McCain Tries To Fight Back On Economy

Having a history of saying he does not know much about the economy, along with a (questionably founded) belief by the public that Mr. Obama does, has hurt Mr. McCain very badly as of late. He tries to fight back with a new ad, which puts the blame for the mortgage crisis on the Democrats. It's strongest point is a clip by former President Clinton in which he says that Democrats blocked reforms of Freddie and Fannie by Republicans and himself.

It may well be an impossibly uphill battle to try to win the economy as an issue for Mr. McCain. Public sentiment is very much against him, and there is a historical perception of the Republican Party being very cozy with the "rich". Mr. McCain may have to settle for merely chipping away at the lead Mr. Obama has established.

While there is plenty of blame to go around for the financial crisis, let us not forget the roots of it. The creation of Freddie and Fannie, along with their nurturing and protection from regulation, along the Community Reinvestment Act (though there is not yet a consensus that this directly cause the housing bubble, it certainly did not help) was the domain of the Democrats. Both major parties share blame for a lack of regulation on CDS's, the WMD of the financial world, and on the over lending of the Federal Reserve. Republicans bear a slight majority of the blame for other sundry failures to regulate Wall Street.

Makes you wish there were more than two viable political parties, doesn't it?