Matt Yglesias

23 Responses to “McCain: “I’m Not an Expert on This Stuff””

1. Dave Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 10:22 am

   You can’t have it both ways Matt. If you don’t think a bailout is needed (which you apparently don’t), it’s not really fair to complain if McCain doesn’t go along. I do think one is needed, and I am blaming McCain.

2. mark f Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 10:22 am

   The joke plan that, it’s worth noting, is totally at odds with what McCain said he’d be looking for and the consensus plan matched.

   It’s almost as mavericky as the war with Spain.

3. Brad L Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 10:37 am

   Can we finally start calling him what he is?

   McCain, I dub thee… Johnny Drama.

4. Zach Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 10:56 am

   The Dem leadership in the House and Senate needs to stop pretending the House GOP plan doesn’t exist and start pulling out all of the big guns to rip it based on the 2-year capital gains holiday idea.

   That would mean $200-300 billion in reduced revenues over the next two years, and severely lower capital gains revenues for many years to come since everyone would take advantage of the holiday. Also, what does an artificial pressure to sell do to markets? Oh yeah, lower prices. Take that, stock market! What a fucking idiotic idea.

   Over 83% of capital gains taxes are paid by the top 3% of taxpayers. The plan McCain that McCain apparently finds deserving of serious consideration will simply give the richest three of every 100 Americans free money, with no strings attached to invest the money they save back into America to help recapitalize investment firms. Fucking brilliant.

5. Zach Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 10:57 am

   To add on to what I posted before, the response to the Cantor/GOP plan needs to be dead simple and clear as day:

   1. Eliminating the capital gains tax is dangerous
   2. Eliminating it temporarily is even worse
   3. Eliminating it will give almost all of the savings to the richest Americas
   4. It won’t do anything to fix the markets in the short term
   5. IT WILL COST MUCH, MUCH MORE THAN THE DEM/PAULSSON PLAN

6. Lon Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 11:12 am

   On the second episode of “Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia” this year, Mac explains his theory of why other people’s schemes work and their don’t. The explanation involves people falling into their proper tv role. The role he delineates are the brains, the looks, the useless female, and the wildcard. (His model here is partly Scoobie doo). The wildcard is difficult for the opposition to deal with because nobody ever knows what he is going to do, and so the opposition needs to tread carefully.

   McCain is playing the role of the wildcard here. There is nothing to explain his moves, or difficulty in responding to them, other than that they are unpredictable by design.

   One can understand the republicans in the house who believe in certain principles and object to the bailout plan based on those principles (even if those principles do not deal with reality). But McCain has not articulated any principles guiding his objection. Suspending his campaign to deal with the crisis in a bipartisan fashion was unpredictable. Rushing to Washington to scuttle the bipartisan deal that was fashioned without him was unpredictable. Dick Morris, who was trying to explain McCain’s behavior in a way that made sense guessed that he was going to go to Washington to get credit for getting Republicans in line. As it turns out, so far, not quite his plan. But then the plan simply seems to be to make waves by being unpredictable.

7. Njorl Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 11:18 am

   5. IT WILL COST MUCH, MUCH MORE THAN THE DEM/PAULSSON PLAN

   Yep, and cause more foreclosures too. Making the government insurer of all those mortgages would be like firing a starter’s pistol on a race to foreclose.

8. wj Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 11:41 am

   The Obama campaign should turn that into an add, if they’ve not already done so. Has anyone seen that in an advertisement? If so, can you provide me with a link?

   In general, I think that the time is ripe for Obama to produce a policy AND character based attack ad that (1) shows McCain’s admission to know nothing about economics (2) shows his claim that the “fundamentals are strong” and (3) mocks his “suspension” of the campaign. The question should be, Is McCain merely ignorant of the most important economic questions facing American families today, or is he, again, lying dishonorably about his intentions.

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