Wednesday, September 24, 2008

When Politicians Run Out of Lipsticks and Pigs.....

So if you ve been following the news recently, it's beginning to feel like deja vu all over again. One day Barack Obama is doing quite well, so what does McCain do? Yep, you got it right, he pulls a stunner. The last time this happened was after Barack Obama's speech at the DNC Convention which even Republicans admitted was as good a speech as they come. That did not last because the very next morning, McCain shocked everyone including his own campaign by choosing then little known Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin and soon we were talking about hockey moms, seeing Russia from Alaska, Troopergate, Moose stew and of course lipstick.

Since the financial crisis came to a head last week, the McCain Palin team has not been doing too well. First, on Monday John McCain had maintained the fundamentals of our economy were strong. Hours later he had a vision that American workers are actually the fundamentals or our economy. Really? I work hard but right now I don’t feel so good and what about the more than 600,000 American workers who have lost their jobs this year, I wonder how strong they feel? Anyways, next up for McCain was to look for a fall guy. The public likes it when someone takes the blame. Remember heckuva job Brownie of FEMA? Well, Brownie was nowhere to be found and SEC Chairman just happened to show up on Sen. McCain's TV. Problem solved, lets fire Cox!!! Well, even the Wall Street Journal were not buying it. So McCain transformed and became the biggest regulator since old Teddy Roosevelt.

If he thought that the public was going to buy this sudden conversion from a man who weeks ago was reminding the American people that he is always for deregulation. Today, the polls showed up and McCain panicked. The Palin honeymoon is over as she huddles in New York with world leaders for her crash course in foreign policy. (I wonder if she is going to meet her old neighbor Putin who she can see from Alaska?!) For the first time, Barack Obama took a wide lead in most polls today (and I must caution this can change just as quickly as it did against Obama). McCain running out of cards chose to play the “I am a bipartisan leader” card. He unilaterally cancelled the debate scheduled for Friday and decided he will go to Washington and whip those boys into shape, sorry into reaching a compromise. How he will do that, most people who follow Capitol Hill are miffed. He even convinced Bush to call a conference tomorrow at the White House with Obama and others. From what I have gathered, Obama has accepted the White House invite but is not budging on the debate. So we might see a one candidate debate Friday. My suggestion to McCain - send in Mike Huckabee, he is funny!

A compromise was going to be reach eventually on this bail-out bill without Barack Obama and John McCain direct involvement. It may still get done, but the American people will suffer in the long run if this bill is rushed through because presidential politics has been injected to the process by John McCain. As a politician, McCain is proving to be a very formidable candidate but not the type of straight talk candidate he once sold himself to be back when he was the darling of the media and the thorn of the right. Today McCain is running for the last campaign of his life, he knows this and he really wants to win, its his last shot at the office he has coveted for years. But his desperation to win at all costs is revealing a man that the John McCain of old would have derided as the reason Washington is dysfunctional - A man ready to say and do anything to win office.

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