Matthews Blames Bailout Crash On McCain's Failed Leadership

Chris Matthews points to John McCain's failure to provide the leadership that he promised -- and took credit for:

McCain said he was going to lead the Republican charge, he was going to make sure that this was a bipartisan success...he called charge, and the Republican retreated. That's what happened here.

Here's video:

Here's what McCain staff and surrogates were saying before the vote:

"This bill would not have been agreed to had it not been for John McCain... This is a bipartisan accomplishment, a bipartisan success. And if people want to get something done in Washington, they just watch John McCain. He's been the guy whose name is at the top of major pieces of legislation for a long time."
-- Mitt Romney, NBC's Today show, 9/29/08

"What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all of the parties to the table, including the House Republicans, whose votes were needed to pass this"
-- Steve Schmidt, NBC's Meet the Press, 9/28/08

"We're optimistic that Senator McCain will bring House Republicans on board without driving other parties away, resulting in a successful deal for the American taxpayer."
-- McCain spokeswoman Kimmie Lipscomb, 9/26/08

Comments

[sej100]

McCain is such a liar and grandstander. What he wants is to keep knowledge of his staff full of lobbyists for Fanny Mae from the press so he lead a charge blaming Obama for sins of the GOP.

And do not forget Mr McCain is MR DEREGULATION who helped secure this crisis in the first place.
And former member of keating 5

[dphilip]

uh huh, hey, go to Naked Emporer or Rush Limbaugh and watch rhe video of the 2004 House Hearing where the democrats assaulted the governmebt regualtor for trying to prevent this problem. Meeks, Waters, Frank. all of them saying "you ain't touching my cash cow son!
Talk about an "inconvenient truth"!

[PT6]

--------------------START IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS WEDNESDAY!-------------------

-----------------EVEN HIS OWN PARTY DOES NOT RESPECT HIM!--------------------

-----------------EVEN WALL STREET DOES NOT RESPECT HIM!-----------------------

-----------------HE HAS DRIVEN US INTO CHAOS AND OFF A CLIFF!-----------------

------------------------------INCLUDE CHENEY AND ROVE-----------------------------------

HAVE LOST OVER 40% OF MY RETIREMENT TO THESE "COOKS" AND THEIR TRICKS!

McCain has suspended his campaign once!

So did Romney prior to pulling out!

So did Hillary prior to pulling out!

So the NEXT LOGICAL STEP IS FOR McCain TO GET OUT!

[spartanmom]

OMG, PT6, so sorry to hear that. Hang in there it might turn about in a few months especially if there is an Obama landslide.

[rockledge1900]

Yeah, McCain failed. What about Pelosi? She couldn't even bring all of her Democrats on board. And Chris matthews loves McCain... are you folks blind or just stupid. By the way, Obama's campaign is one big political stunt. Isn't it amazing that Obama had no desire to go to DC and maybe do his job for at least 48 hrs. Oh, I'm sorry... he got elected to the Senate for the sole purpose of running for President not to actually work on any meaningful legislation. Darn it, I keep forgetting that brilliant bit of work he pulled off on the congress on google masterpiece.

[Navy UDT]

Rock, are you a Stand-up comic? 'Cause you are really stupid funny.

[BillCarson]

What? After 8 years of George Bush you're not seriously thinking of voting Republican! Surely, you're not one of those few who still think Bush is doing a good job. It may be a different guy, but It's the same republican party, and it's the same republican platform. Same failed republican ideology.

It's time, once again, for the Democrats to clean up another republican mess. Obama 08

[monoxboogie]

You're so right... i can't fathom how right you are. The senate voted today NOT the House. Get your facts straight. It didn't pass by 12. The 12 Repubs who were on board but then got their feelings hurt by a speech. Really? A speech and you're throwing our country under the bus? What about all of Johnny boy's people saying it's going to pass because of Johnny boy?
"This bill would not have been agreed to had it not been for John McCain... This is a bipartisan accomplishment, a bipartisan success. And if people want to get something done in Washington, they just watch John McCain. He's been the guy whose name is at the top of major pieces of legislation for a long time."
-- Mitt Romney, NBC's Today show, 9/29/08

"What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all of the parties to the table, including the House Republicans, whose votes were needed to pass this"
-- Steve Schmidt, NBC's Meet the Press, 9/28/08

"We're optimistic that Senator McCain will bring House Republicans on board without driving other parties away, resulting in a successful deal for the American taxpayer."
-- McCain spokeswoman Kimmie Lipscomb, 9/26/08
and now it's Obama's fault? Did I just fall further down the hole and out the looking glass?

[Tyrione]

Hey Mono: Get your crap together. The HOUSE Voted, NOT the SENATE. 95 Democrats voted AGAINST the current Bill.
Grow a pair, take deep breaths and realize they will go to revision 3.

