McCain camp promises not to prioritize Middle East peace process and to scuttle Israel-Syria talks.
Jon Alter has this so, so right.
From Countdown …
[Y]ou remember the Keating Five scandal that he was a part of, which, by the way, it’s crazy but there’s been very little about it in the press in the last few weeks. And McCain thinks he’s getting a hard time, he’s really getting a free ride on the fact that he was in the middle of the last great financial scandal in our country. But his reaction to that, you would have thought, would have been more regulation of the financial services industry. Instead he moved forward on campaign finance reform after being caught in that scandal, but did nothing – nothing – to try to prevent another savings and loan crisis from happening down the road. He was missing in action when it came to even learning the basic lessons of a scandal that he said taught him all kinds of things that he would never forget.
Let’s face it. On major economy-imperiling financial scandals brought about by lax regulation and help from lobbyist-encrusted politicians, McCain really is the candidate of experience.
The guy John McCain has chosen to manage his presidential transition was lobbying for Freddie Mac until this month.
And from McCain …
McCain has labeled Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as prime culprits in creating the financial storm that has roiled Wall Street and Washington.
“At the center of the problem were the lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats who succeeded in persuading Congress and the administration to ignore the festering problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” he said last week in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Honestly, I expect a lot of hypocrisy of all politicians, of both parties. But John McCain is really in a class of his own.
New dueling TV ads on the economy are out from both campaigns. That and the day’s other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.
CNN punk’d on Palin probe? Check out this piece on her decision to cooperate with the investigation (i.e., the sham one she set up after McCain helped her shut down the real one.)
I notice that the McCain campaign has now explicitly named Max Boot as a key advisor and campaign surrogate. So I’d be interested in seeing a list of all the completely insane things Max has said and written over the last decade. My favorite is when he told me — circa 2002 — that the US should seize and confiscate the Saudi oil fields and run them as a protectorate.
There are plenty of examples. And they’re a good way to illustrate the nuthouse a McCain foreign policy would be. Please take a look and see what you can find and then send in the best stuff with citations.
Sen. Obama is saying his spending programs may have to be delayed in light of the massive bailout bill. A few questions though, What about McCain’s high income tax cuts that would go to the CEOs who created the mess? Any word on that? Still full speed ahead on that? Second, as we’ve discussed, if the Treasury bought these junk securities at real market rates and then held them until the market stabilized they could likely make money for the taxpayer. But that’s the key, if they pay fair market rates very little money would go to the banks who are looking for their bailout and free ride back on to the gravy train. So that’s an unresolved question. And remember, if Obama wins, his Treasury Dept. would be administering a lot of this. So are they planning to pay premium prices for the worthless or near worthless paper the banks are trying to dump on the public (in order to recapitalize the banks at public expense)?
From the AP:
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has not held a press conference in nearly four weeks of campaigning, on Tuesday banned reporters from her first meetings with world leaders, allowing access only to photographers and a television crew.
CNN, which was providing the television coverage for news organizations, decided to pull its TV crew, effectively denying Palin the high visibility she had sought. …
The campaign told the TV producer, print and wire reporters in the press pool that follows the Alaska governor that they would not be admitted with the photographers and camera crew taken in to photograph the meetings. At least two news organizations, including The Associated Press, objected and were told that the decision was not subject to discussion.
Late Update: The Times has more details about what it calls the “media rebellion.” There’s some suggestion that the McCain camp has relented, at least in part, though that’s not entirely clear.
Later Update: Looks like the campaign relented on CNN being able to take a producer to the photo op, according to Politico:
The campaign also at first moved to bar CNN, the television network designated for pool duty, from sending its editorial producer – basically a hybrid print/video journalist – though the campaign budged when the network threatened to withhold its cameras as well.
Latest Update: All just a “miscommunication,” a Palin flack now tells the AP. Reporters and producers will be able to accompany cameras into Palin’s later photo ops with world leaders. The AP, in its obscure way, telegraphs that there was no miscommunication at all. The same flack had earlier said no reporters or producers were going to be allowed in the photo ops.
Later Than Late Update: Here’s the pool report from Palin’s photo op with Hamid Karzai from which print reporters were excluded. Not sure which is more pathetic: that Palin is so not ready for primetime she can’t risk a photo op in the presence of real reporters — or that the traveling press decided to stake its righteous claim on missing a 29-second photo op.