First McCain takes both sides on bailouts. Then McCain says the fundamentals of the economy are sound, being completely out of touch. Then McCain lashes out about whom he will fire. Then McCain makes personal attacks on Barack Obama.
McCain’s anger, ill temper, and penchant for personal attacks leads even conservative columnist George Will to criticize McCain for what Will (correctly) calls “slander” and to say what many Republican senators have long said, questioning whether McCain’s temperament would be dangerous in the presidency.
Some significant bailout will be needed because of the economic failures of Bush, McCain and Republicans in Congress who now seek almost total economic power to reward their catastrophic economic failures. Yet as in the 2002 Iraq war resolution, they use fear to seek power. As in the Patriot Act, they seek panic to attack checks and balances. The trademark of Republican rule is to try to use enormous failure to seek enormous powers and to use fear and panic as weapons for this power.
It’s a turning point in the campaign. Republican failure. John McCain’s lashing out. The hunger for pure power. The use of fear and panic in the quest for power. The rewards for the rich and powerful and the punishment heaped on the middle class and the poor. The violation of every principle of principled conservatism and now, a leading conservative columnist questions McCain’s temperament and tires of McCain’s personal attacks and lashing out.
Congress should pass a solution with checks and balances, with common sense, and with intelligence and caution that Bush, Paulson and McCain lack.
The campaign has reached a turning point, and tolerance for McCain’s personal attacks, lashing out, angry politics and confused policies has run out. This is exactly what voters do not want in a president, in a crisis.