NRO: The Middle Class Wallet

By historical standards, tax rates are low, Fed policy is loose, and trade is free. Growth has been picking up. Resurgent inflation threatens the economy more than recession does. Most people have no reason for fear about their jobs. But a lot of people are getting squeezed by higher prices. A conservative economic agenda can address the public’s concerns better than a liberal one can — and John McCain has an opportunity to present one.

McCain’s campaign needs to get out in front on a few things.
It’s really sad that they haven’t already, really, as they have squandered precious time and are allowing perceptions about McCain to sink in and harden. It looks like McCain’s campaign is reacting politically on 0bama’s turf. This is the wrong thing to do. Instead, McCain should be playing experience up again. But not ‘experience’ in general, but rather his specific legislative experience.

McCain sponsored a bill in 2005 to reform Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, so why is he playing defense to 0bama on this issue? What was 0bama doing in 2005? I doubt he even knew what Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac were back then. McCain needs to be presenting himself as a knowledgeable and experienced manager who has seen these problems coming for a long time, because he is, and he has. Why his reaction has been what it has been makes no sense at all. It’s not reinforcing confidence in him as a leader who can be turned to in troubled times. If McCain frames the situation in easy to understand terms, and makes the case for his own expertise in dealing with these issues — something 0bama simply cannot match — then McCain wins this argument. But so far, 0bama is clearly winning it, and that’s a damn shame. Instead of turning to populism and pandering, McCain should be turning to experience and knowledge.

McCain talks about making pork barrelers ‘famous’. Well, right now he should be making Franklin Raines famous. Very famous. And Robert Rubin. Both of these men are responsible for the banking crisis, and both men are 0bama advisers. McCain needs to lead a charge against them.

McCain needs to be placing the blame squarely on Rubin and the Clinton administration for repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, instead of blaming Bush. Simply blaming Bush won’t help. In fact it hurts McCain. Because no matter how much McCain distances himself from Bush, he is still going to be more closely tied to Bush than 0bama is. To the extent that Bush’s policies are blamed, it harms McCain and only McCain.

The correct way for him to distance himself from Bush is as a manager. He should blame not Bush policies, as that only sticks to himself, but Bush’s management style, priorities, sweeping neglect, and yes, competency. If he wants to distance himself from Bush, it should be as a serious manager who is more interested in solving problems than playing politics and scoring points. It’s not Bush’s overall philosophies that are unpopular. It is the way he implemented them — or didn’t.

McCain should paint a picture of how he would govern day to day as a manager behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office that differs from both Bush and 0bama. It’s called Leadership. McCain has a huge Leadership advantage over 0bama, so he ought to be exploiting it right now.

McCain should also be calling for more than a commission to look into the problems on Wall Street. He should be calling for a special prosecutor to investigate these 0bama advisers. Right now, Nancy Pelosi is putting together a team of all of the Democrats in congress who are responsible for the meltdown to place the blame on Bush. McCain should not be part of their chorus. He should be offering an alternate view. He should be placing the blame on the guys Nancy has appointed to cover up their mess.

Also McCain should be highlighting 0bama’s recent comments about McCain’s ‘outrage’ at Wall Street, where 0bama says that cutting taxes is an odd way to ‘punish’ them. McCain needs to put these words into perspective. 0bama is saying that investors — those Americans who own stocks — should be PUNISHED, and the way to do that is raise their taxes. That view speaks volumes about 0bama. McCain needs to point that out.

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