As one would expect, when a crisis occurs, a leader´s "true stripes" and "capability under stress" will usually show. Unfortunately for McCain, that´s just what´s happening with both John McCain and Barack Obama.
When the word hit this week about the financial failures on Wall Street and the market started plummeting toward earth, McCain was totally out of touch when he said that the "fundamentals of the [US] economy are strong". (McCain has astoundingly made this same comment in his past speeches, 15 times since last January) McCain has since spent the past week back-pedaling, saying that what he meant to say was that by "fundamentals" he meant that the "American workers" were strong.
This is the first time that I, or probably most Americans have ever heard "American citizens" being referred to as "economic fundamentals".
There have been a number of other glitches this week in the McCain / Palin Campaign rhetoric as they have cruised across the country. Here are just a few of them:
>>> McCain has now called for the firing of Christopher Cox, the current head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Of course, the SEC is supposed to be the organization that oversees the financial organizations and McCain wants him fired. This is almost laughable. John McCain, also known in Washington as "Mr. De-regulator", has personally been responsible for supporting the keeping of many US government organizations from being given the proper oversight. And if it wasn´t McCain personally, it could be hung on his many advisors, such as former Senator Phil Gramm or the many Washington lobbyists that currently run McCain´s campaign.
Mr. Cox announced right after McCain called for his firing that he has made it clear for months that he would be leaving the SEC at the end of President Bush´s final term.
>>> Even though McCain called for President Bush to fire the head of the SEC, he did not know the US Constitution enough to understand that the president may only choose the heads of these government commissions. However, after they have been confirmed by Congress, they cannot be fired by the President. Only the Congress can do that. (This has been commented on a number of times by the media over this past week.)
>>> Obama on the other hand, made the point that it seemed a bit out of line for McCain to ask for Cox´s firing with only weeks to go before the election and at the end of Bush´s term. Barack was probably correct when he said the best option would be to elect a new president that would get rid of the whole bunch in January, 2009.
>>> McCain said on Monday that he was against bailing out the insurance giant AIG. But, 24 hours later, he changed his mind because he had not taken the time to understand what effect loosing AIG would have on millions of American pensioners.
>>> Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska became the nation's most prominent Republican officeholder to publicly question whether Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has the experience to serve as president. "She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said in an interview published Thursday by the Omaha World-Herald. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say." Could Palin lead the country if GOP presidential nominee John McCain could not? "I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president," he said.
>>> To demonstrate how the Republican´s are running like rats from a sinking ship, Congressman Eric Cantor, R-VA, (Deputy Minority Whip), appeared on MSNBC´s; HARDBALL with Chris Matthews program. However, when asked by Matthews, Mr. Cantor would not even comment on the past 8 years of Bush´s tenure or the past 12 years of a Republican Congress run amok. All Cantor wanted to say was how McCain was a "Maverick" that would reform the Republican party that McCain had been a member of for 26 years.
Cantor then had the gall to blame all of the current problems on the last 2 years of a just barely "Democratic" congress. This is the congress that has had to deal with the record breaking number of Republican filibusters that has kept the Democrats from getting very little of the people´s business accomplished.
It was a pitiful display of cowardice and lack of party loyalty.
>>> In a Town Meeting this week with both McCain and Palin on the stage, Palin was asked about her specific qualifications in foreign affairs. Palin then rambled on (without answering the question) about how "ready" she would be if they were fortunate enough to win the White House. Then, she asked the audience to go ahead and asked her questions or to play "Stump the Candidate". Unfortunately, it was the end of the meeting and she then immediately left before any questions could be asked.
>>> McCain was asked on Thursday by a reporter if he would meet with the president of Spain if he became president. McCain stammered around and then said he would be happy to meet with the president of Mexico or any leader in Latin America that shared the same views as the United States. Pardon me, but since when was Spain a part of Latin America? (Later, McCain staff said that he did hear the original question, but they then failed to say why he then mentioned Mexico and Latin America……?)
>>> The Palin interview with Sean Hannity on FOX NEWS this week was very kind and gentle on Sarah Palin. It was filled with so many leading "softball" questions that the one hour FOX event is already being referred to as the; "Sean Hannity / Sarah Palin Slow Pitch Softball Tournament". In that hour, all the American public learned was that the McCain-Palin campaign is now about stealing Obama´s focus on "change". Also, that she used the word "reform" regarding Washington DC about 15 times. There were however, no specifics about anything regarding her qualifications or what they would do to reform the US capital.
It was really just a nice "chat".
>>> Ah yes, then there´s "Troopergate". At first, Governor Palin had embraced the bi-partisan Alaska investigation into whether she had over-reached her power in firing the state´s head of public safety. Now, after being selected by McCain, she has told her Alaska staff not to talk to the investigators, (before agreeing to join McCain, she had said that they should testify) and this week she says her husband will also ignore the investigator´s subpoena. (Kinda reminds you of Karl Rove, Harriet Meirs and Josh Bolton ignoring congressional subpoenas doesn´t it?)
In addition, this week a group of high profile Republican lawyers from McCain´s campaign showed up in Anchorage and are working hard to quash the bipartisan investigation.
>>> McCain spent a Town Hall meeting this week talking about how safe and friendly the off-shore oil drilling rigs were. He mentioned that the rig he visited last week was surrounded by hundreds of fish. He said the fish just "loved" the oil rigs. (Kinda like the caribou in Alaska just "love" to cozy up to the oil pipe line….right!) Unfortunately, McCain failed to mention that after Hurricane IKE, three oil rigs had busted loose and were today, just floating around in the Gulf of Mexico.
>>> We have all quickly learned that Sarah Palin has a very big ego, and that you can see the irritation on John McCain´s face when Palin´s takes charge. He gets very disturbed when she is seen being accepted by the voters more than himself as they are campaigning together. Well, this time it finally slipped out of Sarah's mouth while campaigning on the stump. Sarah referred to their campaign as "the Palin-McCain campaign", not McCain-Palin. Interesting freudian slip.
>>> McCain advisor, the "fired" CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina was on TV this week stating that "neither McCain or Palin were qualified to run a company the size of Hewlett-Packard". Needless to say, Carly is no longer being allowed to discuss anything with the media regarding the McCain campaign.
>>> And this article is being written on a Friday. There´s still a whole weekend available for more disasters to hit the Palin-McCain cam….oops, I mean the McCain-Palin campaign.
>>> Obama on the other hand has been cool and collected throughout this disaster and he has put forth a number of ideas for how we got where we are and what he would do when he wins in November.
The positive polls for Obama are already showing the results of this last week of campaigning.