I've said before that there's no circumstance I would vote for McCain. But watching how he has dealt with this financial crisis reminds me why I would never support him. He's no maverick. There's no straight talk. He's just a politician with a marketing slogan who doesn't really know why he wants to be President. He's Bob Dole II and he's going to lose like him.
Obama, by contrast, deserves to win. I don't agree with Obama on any major issues. But he knows why he wants to be President. Obama thinks the country, as it is today, is fundamentally flawed and that him and his Democratic congress will start to address those flaws.
I think Obama is naive and foolish but I have to give credit to someone who truly believes in his cause.
McCain, on the other hand, has no cause other than to be President.
Let me give you a few examples:
#1 The credit crisis
McCain takes the same view as Obama. Greedy wallstreet types. Bullshit. The vast majority of Americans are culpable here. If McCain were the straight talker he says he is, he would say into the camera that he has met the enemy and the enemy is us. How many people do you personally know that have significant credit card debt? How many people do you know have refinanced their homes in the last few years and now owe more on their homes than their homes are worth? I bet the answer is: LOTS.
It's easy to blame bankers or wallstreet types for this crisis. But they're less culpable than the American people are. Real leadership would be to go up and say something like "We caused this together and if we want to solve it in the long term we need to quit blaming others and start living within our means."
I support the bail out. A lot of conservatives don't but I disagree with me. A lot of conservatives don't necessarily realize that most of that bad paper ultimately leads to some individual's abandoned asset be it a house, a car, or some other big ticket item. I recently bought 10 acres of choice property at half the price it went for 5 years ago. Lots of banks are holding the bag on potentially trillions of dollars in fixed assets if individual Americans default on their loans.
But sure, let's blame the banks and the financial institutions. It's a lot easier to blame them than the dead beat cousin or uncle we know who bought a $200k house with zero down, interest only ARM even though he gets fired from jobs every few months because "his boss was an asshole".
But let's be real, individual Americans caused this crisis. I'm more than happy to blame the Democrats who put pressure on financial institutions to get the poor into homes. But at the end of the day, it's we, the people who brought this on ourselves.
It's not greed and corruption on wallstreet that caused this mess. It's greed and corruption of millions of Americans who decided they wanted "stuff" they knew, deep down, they couldn't afford and then blame the banks and financial institutions for not being able to figure out the actual value of these assets now.
Where's McCain's straight talk?
#2 Valuing being buddies with his Senate colleagues more than serving the American people
McCain values experience over ideas. If one of his senate colleagues disagrees with him, he'll chalk it up to a "difference of opinion". Only on foreign policy is McCain willing to talk about what's dangerous.
You know what was really dangerous, McCain? Shoving a naive "campaign finance law" down our throats that restricts the ability of Americans to voice their opinions during an election.
When it comes to affecting our freedoms, in a real world, practical, every day sense, domestic policy is more important than foreign policy and McCain has no real understanding or passion for it.
Obama has a passion for domestic policy. He believes in equality of results. He sees the gap between rich and poor and thinks the government should do something about it. I think he's disastrously wrong but McCain will do little other than have a polite disagreement with Obama and Biden over basic issues that affect our basic freedoms.
McCain has plenty of passion about Obama talking about Pakistan but very little when it comes to Obama's vision of having the government take over our health care needs or Obama deciding how much people "deserve" to make or Obama's beliefs on how we should live, what languages we speak, and what cars we should drive.
If McCain deserved to win, he would be passionately defending the American people against what Obama really is. There are millions of Americans who share Obama's vision for America and Obama is a fantastic advocate for them. McCain is a terrible advocate for the millions of Americans who disagree with Obama's vision and deep down, we're not even sure if McCain even has a vision of what the American ideal is.
Obama would rather Americans have a poorer standard of living overall than to have such a gulf between the rich, the middle class, and the poor. And there are lots of people who agree with him. But there are millions of undecided voters who don't realize what path Obama would take us towards.
A simple, passionate speech entitled "The government is not your baby daddy" by McCain could go a long way. But no straight talk from McCain.
No, McCain will fixate on some comment Obama made about Pakistan rather than the substantial policy issues that Obama favors that would be ruinous to the American spirit.
#3 Nitpicking attack ads instead of substance
McCain's ads are almost all negative. I don't have a problem with that in principle but they're almost all petty and nitpicky. If his ads were explaining the consequences of an Obama presidency that would be one thing.
McCain's ads should focus on a couple of topics and pound on them:
#1 LOWER THE DEBT. Explain how our borrowing is undermining our way of life and sapping our strength. Explain that yes, it's going to require freezing spending but as Americans, we can do it.
#2 ENERGY INDEPENDENCE. Explain how we're funding our adversaries around the world with our addiction to oil. Explain the plan to drill for more oil domestically, build nuclear plants and push for more clean coal tech while at the same time pushing hard for plug-in Hybrids and other types of vehicles that use energy that is cleaner and home produced.
#3 WRAP UP THINGS IN IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN. Explain how we are going to being drawing down troops in Iraq now that the situation is stabilizing and how we're going to continue to disrupt Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
That's it. He's talked about these things a little bit but these are the 3 things he should just beat home over and over. They're all winning strategies and if he just pounded on those 3 things.
Ads about "cleaning up Washington" are stupid and cliche. We've heard these vague promises before. Be specific.
Of course, McCain won't and that's why he deserves to lose.