[leftcoastliberal]

Pelosi got more Dems on board than McCain got Reps, so I guess by your lights she's a better leader than he is. I agree one hundred percent.

P.S. If you're interested in what Obama's accomplished in the senate, you might want to go look on wikipedia. His work on weapons proliferation with Dick Lugar, Republican of Indiana, is particularly impressive in that it's vital to our national security, but doesn't often get much media scrutiny.

[BillCarson]

I would say that weapons proliferation is one of the most important elements in the global war on terror.

"Partnering first with Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN), and then with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Obama successfully introduced two initiatives bearing his name. "Lugar-Obama" expands the Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, including shoulder-fired missiles and anti-personnel mines."

http://obama.senate.gov/press/070111-lugar-obama_non/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_career_of_Barack_Obama

[hippiesandwich]

McCain's voting record (or lack thereof)
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd?id=300071&tab=votes

[LAThinker]

America has only one choice for Presidant this time - Obama

Anyone who thinks otherwise are either blind or hate this country

Obama 08/12

http://www.ucubd.com/Index.aspx?id=739&cid=3151

[LinuxLars]

I blame it on success - it was a horrible idea.

We need to investigate options:

1) Offer low interest rates to affected companies (still leaves decision/accountability/responsibility with the businesses

2) Insurance similar to FDIC

3) something else.

Bottom line is no bailout, we need to do what is best for our long-term future.

[JGoodhue]

Safe to say Pelosi tanked the vote. Although a House lead by the DEMS could have had whatever they wanted. Well, I guess we got what THEY wanted.

[handyallen1]

republican president ,republican responsibility, of course republican and responsibility is an oxymoron

[Navy UDT]

Hand..lol, good call.

[JGoodhue]

Every politicians responsibility. Again, the MAJORITY of the politicians in the House are DEMS. It would appear too many of them are up for re-election and didn't what the responsibility.

[monoxboogie]

Of course A republican would think "it's either my way or the highway". Not to try and do some sort of compromise, or wait and talk it out. You know, the way the Dems tried?

[funkalicious]

My shame is Obama only showed up saying presidential politics shouldn't be involved.
Well Bubba once the issue was raised you can' t just let McCain be the guy who takes the heat.

Thats what a leader does he makes decisions and put himself a the head of the spear. Other wise you could be Chris Dodd and hide under the bed.

McCain will get the press,especially if he comes back and forces some kind of deal. He has at least positioned himself to be a white knight Obama showed up and did nothing this is my fear.

We certainly cannot afford four more years of Bush policies. Step up Barrack time to take a crack at it it is the top of the ninth 3 balls 2 strikes.

[TrueThis]

What the h e l l are you talking about?

[Navy UDT]

He doesn't really know.

[simkmer]

McCain is no white knight! He is a crasher. And you are sounding a lot like Palin

[kjwhite]

Funkalicious - maybe you weren't following this story from the beginning. Senator Obama was the one that reached out FIRST on the issue of this bailout and felt it important to show some leadership to the country. He could have "played politics" and left John McCain out of that equation and just tried to get credit for himself, but working for some REAL bi-partisanship, he contacted McCain at like 8am one morning last week and suggested they put politics aside, and wanted the two of them to issue a joint statement of unity on the issue, outlining what they believe and planned to do.

That afternoon, instead of working WITH Sen. Obama, McCain instead decided to pull his publicity stunt, complete with "suspending his campaign" (ya right, what a joke that was) and requesting that Bush call a meeting so he could get a photo-op. Obama attended at Bush's request, and brought his senatorial assistant with him. McCain brought his CAMPAIGN manager. YOu tell me, who meant business and who was just seeking publicity?

Don't believe for a minute McCain was really trying to solve anything, he was just looking for publicity for himself, even if it endangered the negotiations and the American people. If he was serious about bi-partisanship, he'd have worked WITH Obama when he asked him to. He's a psychotic old glory-grabber and it backfired on him.

[spartanmom]

How is a self avowed economic ignoramus going to fix something he doesn't even understand?
And if he did at least bring people together, he'd have no way of knowing what the proposed solution meant!

Obama left the work in the hands of the people best equipped to handle it. It is called delegating and it is essential to good leadership.

[faithfully]

McCain doesn't have a clue about economics-so why did he barge in and try to rescue this huge mess?

McCain is a cynical, nasty, man, so why did he barge in and say he was showing leadership in bringing sides together?

McCain is a disaster;

[musselmanm]

John McCain needs to be tea bagged by all American males, one at a time!

[skippypicasso]

You've got some issues...your issues even have some issues.

