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Monday, September 29, 2008
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Jacob Heilbrunn: Worse than Hoover So the verdict is in. The House's failure to pass the bailout bill means that George W. Bush's record will not be as bad as Herbert Hoover's. It will be worse.
When Hoover entered office, he called a meeting of economists and business leaders to discuss how the country should best deal with prosperity. Then came October 1929. The stock market plummeted and never really recovered until after World War II. At least Hoover didn't trigger the collapse himself and he didn't mire the country in a trillion dollar war.
Hoover, unlike Bush, was a progressive president. But he was also an adherent of laissez-faire economics, which meant that he was intent on balancing the budget. The economy would never have recovered on his watch. Franklin Roosevelt averted the worst by establishing the New Deal. But not until World War II did the economy really begin to hum.
Today it is Barack Obama who has the potential to create a new New Deal. John McCain joined together with the House Republicans, most likely in an attempt to ingratiate himself with the party's hard right, to scuttle Bush's proposal. Now it's back to the drawing board--if Bush even has anything to draw up. Like Hoover, Bush has been extraordinarily passive, letting his Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke take the lead. They, and he, were unable to close the sale. Will there be anything left to sell in coming weeks?
The irony is that the House Republicans may well be sealing Obama's victory in November. Should the economy continue to collapse, McCain won't simply lose the election, but be crushed.
<img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=8b8e4c341a1774715cd84250758c503b"; height="1" width="1"/>
<img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=8b8e4c341a1774715cd84250758c503b"; style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> - Jacob Heilbrunn [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com]
12:35:44 PM 
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After Taking Credit For Bailout Bill, Is McCain Campaign Willing To Share Responsibility For Its Failure?.  Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) hasn’t been involved in the deep negotiations over details of the bailout bill. In fact, he was largely silent during a meeting with President Bush and top congressional leaders. As the AP reported, the one role that both Democrats and Republicans alike were counting on McCain to play was to “deliver GOP votes” for the bailout bill.
Over the past week, McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign has already been to touting the senator’s success and casting his role as pivotal to bringing the parties together. His supporters have hit the airwaves, giving McCain credit for negotiating a deal:
“[T]his bill would not have been agreed to had it not been for John McCain. … But, you know, this is a bipartisan accomplishment, a bipartisan success. And if people want to get something done in Washington, they just watch John McCain.” — Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, 9/29/08
“Earlier in the week, when Senator McCain came back to Washington, there had been no deal reached. [base ']Ķ What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all the parties to the table, including the House Republicans.” — Senior adviser Steve Schmidt, 9/28/08
“But here are the facts, and I’m not overselling anything. The fact is that the House Republicans were not in the mix at all. John didn’t phone this one in. He came and actually did something. … You can’t phone something like this in. Thank God John came back.” — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), 9/28/08
“Before John McCain suspended his campaign yesterday, the situation that we’re looking at today looked very different then. After he showed leadership and called for bipartisanship, for us to partisanship aside and tackle this solution head on, here we are.” — Spokesman Tucker Bounds, 9/25/08
However, today Republicans failed to deliver the 70-100 votes needed from conservatives for the deal to pass. On the Republican side, 133 lawmakers voted against the bill; just 65 voted for it.
If the McCain campaign was willing to take credit for the success of the bill, does McCain also deserve credit for its failure?
[Think Progress]
12:29:48 PM
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© Copyright 2008 Patricia Thurston.
Last update: 10/1/08; 3:55:57 PM.
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