It was interesting to see yesterday Barack Obama attacking not John McCain or Republicans but movement conservatism itself.
"[T]oo many folks in Washington and on Wall Street weren't minding the store," Obama said. "For eight years, we've had policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans. The result is the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.
"I certainly don't fault Senator John McCain for these problems, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to. It's the same philosophy we've had for the last eight years -- one that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. It's a philosophy that says even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise; one that says we should just stick our heads in the sand and ignore economic problems until they spiral into crises."
The banking crisis at hand really IS the worst bank crisis since the Great Depression. And it really is the result of thirty years of "reform" that movement conservatism brought to the US banking system--reducing reserve requirements for commercial banks by allowing them to carry more and more off balance sheet, undoing Steigel-Glass to allow more and more leveraged investing in the banking system, allowing the system to "self-regulate" through bond ratings agencies who, instead of regulating, were paid to tell their clients what those clients wanted to hear.
We're watching thirty years of borrowed boom coming to a crashing halt. It's the complete deleveraging of a supply-side driven boom snapping back like mouse trap.
Obama has been looking for an way to put John McCain on the defensive and recapture the high ground in this election and the banking crisis has presented him a unique opportunity--a moment when this wonky but crucial disaster is tangible to voters.
It's an area where Obama has been in front of the competition anyway. His speech following the Bear Stearns bail out was dead on the mark with regard to where the problems and solutions lay while his competitors were still talking subprime mortgages. And politically Obama needs to put McCain on the defensive about something more substantive than computer usage and campaign ads.
It's time for Obama to deliver a speech (it's still his political strong suit) explicitly attacking conservatism--tying conservative economics (fairly btw) to lost jobs, shrinking wages, retirement insecurity, and banking collapse--and offering New Deal--a package of policies designed to secure the American dream, where the gov't is a partner will the people not the enemy.
I know Barack is a student of great political speeches.... I hope he's got FDR's first inaugural at hand on the campaign plane.
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