Bailout rejected: Politics or Management?

House Voted ‘No,’ 228-205 for highly political reasons : this crisis threatens an economic and political basis: the free-market.

Republican, like Jeb Hensarling, argue that "the country was on a 'slippery slope toward socialism'." He explains: "If we bail out risky behavior, we will soon see even riskier behavior". And he's right. Considering the free-market logic, to his merit, he's coherent.

This bailout is a band-aid made up in too much haste, which betrays the principles of deregulation and make the State plays a role is not supposed to play according to them. Changing the rules of the game will change the game.

Either the whole system needs a thorough review or it has to be let follow its own rules.

This crisis happens during a presidential race. This is the greatest opportunity to raise questions about going on or not in this system. Which role has to play the State? Which deregulation? To what extent? This is a fundamental matter.

And I'm surprised that both candidates are so caureful to bypass this debate. They are both preoccupied by putting the finishing touches of their own styles of campaigning and management: John McCain was focused on showing himself off and Barack Obama was "inclined to work the phones behind the scenes". This article underlines: "Mr. McCain, who came of age in a chain-of-command culture, showed once again that he believes that individual leaders can play a catalytic role and should use the bully pulpit to push politicians. Mr. Obama, who came of age as a community organizer, showed once again that he believes several minds are better than one, and that, for all of his oratorical skill, he is wary of too much showmanship."

But is this only an issue of management?

This Sunday, McCain said nothing more than this vague declaration: "This is something that all of us will swallow hard and go forward with" on ABC's This Week, while Obama only talked about his participating to the negotiations and the principles he proposed to make the plan better on Face the Nation:





As we saw, their moves weren't useless, since the Paulson plan was improved. But eluding a fundamental question, which will anyway come back in the aftermath of this bailout, is an opportunity, which the debate between the candidates as the debate in the country will miss.

McCain's gambling past: end of bets

Since we may say this financial crisis began because of a kind of gambling with mortgages, I assume McCain's gambling past, which the New York Times pointed yesterday, is quiet ironical.

More seriously, this article underlines: "Mr. McCain portrays himself as a Washington maverick unswayed by special interests, referring recently to lobbyists as “birds of prey.” Yet in his current campaign, more than 40 fund-raisers and top advisers have lobbied or worked for an array of gambling interests — including tribal and Las Vegas casinos, lottery companies and online poker purveyors."

Some conservatives call Sarah Palin to quit

Kathleen Parker writes in the conservative magazine "National Review", that "to express reservations about [Sarah Palin's] qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman."

She explains that she watches "her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted."

And she calls Palin to quit : "Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first."

We will let conservatives women saying everything they need to say about being a woman or being conservative...

It is accurate anyway that criticizing Sarah Palin is perilous, because of the fact she is a woman, even though this could be anti-woman not to criticize a woman because she is a woman.

Her speech is more than surprising, as in this segment of her CBS interview with Katie Couric:



Mocked this saturday on SNL :


But what precisely disturbs us about Sarah Palin, apart from her opinions, which may be strongly discussed, like, among a lot of examples, her billing sexual-assault victims for the cost of rape kits and forensic exams, when she was a mayor, as the New York Times brought it to light yesterday.

Is it really because she is not experienced enough? Or is it just because she is an outsider trying to sound like an insider, loosing the strength of her authenticity in this try, made up by a team of cynical advisers?

What is the problem with Sarah Palin for conservatives, which was not a problem with George W. Bush, who sounded quiet the same to me: inexperienced and dummy? This is a mystery only conservatives could solve...

1st one-on-one debate: Both candidates stuck to their lines

Maybe because Barack Obama was too well-prepared for this first presidential debate and McCain threw up screens of smoke: they seemed to stick to the lines of their campaigns.

McCain saved times on the economic issues and had not a lot to say, except this overused point : Barack Obama will increase taxes... He finally succeeded to slide the debate to Iraq.

He insisted on how Barack Obama does not understand, how naive he is...

And he once again plaid the POW card at the end.

Barack Obama may not have taken enough advantage about this long part on economy, which could have been a great opportunity for him...

His answer about his gaffe concerning his meeting Ahmadinejad without preconditions was well elaborated by really good advisers, who smartly linked it to a Kissinger declaration, and begins to be convincing:



His referencing McCain's confusion about Prime Minister of Spain Zappatero was well done and funny.

His insisting on his ability to restore US image to the world was good, since polls seem to agree with that point.

But all of it was made up before with his advisers and he may not have stretched out enough on this debate and reacted to John McCain.

An agressive campaign of screen of smoke, without any content but stunt on the one hand and on the other hand such an uptight effort to prove how ready he is... Nothing really new though...

By the way, when you insist that much to prove something, doesn't it turn out people see more the effort than the point you're trying to make?

MCain's shambles

Suspending his campaign was a bright idea of the McCain's advisers, since no other move seemed to be possible for him. But, as any stunt, it asks the man to stick to his line to be convincing.
This shambles on the Late show underlines how dishonnest this posture was...

State vs religion: Is Sarah Palin a witch?

For someone who stands strongly up for separation of church and state, this is impossible to make any difference between this prayer at DNC, which mixes politics and religion and uses both in a confusing way:



And this delirious worship :

Barack Obama resists

The Obama campaign found a good idea to answer to McCain's skillful move: "It's going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once." This may lower the impact of the surprise by making fun of it.

Morevover, Barack Obama insists not to postpone the debate and starts to connect the favorable subject of foreign policy to the more dangerous matter for McCain: the economy, by the smart bias of the global economy:



This could forecast a difficult moment for McCain, if Obama succeeds to make this point in the debate and to urge him to take an impossible position on the economy. But McCain is warned now...

John McCain's surprising trick

We saw how uncomfortable the crisis was for John McCain, unable to take a frank position without either alienating a part of his base or sounding too close to the Bush administration. His own record disproves his arguments somehow anyway.

The McCain campaign finds a skillful idea to wriggle out of this positioning deadlock: suspend campaigning! And to minimize the damages of McCain's taking position, they called for a joint statement with Barack Obama, using the need of a bipartisan solution as an excuse.

The surprise is delicious, creates a movement (we saw how the republican camp uses movement) and makes McCain sounded like a determined leader, even if he determined nothing but moving, actually suspending any movement...