Wednesday, September 24, 2008

On With the Show   [Lisa Schiffren]

Chiming in late here, but I think Obama is right to have the debate go on. He has spent all that time prepping. He is memorizing clever lines, many of which will ring hollow, while talking about foreign policy in the middle of a domestic economic crisis. McCain, who has been immersed in this stuff for 30 years, should be able to discuss foreign policy with half his brain tied behind his back. He will have no problem stating his views on, say, Iraq, or Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, because he has had years to hone them. Late deciding voters — and the nation's pundit class — depend on the debates. In this tight a race it would be wrong to deprive the electorate of the one to one comparison.

Clearly there there is a bit of gimmick to McCain's behavior.  There is no real need to suspend the campaign while showing up in D.C. and acting like a leader of the Senate and the presumptive leader of his party. Indeed, if McCain does that, and manages to forge some kind of plan and muster GOP support — no matter what the fallout down the road due to inevitably imperfect substance— and Obama is not there, that speaks for itself.  It will be the stuff of great ads highlighting the manifest demonstration of leadership on one part, and the fact that Senator 143-days, not really a part of the process, wasn't really needed to solve this problem on the other. No need to suspend ads or partisan whacking while it's going on.

My objection to having either McCain or Obama playing a big role in this bailout is this: because they both need votes now, they have too great an incentive to pander to the lower middle classes, those with foreclosed homes, or late student loans or car loans — or any of the undesirable economic problems that people have already tried to incorporate into this finance-sector bailout.  It isn't really so easy to make the argument that the financial sector needs to be rescued to preserve capitalism and the economy — while real, suffering people do not. There are good arguments, of course. But they will ring a little hollow to many of the real people, with suffering neighbors and friends, whose votes both candidates want. So, with the money box open, it may be that we, the taxpayers are better off having George Bush, who is free to stand on principle, take the lead in setting limits on the bailout.

09/24 08:51 PMShare