In other news

I know you've likely come over here to read my blog to find out about the financial crisis. A rare beam of common sense has flickered through the halls of Congress, and the House of Representatives summoned the wisdom to defeat by a small but decisive margin the ransom... errr, I mean bailout plan from the Treasury. Well, I believe that whole issue is going to come back, and there will probably be some sort of bailout once the real issues get sorted out. [Ed. Indeed, that has happened with Friday's passage of the now $850 billion bailout]

What I'm thinking about right now is how stunningly bad and cynical the GOP has become with its choice of presidential candidates. McCain is an honorable man. He's a good man for the party because he's a loyal, knee-jerk conservative who can be trusted to speak and vote the conservative party-line. He also knows a lot of people in Washington, and he seems to be reliable.

The problem is he's not a thinker. Far from it! When some tired, overused Republican nostrum fails to address a situation, he rummages around in his briefcase until he finds another one. He's also a victim of the fawners in his party who are looking to climb the ladders of power. He's got bad advisors. And they get him into trouble—are you listening Phil Gramm?

Here's what Paul Krugman says about the problem today in the New York Times:

The real revelation of the last few weeks, however, has been just how erratic Mr. McCain’s views on economics are. At any given moment, he seems to have very strong opinions — but a few days later, he goes off in a completely different direction.

Thus on Sept. 15 he declared — for at least the 18th time this year — that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” This was the day after Lehman failed and Merrill Lynch was taken over, and the financial crisis entered a new, even more dangerous stage.

But three days later he declared that America’s financial markets have become a “casino,” and said that he’d fire the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission — which, by the way, isn’t in the president’s power.

And then he found a new set of villains — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored lenders. (Despite some real scandals at Fannie and Freddie, they played little role in causing the crisis: most of the really bad lending came from private loan originators.) And he moralistically accused other politicians, including Mr. Obama, of being under Fannie’s and Freddie’s financial influence; it turns out that a firm owned by his own campaign manager was being paid by Freddie until just last month.

Then Mr. Paulson released his plan, and Mr. McCain weighed vehemently into the debate. But he admitted, several days after the Paulson plan was released, that he hadn’t actually read the plan, which was only three pages long.

On one hand we've got McCain flopping around like a big salmon out of water, reacting to everything he sees with equal parts pugnaciousness and desperation. And on the other hand we've got Sarah Palin, whose still trying to get a few things straightened out in her mind—like who some important people are, and whether she should stick to her "you can see Russia from Alaska" remark as the linchpin to her foreign policy. Hint, Sarah—don't bother to defend hyperbole. It was a toss off remark. It's OK to admit that.