A McCain ad released yesterday has an image of the bankrupt firm Lehman Bros. and calls the economy in ‘crsis’. This matches a statement he made early yesterday: ““The fundamentals of our economy are still strong but these are very, very difficult times. I promise you we will never put America in this position again.” Meanwhile, the Obama campaign of “hope” and “change” used this as an opportunity to attack.
McCain was very quick to address this issue…at around 9 a.m. yesterday…where he told folks in Florida that “people are frightened” during “very difficult times.”
However, five hours after the fact, Democrats thought that this was an opportunity to characterize McCain as out-of-touch; cherry-picking McCain’s comment on the fundamentals of our economy being strong.
From Obama to Biden to Virginia Democrats, a coordinated effort was made to batter McCain on his statement.
“Senator McCain, what economy are you talking about?” Obama said after landing in Colorado. “What’s more fundamental than the ability to find a job that pays the bills and that can raise a family?”
“Ladies and gentlemen, I could walk from here to Lansing, and I wouldn’t run into a single person who thought our economy was doing well, unless I ran into John McCain,” Biden said.
“If John McCain still thinks our national economy is strong, he just doesn’t get what Virginia families are going through,” said Jared Leopold, Communications Director for the Democratic Party of Virginia’s Coordinated Campaign.
So, instead of addressing the issue head on, the Obama campaign — one which was supposed to unite us all by promoting transcendent change — has chose the route of attacking McCain out of context.
Beyond all the rhetoric, both campaigns are calling for reform of the banking and lending industry.
According to Bloomberg News:
Obama repeated a long-standing call to “modernize” regulations.
Obama said that regulation of Wall Street needs to “catch up” with changes in financial markets, and investors can’t expect taxpayers to bail them out in bad times. “The idea that taxpayers can continue to be on the hook for failures at firm after firm after firm I think is a real problem,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Denver last night.
McCain promised to “replace the outdated, patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight.” During his 26-year career in Congress, McCain has generally supported proposals to cut, not increase, federal financial regulations.
In 1999, McCain voted in favor of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley banking deregulation act that let commercial banks and investment firms merge for the first time since the Great Depression. And, while he supported the Bush administration’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, McCain says he wants to sell the mortgage finance companies to private buyers.