[coco beast]

I think that if people were honest about this whole crisis, and looked at how it unfolded, there are lessons to be learned. It started with the big push for poor families to bypass saving for a downpayment, and bypass building some type of real career, to get that house that everyone should be 'entitled' to. A sane person would have to say "this is going to end badly". It doesn't matter what path it takes to end badly, it is going to end badly. That initial decision it the one that triggered the rest. You simply cannot bypass the steps of saving and practicing financial deligence, when it comes to allowing people to buy a major ticket item like a house. The unfortunate part is, that these poor folks were hurt worse from this whole thing, than if they were left alone to save their downpayment, etc. Sure, like most 'entitlements', it sounds great upfront, but in the end, like excessive welfare and others, it ends up hurting the people more than it helps.

[BillCarson]

Not just poor people, also middle class folks buying homes beyond their means with "no money down mortgages". Works great as long as you have a good job to pay the huge monthly payments, but if there's a down-turn it's a disaster.

So much for Bush's so-called "Ownership Society"

[kjwhite]

Poor people get it stuck to them no matter what they're trying to buy. The "poor" (a definition also now encompassing most of the middle-class) the ones that can least afford high interest rates, yet they're the ones that must pay them in order to acquire ANYTHING. Sad, they're used to having to pay the most for what they want. Car loans?---always shamefully expensive with bloated interest rates, cell phone?--- they must pay a huge deposit, need a refridgerator or a washing machine?--- they end up paying 4 times the retail price having to go through those rent-to-own places.

So when predatory lenders said hey, we'll give you a home loan, (a dream come true for a lot of people), but we'll have to do a flexible interest rate--- well, a lot of people said oh, no big deal.... Of course they didn't really understand what that meant, that your $600/mo mortgage payment COULD jump up to $1200 without any advanced warning.

That's why so many homes went into forclosure. The people could have managed the ORIGINAL mortgage payments just fine, but when the bottom started dropping out of the real estate market, these people's payments went up to ridiculous amounts.

Lots of people blame the home buyer, saying they had no business trying to buy a house if they were "poor", but these critics never consider how difficult it might be for even THEM to keep up if their house payment doubled overnight.

[ebwada]

This crisis might well have started in the sub prime market, but if you've done any digging at all you know that the value of all those sub prime mortgages together only accounts for about 110 billion dollars.

The real problem is the credit derivative markets. Totally unregulated, which is why no one knows the actual scope of the problem.

It's the main reason why the bailout bill should not have been passed. As I understand it there was nothing in the bill providing for regulation of the very market that has caused the bubble in the first place.

You may now stop blaming the victims.

[BillCarson]

>but if you've done any digging at all

Which I haven't :)

Do you have some good links. Wikipedia has a couple, I figure it's a good place to start...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_derivative
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_default_swap

Here's what the "smart" money has to say...

Warren Buffett (in 2002) described derivatives bought speculatively as "financial weapons of mass destruction."

"Unless derivatives contracts are collateralized or guaranteed, their ultimate value also depends on the creditworthiness of the counterparties to them. In the meantime, though, before a contract is settled, the counterparties record profits and losses--often huge in amount--in their current earnings statements without so much as a penny changing hands. The range of derivatives contracts is limited only by the imagination of man (or sometimes, so it seems, madmen).

[midwesthousewife]

How odd to blame "poor" people. They are to blame because bankers were willing to take the risk? It seems to me the bankers were the ones making the choice. Poor people and others could ask for a mortgage beyond their means, but it is the financial institutions that made the choice to finance them.

[combatveteran]

come on mid west get with the beat, don't you know thwe poor people run this country, and thats why its all screwed up.

[combatveteran]

"you my friend" are a simpleton

[jorge4u]

It feels as if the Republicans see the writing on the wall as to who will win the election. They are not stupid.

[BillCarson]

Speaking of which, McCain is tanking on intrade... http://www.intrade.com/

McCain 37.4 -4.3
Obama 62.5 +5.5

Over a 20pt spread for Obama.

[Navy UDT]

What do you mean they aren't stupid?

[faithfully]

They are stupid. I am waiting for the Republican party to come apart-oh maybe it already has.

[Kache]

What!

Blurting out random crap doesn't cut it? What else could a Republican want in a leader?

Who woulda thunk it?

[Teeninchee]

Send the gambler back to AZ for good. THis is the second gamble in this critical time. AMERICA FIRST??? This is 2 times when it's been McCAIN FIRST. Gambled HUGE and lost.

[musselmanm]

With all that experience, he should recognize that it is time to fold em!

[jse17]

"This is Palin as President - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abZLjIpHzj8"

WOW! I opened my wallet up for the 3rd time after watching this tragically realistic vignette!!!!!

[LAThinker]

It will not happen. Obama will win.

Meanwhile here is another rendition

http://www.ucubd.com/Index.aspx?id=705&cid=3151

[XME]

Thanks a lot...now I'll have nightmares for the next five weeks!

[ronnierayjenkins]

I blame it on this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcZSh1diQRQ