WSJ Editorial Board Hits McCain For Cox Threat: "Deeply Unfair ... Un-Presidential"

The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board finds John McCain's sudden economic policy shifts less than inspiring:

John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does. But on Thursday, he took his populist riffing up a notch and found his scapegoat for financial panic -- Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

To give readers a flavor of Mr. McCain untethered, we'll quote at length: "Mismanagement and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch. The primary regulator of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino. They allowed naked short selling -- which simply means that you can sell stock without ever owning it. They eliminated last year the uptick rule that has protected investors for 70 years. Speculators pounded the shares of even good companies into the ground.

"The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the President and has betrayed the public's trust. If I were President today, I would fire him."

Wow. "Betrayed the public's trust." Was Mr. Cox dishonest? No. He merely changed some minor rules, and didn't change others, on short-selling. String him up! Mr. McCain clearly wants to distance himself from the Bush Administration. But this assault on Mr. Cox is both false and deeply unfair. It's also un-Presidential.

...

In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution.

Of course, McCain's answer was even more misleading because the President can't actually fire the SEC chair.

Comments

[Sandy248]

I guess we now know why the US Navy didn't see fit to promote John McCain to admiral. As the son of Navy 'royalty' and a former POW her should have been a shoo-in for a star but people noticed that his is indeed unfit to lead. I would like to hear from people who served in his unit upon his return from Vietnam. Notice that no one has come forward to speak of his leadership.

[steamboat]

Don't only pick on conservati­ves....I'd like to hear more about Franklin Raines's $25 million buy-out.

[charon]

Bush wants this bailout more than anyone--he knows he's about to be blamed for the new Great Depression and he and his buddies are going to lose a bundle if he doesn't go socialist on us. He'll be more reviled than the infamous Mudd if he doesn't keep the economic Katrina from hitting while he's in office.

[iswideopen]

John McBush IS CONFUSED. At 72 years old, what do you expect. Add that to his finishing 4th from the bottom of his navy class and this is what you get; dumb, stubborn, and stuck in the past of the Viet Nam war. John McBush has a "bad temper". I saw this with my own eyes every day this week on cable. He became angry and it showed, in the worst kind of way. Hope he doesn't keep spinning so fast he gets dizzy next week because THE ECONOMY ISSUE IS NOT GOING AWAY ANYTIME SOON. "We The People", are PISSED.

[babyboomerorig]

Poor McCain...i­t must be hard to keep putting your foot in your mouth day after day.

He has the worst advisors and he picked them himself, right? Gotta feel sorry for a man who doesn't have the where-with-all to do this to himself. It shows what kind of administration he'd have. If elected, we're in really deep doo-doo.

[ensure]

Presidential Poll: Barack Obama Expands Leads Over John McCain:
http://www.sefermpost.com/sefermpost/2008/09/presidential--5.html

[Donnybroke]

"John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does."

BO doesn't understand either?

Say it ain't so.

[Tommygun264]

So I guess the fact that Barack Obama is meeting with current and former Fed Chairmen and the current Secretary of the Treasury - actually taking the time to educate himself - while McSame toddles from one staged "town hall" info-mercial to another, confusing the FEC with the SEC and trashing Senator Obama with half-truths and outright lies, has no bearing on who is more Presidential in their priorities and temperament. Senator Obama is trying to help figure out a way to fix the damage while John McSame and Caribou Barbie are obsessed with winning election for themselves at any cost. Who's putting "Country First"? Not McSame/Palin

Obama/Biden '08

[INDmind]

He sure needs a lot of educating on a lot of areas. Who will Obama meet with next?
Stay tuned for "On the job Training with...."

[radical1]

Right! McCain shoots from the holster, so to speak, without first looking or thinking. There is a need to convince unintelligent votersof the need to have a deliberate president who thinks before he acts or speaks. And exactly in Bush Style. "Out of sight is not out of mind" as far as Bush is concerned.

[jrterrier]

sure, the WSJ is protecting one of their own -- Cox.

[lthuedk 1]

How's fascism working for the trolls? http://www.light-to-dark.com/finger_puppets.html

[MariaHopeful]

No way this would be a close election if the traditional media was doing its job. Had they been doing their job everyone would know by now that John McCain is a doddering old man. That he has no clue. That he is no Foreign Affairs expert. He doesn't know where Spain is, he doesn't know that Czechoslovakia no longer exists, that Pakistan and Iraq do not a border share. He doesn't know about the dynamics between Persians and Arabs, the Sunnis and Shiites and others. That being able to see into Russia doesn't mean that you are an expert on Russian affairs. Obama would be out of the race by now if he made one tenth of the gaffes that this old man makes. It is simple astounding to me that people think he is more fit to be POTUS than Obama. The cool, calm, unruffled, knowledgeable, intellectual, elegant, handsome and technologically savvy Obama. If this old man were to beat Obama come November, this would say more about this country than about either men.

[barackobama4prez]

flagged for being an excellent post!

[BenMajor]

Watching McCain these days is like watching a deranged puppet dangling in the winds of reality. His lips barely move, but out comes the cynical and dysfunctional tirades of Rove and Schmidt. With every speech he gives, we find him jerking and lurching about, saying something that contradicts what he said just days or hours before. It's a never-ending charade, where anything and everything he says or does can be revised or denied, where truth is not only irrelevant, it's "insulting", "unpatriotic," or "sexist". The damage this man has done to his own honor exceeds by far anything Obama would ever contemplate doing. The thought of the Republicans bringing this creepy puppetry into the White House frightens me deeply. Conservatives and bigots might fear a brilliant rational African-American, but I'll gladly take that over a crazy and embittered hypocrite any day, in heartbeat.

[radical1]

Yes, and McCain flails his arms when speaking as if trying to swin out of his cess pool.

[jrterrier]

his jerky arm motions are caused by the fact that he is unable to raise his arms or have normal movement because of the torture he sustained while a prisoner of war. don't be a jerk.

[jeffp26]

SEC, I thought you said SEX.

[blue meanie]

"Of course, McCain's answer was even more misleading because the President can't actually fire the SEC chair." I almost missed this last line.

[AliHajiSheik]

The repubs that read the journal are slowly walking away from the ticket, at least based on anecdotal evidence. They are concerned about his lies, his inability to grasp the economy and his choice of Palin who is an affront to the intelligent.

The repubs that get their news from the Bible will never leave, but they aren't capable of winning it for Walnuts themselves.

[armadillious2002]

Instead of firing the Head of SEC - let's just fire the damned republicans how's that? This was all on their watch - We need an ad stating something like this.

[MariaHopeful]

I bet they will turn this around as they did 911. It happened on their watch but they are more capable of dealing with such challenges. Here comes the spin again...