Economic About Face

McCain is so furiously backpedaling away from his recent "the economy is strong" comments, that he is directly contradicting the Republican presidential nominee - that would be himself.

McCain has always been on board with the Bush economic doctrine of removing governmental regulation and oversight of the financial markets. Their stated reasoning is that big financial institutions will self-police themselves to best serve the public, instead of putting short-term profit and executive bonuses ahead of all else. Well, we can see how this plan is playing itself out.

Faced with his past support of a disastrous economic policy, McCain is now calling for putting back the same governmental oversight that he and his own party worked to destroy, starting as soon as dubya took office.

As Senator Joe Biden put it: to boost the economy the incoming administration would have to "create jobs, keep people in their homes and increase regulatory oversight of the very people John [McCain] has refused to regulate." Prefer to listen to a non-partisan expert on the economy rather than McCain's double-speak or Biden's realistic assessment?

Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned economist and special adviser to the U.N. secretary-general, said he blames the Bush administration for "ignoring the economy" and the Fed for increased deregulation.

Sachs said he thinks Obama's plan is "closer" to being on target, with his calls for regulation. McCain also has started talking about increased regulation, but Sachs said McCain has "reinvented himself in the last 24 hours" with such talk.

Asked if either candidate has a prescription for the country's immediate financial problems, Sachs said, "I think right now that this is a recession that's going to happen."

He added, "I don't see anybody being able to stop that giant wave. The question is how we get out if it."

So, as far as economics goes, you can select Obama who has steadfastly recognized that there is a problem that must be addressed, and has gathered economic experts to create a realistic long-term plan to fix the problems.


Or you can stick with the same Republican plan and select McCain who has assembled political experts to help guide his talking points so they'll match the news of the day, carefully avoid "the R word" despite the recession we're in, and just throw out pronouncements from one of you many houses that the economy is working great for regular folk.