 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's worse than that - the British laid off the coast of Ireland in ships and watched them starve and did nothing. Nothing.
That's why there are more Irish in America than there are in Ireland. By a large number.
October 14, 2008 10:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, that and the fact that we breed like rabbits.
;)
October 14, 2008 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
O I could say something that probably would offend someone so I won't.
Damn political correctness.
;)
October 14, 2008 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Aw, go ahead, Tena. You won't offend me.
October 14, 2008 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ah yes, the Irish Potato Famine...a cautionary story....
First the natural balance was messed with in the name of profits: the potato (not indigenous to Ireland) was introduced in the first place as a low-maintenance food crop for the tenant farmers so that all the grain could be exported for the financial benefit of the absentee (for the most part) British landlords. It caused a huge population spike--so that when the potato crops failed down the road, the death rate was even higher than it would have been.
Then generous doses of religious bigotry and ignorance were added in: A number of those in a position to mitigate the disaster viewed it as their Protestant God showing his displeasure against the Roman Catholic Irish. The more scientifically-minded viewed it as proof of the validity of applying Darwin's "survival of the fittest" principal to society.
And yes, it caused a huge migration, to the Liverpool area or the US, for those who could afford it. Packed into steerages with next to no sanitation, it was no wonder so many, especially women and small children, didn't survive the voyage.
October 14, 2008 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Some economic plan, McLame! I'm so sick of asshole Republicans ignoring the plight of middle class people such as myself, who do NOT have a 401k and will never have the money to worry about capital gains tax. I'm sick of being ignored as my income remains stagnant, as food and gas prices rise. Meanwhile, assholes who speculate on oil, wheat, and corn make a killing.
No to 4 more years of this. Obama 2008!
October 14, 2008 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Some economic plan, McLame! I'm so sick of asshole Republicans ignoring the plight of middle class people such as myself, who do NOT have a 401k and will never have the money to worry about capital gains tax. I'm sick of being ignored as my income remains stagnant, as food and gas prices rise. Meanwhile, assholes who speculate on oil, wheat, and corn make a killing.
No to 4 more years of this. Obama 2008!"
Dude. Free market, deregulation, tax slashes for the wealthy... that's how we got to where we are. You're telling me you don't wanna stay the course???
Please view my new political AD: The Path of John McCain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rtdnSXPWLc
October 14, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
That commercial is pretty great. I'm going to pass it on.
October 14, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Dougy and Tucky can't get their stories straight.
Ever get the feeling that the McCain Campaign is the Omega House guys (along with their sorority house girlfriends):
Greg Marmalard = Rick Davis
Doug Neidermeyer = Steve Schmidt
Chip Diller = Tucker Bounds
Barbara Sue "Babs" Jensen = Jill Hazelbaker
Mandy Pepperidge = Nancy Pfotenhauer
Which makes the ruthless machine boss of the "town":
Mayor Carmine DePasto = Karl Rove
And of course:
Dean Vernon Wormer = John McCain
Marion Wormer = Cindy McCain ;)
John
Dean Vernon Wormer: Put Neidermeyer on it. He's a sneaky little shit just like you.
October 14, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL!!!
But......Babs has to be Sarah Palin...
And why stop there?
Barack Obama = Boon
Bill Clinton = Otter
Joe Biden = D-Day
Mark Penn = Bluto
October 14, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
You just want to put this line in Palin's mouth:
"Greg, honey, is it supposed to be this soft?"
;)
I didn't do the other side because it breaks down a bit more. Boon Obama would make Michelle as Katty banging Donald Sutherland... and we don't want to go there. :) I think Barrack is a bit more like Hoover, at times rolling his eyes at all the nonsense around him.
Katty is a bit more HRC, which would make the Big Dog half Otter and half Boon. And the thought of the Big Dog working the Cucumber pick up line with Cundy McCain gives me the creeps. :P
Joe Biden as D-Day isn't too bad, but D-Day is like this stealth student. Who gets credit for Obama's massive online fundraising? Joe Rospars of BDS and Obama's New Media Chief?
Mark Penn = Bluto
Nah... Bluto was a Good Guy in Animal House, not one of the Bad Guys.
David Axelrod would have to be Bluto. :)
John
October 14, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Busted!!! I admit it!!!
Eeek!!! I meant Hoover, not Boon!!
Serves me right for posting from work & going on memory alone....
That would free up Boon to be Axelrod. I see your point about Bluto = Penn. So who do we have for Bluto? Gotta have Bluto.....
October 14, 2008 9:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the meantime, here is what this failing economy has people resorting to: suicide.
Suicides from financial crisis cause concern
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081014/ap_on_re_us/financial_crisis_violence
October 14, 2008 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortunately I'm afraid we're going to be seeing quite a lot of this.
People in this country are only just beginning to wake up to the fact that politicians and Wall Street have been lying to them for at least the last 100 years. A lot of people won't be able to deal with it.
October 14, 2008 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink