John McCain didn’t think taxpayers should be bailing out AIG yesterday:
LAUER: So if we get to the point middle of the week as we heard in that report where AIG might have to file for bankruptcy, they’re on their own.
MCCAIN: Well, quote on their own, we have to, we cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else.
Today it was…well, unavoidable:
MCCAIN STATEMENT: "Today, the government was forced to commit $85 billion to stop the collapse of AIG, another in a growing series of events that includes Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These actions stem from failed regulation, reckless management, and a casino culture on Wall Street that has crippled one of the most important companies in America. The focus of any such action should be to protect the millions of Americans who hold insurance policies, retirement plans and other accounts with AIG. We must not bailout the management and speculators who created this mess. They had months of warnings following the Bear Stearns debacle, and they failed to act.”
Well, at least he saw it coming:
"Two years ago, I warned that the oversight of Fannie and Freddie was terrible, that we were facing a crisis because of it, or certainly serious problems," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CBS this morning. "The influence that Fannie and Freddie had in the inside the Beltway, old boy network, which led to this kind of corruption is unacceptable and I warned about it a couple of years ago.”
A couple of years ago. Like…2007?
McCAIN: But, a guy that’s on my staff named Doug Holtz-Eakin, who was once the head of the Office of Management and Budget, said that there was nervousness out there. There’s nervousness. There was nervousness that we had such a long period of prosperity without a downturn because of the history of our economy. But I don’t know of hardly anybody, with the exception of a handful, that said ‘wait a minute, this thing is getting completely out of hand and is overheating.’
"So, I’d like to tell you that I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk, I did not.”
If you listen to McCain talk for any length of time, it becomes apparent that he’s just very good at nodding his head and saying whatever he thinks you want to hear. He doesn’t even seem to be listening to himself.
I think those who are predicting he will do well in the debates may be engaging in "irrational exuberance."
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Hi Jane, Wish I knew this was here. It is a great post. I was over at the Mother ship and didn’t see any hints.
So McSame said something yesterday, and contradicts himself today. But – he’s, um, flexible, yeah, that’s it! He’s responding to changing circumstances – after all, it was a whole day!
He has the attention span of a gnat. And the conscience.
McShame makes up a new favorable personal history every day. I think that his refusal to be confronted by the press now is that they are going to compare and contrast what he is saying now with what he said previously.
McCain is a pathological people pleaser.
All things to all people.
Reminds me of the Chinese fortune: He who pleases all, pleases none.
-G
Reminds me of the Chinese fortune: He who pleases all, pleases none.
In bed.
(the required addition to every every Chines fortune cookie saying)
There’s only one way he could please me.
And I can’t say it here.
You know, Holtz-Eakins was head of the Congressional Budget Office, not OMB.
McCain’s in Congress, and chairs a committee that might need budget projections from time to time, no?
It’s getting really, really hard to follow this …
Hey Jane!
Once we invade Spain, people will forget all about this silly AIG thing.
Bail out AIG, don’t bail out AIG. What’s the diff? /s
The Republicans caused the financial mess by deregulating everything and now they are trying to run away from it like they had nothing to do with it. Unfrikinbelievable.
Only way to please me, just turn round and leave and walk away. -Robert Hunter
These actions stem from failed regulation,…
There we go – JohnnyMac is back!
“Regulations don’t work, so just forget ‘em – the market will take care of itself.”
Wow A Double poster with 18 Diggs already!!
AIG has been fertile ground for me in the last 24 hours…
Hey Balrog.
Hope the mini Rog is doing well.
-G
Thanks Jane.
It’s quite believable – the R’s have been doing this for as long as I can remember – and that’s long.
Oh, and this has gotta hurt:
Not feeling so Mavericky now, are ya?
Nope, not enough.
I posted it downstairs about McCain being interviewed by the Spanish Press where he didn’t know who the President of Spain was and kept referring to South America….. many thought he confused Zapatero with the Mexican rebel group Zapatista….
At the bottom of the post is a Spanish speaking TPM reader’s take on the interview….
OY
(AP) Driver Of Straight Talk Express Ticketed For Swerving
If he’s a maverick, I’m a classical guitarist. And I play one of THESE.
LOL Donald Trump wants McCain.
I honestly don’t think McCain even knows what he is saying half the time. We are looking at early stage dementia here.
McCain will do horribly in the debates. His dementia will be painfully obvious. I don’t think he’s going to make it until the election, frankly.
anyone else catch Reid’s confidence inspiring comments today about how congress will do nothing about the financial
meltdown ’cause “nobody knows what to do”?
Jane!
Dugg it
McCain: DRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
The Obama campaign should pound away on economic issues every single day through election day.
McLame will melt before our eyes like the Wicked Witch
(and no, I am not talking about Sarah Palin).
Obama should use McCrazy’s own words in an ad where he is saying he’s a deregulator and send mailings out about how he voted for deregulation time and time again. McCrazy should be asked what specifically he will do to get the economy going again, I’ve had enough of old batshit crazy guy going around reading statements prepared by people who can’t get their heads out of their asses any more than McCrazy can.
MORE uncle Miltie’s “Science” Makes the rich richer and the rest of the poor slobs can eat cake or some other stuff!
OT: It airs at different times depending on where you are but Barney Frank is talking to Charlie Rose about the economic meltdown.
Frank just called Bernanke honorable, so much for credibility.
heh – I was just reading that same story. Included:
White women were evenly divided between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama; before the conventions, Mr. McCain led Mr. Obama among white women, 44 percent to 37 percent.
yay, female intuition!
or at lest 50% of females’ intuition!
or….never mind, I think I’ll just quit while I’m still standing….
If we invade Spain can John McCain get a sombrero?
Oh, I don’t know about that. Paulson is clearly a tool, but Krugman still seems to think Bernanke is honorable, if occasionally misguided.
I’ve had enough of old batshit crazy guy going around reading statements
Look at the bright side. He does a real shitty job of reading them.
His ‘outrage on cue-cards’ speech Monday night was a true fucking classic!
“In 2006 Obama was asking for more regulation & disclosure….McC not so much, against regulation, + tax breaks for the very rich.”
How could one possibly tell who is a solid citizen and who is a flake? Krugman has no greater insight than we do. Night all.
Thank God he doesn’t have an important position in government, like a senator or something.
First our Houses…then our Retirement Stocks…next, maybe the Dollar itself.
Bush-McCain may hit the Trifecta of Economic Destruction.
I’m seeing speculation that this is the greatest loss of wealth in History.
McCain’s Cluelessness will not Play Well with the Goopers once they see their Portfolios plunge into the Tank.
Night eCAHN.
That’s OK. He never goes into work anyway.
Viva Zapatero!
-G
Nite eCAHN.
AAAUUUGGGHHHH!!!
If the Elitist old bastard would take the time to figure out how to turn on a computer, the latest means of getting information since the touch tone phone, he just might be able to afford himself some current information to use so he could formulate an opinion that doesn’t have me scrambling to get to Google to translate his Flip Flopping ignorant assed statements from 1970’s Republican talking points!
Senator, smoke signals don’t work any more!
Smog, I think it entered the modern lexicon sometime after you married the Beer Heiress.
Fer Chrissakes, ask Karl….
Dr Dick, did you see my EPU’d question to you on the last thread?
Here it is:
Question for you, Dr Dick. Do you know the origin of the phrase, “Socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor” to describe Republican economic policy?
I thought that might be something you would know.
Ya Think is the “SHOCK TREATMENT” that uncle Miltie proscribed so many times in the past and now it is OUR turn?? Are we going to experience the “Disappeared”???
Just sent this letter to my local paper earlier tonight:
That is hard on the heels of this (second down) which was published this week. Even got a compliment from the dean on that.
Responded to it there, but no I do not. I think I saw it earlier today complete with citation, but cannot remember where I saw it or who it was attributed to.
great letter, Dr Dick
thanks, I missed your reply
hahahaha nicely done dr dick
Like I said, even my dean liked it.
hmmmm wonder if the Arizona Republic(ian) would print that letter….. na… pretty sure they wouldn’t…. Congrats …. great job…
And that PUMA that they are marching out to replace Carly Fiorina as their new spokeswoman…Lady Forester de Rothschild?
It appears that she very likely helped host a fundraiser back in March in London to support John McCain.
Rothschilds Invite Big Donors To McCain’s London Fundraiser
Makes one wonder just how much she really supported Hillary…or if she was merely another of the GOP’s efforts to cause dissension in the Democratic Primaries.
Plus, I’m certain the ’soccer-mom’ contingent will find plenty in common with Lady R and drop Obama like a hot rock-star.
Or else just hedging her bets. As long as no honest left wing populist, like Edwards, is elected the super rich are largely sheltered from any consequences of elections in this country.
I’m listening to a very good interview (Fresh Air) with Michael Greenberger, who was on the Commodities Futures Trading Commission when Phil Gramm slipped us all a mickey in the form of that derivatives “Modernization” Act.
Greenberger is explaining what the derivatives are, and how they can create havoc with the balance sheets of financial institutions —structured investments, credit default swaps, etc.
An important point is the use of the CDS contracts specifically to dodge state-level regulation of insurance products, which CDSs fundamentally are, as allowed by Gramm’s Law. The (I’m still gasping because I just now heard this) trouble is that many of the CDSs were written as insurance contracts on mortgage-backed bonds by smaller, regional insurers that are state regulated and that typically have full faith and credit-like convenants backed by the states. Greenberger expects that in coming weeks we will see many of these smaller insurance companies start to fail.
Another important point of his is that other forms of debt besides mortgages were created through channels having the same structure as the shadow mortgage structure.
Do listen, please.
“Our Confusing Economy, Explained”
The LTE saying that Obama should be more like CindyLou and all her charity work and demanding that Obama do something about his half brother…. gee I read the articles about that half brother living in a slum….. HE said he does not want anything from Obama, that Obama has only met him twice in his life, once when he was 6 and then when Obama toured Africa….. the half brother didn’t ask for anything then or now…..
what a tool
It’s going to be interesting to see how the McCain campaign can spin the last couple of days… will the first soup lines be the precursor to the Next Great Depression?
The differences in the world today and the world back then are staggering, and the hubris of the republicans in thinking that they could blithely disassmble what was put in place by FDR to save this country is more and more frightening every day.
McCain=Bush=Collapse of the American economy for the second time in 100 years. Thanks Phil Gramm, thanks Jim Leach thanks Thomas Bliley you bow-tie wearing fuck. You fucking republican losers opened the seventh circle of financial hell on us, and you are all rich or retired comfortably living off the gains acquired selling us down the road. Bet you never thought your hatred of government regulation would unleash the next world-wide depression.
Now we have to find our way our with incompentent, spinning, poll-driven idiot politicians and hopefully rebuild our country from the ground up. Guess you were all smarter than us, huh. Joke’s on us, I guess.
SO now families are fair game again.
Fucking Repuds.
-G
It’s kind of like that scene in Hunt for Red October where the russian guy chasing Sean Connery realizing he just fired a torpedo at himself.
You shouldn’t hold it all in…. it really isn’t good for you…..
“LTE”?
Yeah, Obama should be like Cindy Lou and steal from his own charity, placing it in danger of being shut down for lax control over prescription painkillers. Let’s just ignore all those years he spent as a community organizer on the southside of Chicago empower poor black ghetto dwellers to take control of their lives and not just wait for the scraps from the rich folks’ tables.
Great letter, Dr.Dick.
Thanks. I have a bit of a local reputation.
LTE== Letter to the Editor… our Democratic District have LTE parties to brain storm and write letters…..
A litte music to illustrate the state of the world markets.
-G
Iana-economist, but in my simplistic understanding, the Stock Market closed today Lower than the day Bush took office eight years ago.
Ergo, all those rat-racing Goopers who had no problem climbing on the rest of our heads for the sake of the all mighty dollar have Nothing to show for it – except a bag full of debt and worthless paper.
The Goopers had no problem when Bush threw away the Checks and Balances of the Constitution – it was just a Goddamn Piece of Paper to Bush – and now we have a Morally Bankrupt Unitary Executive destroying Our Civil Liberties to Avoid Being Called to Account for his Abuse of Power.
The Goopers had no problem when McCain threw away the Regulatory Refs of the Economy – and now we have a Financially Bankrupt Economic System destroying Our Financial Security – Our Homes, Retirement, and Currency.
The Real Shock here is that the Goopers themselves didn’t realize that Their Own Cheating To Win Doomed Them, Too.
And they haughtily insisted they were ‘right’ every step of the way, too!
I have a bit of a local reputation.
heh. I just fired off an 850 word LTE to the old hometown newspaper. Small town Indiana, but the editors are great guys and they love it when I write, both because they’re liberals in a small town, and they, like me, get a kick out of seeing what kind of shit-storm will erupt in next week’s paper after I send one in.
Ah. Yeah, we have lots of wingnut mouth breathers around here. Missoula is solidly liberal, but the rest of the state has been pretty Republican, though that may be changing. The Montana Republican Party is somewhat to the right of Attila the Hun with Glibertarian overtones. It is starting to get amusing recently. Years ago the Republicans rammed through a term limits bill on all state offices, which has really had detrimental effects on the state given the small pool of potential candidates. The effects on the Republicans have been even more dramatic, given that they occupy the shallow end of the gene pool.
Ah, Katy… I once had an econ prof who said that the safeguards put in place after the Great Depression would prevent this from occurring again, I guess he was wrong… he did not take into account the crookedness and greed of the republican party coupled with the 70 year hatred of FDR.
Am I mad or scared? Right now, I’m not really sure.
We try to do our best to increase circulation. Our local rag (moderate right leaning) only allows 350 words.
Exactly! He pays no heed to the accuracy or even the plausibility of the things he says. If he did, he wouldn’t say such nonsense as “Sarah Palin knows more about energy policy than anyone else in the courntry [Or words to that effect].”
Also, I believe that this trait is the result of and/or exacerbated by some form of degenerative mental impairment, as pointed out by Kirk Murphy.
I best head to bed. Have a full slate of mind warping ahead of me tomorrow. Take care and enjoy.
I’ve got carte blanche for up to 1,000.
it’s a small paper.
nite Doc.
late late nite upstairs
Very nice work. Thanks. Rachel Maddow should hear about this.
If you took out any reference to MT you could be talking about Arizona… . same thing on the term limits…. especially since our Democratic pool was pretty small …. we have some real wackos…. starting with Sheriff Joe, Russel Pierce who writes and gets hate the brown people ballot measures…..
The big story tonight on the local news…. “is your email account safe from hackers”
DrD- that Scott Boyer character from Stevensville sounds like a real winner. That being said, it’s good to see ratio of pro Obama vs pro Gooper letters in your (red) neck of the woods.
Short term memory loss. Brain damage. He doesn’t connect to what he is saying right now; he loses the connections as he speaks to yesterday and the beginning of the paragraph. Ask a neurologist to listen to his video clips on the economy. I’ll bet a brain scan would be ordered. Some part of his brain is no longer working, so that his executive function is failing.
McMaverick or McScrooge?
* McCain voted AGAINST Violence Against Women Act
* McCain voted AGAINST Title X Womens Health Care Services
* McCain voted AGAINST Children’s Health Insurance Program-SCHIP
* McCain voted AGAINST aid to Children of Domestic Violence
* McCain voted AGAINST Emergency Funding for Victims of Hurricane Katrina
* McCain voted AGAINST Funding Law Enforcement
* McCain wants to bring back the DRAFT
* McCain voted AGAINST GI Bill
* McCain voted AGAINST Funding VA for Vets
* McCain voted AGAINST Funding Military Equipment Shortages in Iraq
McCain voted against the Webb amendment calling for adequate troop rest between deployments.
McCain voted against an amendment that would provide $20 million to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for health care facilities.
McCain voted against increasing Veterans medical services funding by $1.5 billion in FY 2007 to be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes.
McCain voted to table an amendment by Senator Dodd that called for an additional $322,000,000 for safety equipment for United States forces in Iraq.
McCain urged other Senate members to table a vote (which never passed) to provide more than $1 billion for National Guard and Reserve equipment in Iraq related to a shortage of helmets, tents, bullet-proof inserts, and tactical vests.
McCain voted against increasing the amount available for medical care for veterans by $650,000,000.
Great list
Our form of this was “between the sheets.”
So well saidm your letter. Reality check, please! That should be Obama’s newest slogan.
Love Jane’s title on this.
I do notice the catching “talk and taxes” being attributed to Obama from McCain on the radio a lot lately. The latest Repub drumbeat.
Thanks for the facts. Will email this list to my network.
Pups, in a very few minutes, Firedoglake and the sister-blogs are going to have a maintenance period, and the sites will be unavailable.
There will be a banner up and we will be back as soon as possible.
Thanks very much!
Well Said rfw well said. They have no morals nor any conscience either!!
“I think those who are predicting he will do well in the debates may be engaging in “irrational exuberance.”
Remember, back in 2000 (or was it 2004?) when it was suspected that Bush wore an earphone or something to be fed the answers to debate questions?
I strongly suggest that even more be done to see if McSame is doing that this time.
John McCain :
“I was FOR the economy BEFORE I was against it.”
John McCain :
“I was FOR deregulation BEFORE I was against it.”
How about
The Bullshit Express Runs Off a Cliff.
Shell – it was 2004 – just google “bush debate cheat” for some of the coverage at the time. Both McCain and Palin will be way out of their league in the debates. I would be astonished if they didn’t try some similar stunt. The question is, are there some effective countermeasures that could be used to detect/expose/disrupt such a tactic?
If you listen to McCain talk for any length of time, it becomes apparent that he’s just very good at nodding his head and saying whatever he thinks you want to hear. He doesn’t even seem to be listening to himself.
I think those who are predicting he will do well in the debates may be engaging in “irrational exuberance.”
I think this is exactly right. The more I see of McCain the it appears he is just a mirror to whomever he is talking with and when he gets push back he is both surprized and offended because he does not seem to know that he’s coming across as pandering.
In a debate format, one-on-one, I think this is going to be deadly.