Political Jackass

Last night during the debate McCain revealed his new plan for the mortgage crisis. The problem is, it seems like he pulled it out of thin air and it went completely against something earlier he said. Here is what he said during the debate:

“As president of the United States, Alan, I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes — at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those — be able to make those payments and stay in their homes.

“Is it expensive? Yes. But we all know, my friends, until we stabilize home values in America, we’re never going to start turning around and creating jobs and fixing our economy.”

The problem is, McCain keeps saying how there is going to be an across the board freeze on spending in a McCain administration, “except for defense, Veterans Affairs, and some other vital programs.” That is going to be a huge increase of spending if he follows through.

McCain also stated that this is a plan that Obama (nor Bush) would support. Again, another lie by McCain. The Washington Post reported, “The Obama campaign called the mortgage idea ‘old news,’ saying that a similar Treasury Department program is already underway as part of the economic rescue package and that Obama backed it.”

Not only that, but in a statement two weeks ago from Obama, in his own words:

“[W]e should consider giving the government the authority to purchase mortgages directly instead of simply purchasing mortgage- backed securities. In the past, such an approach has allowed taxpayers to profit as the housing market recovered. This is not simply a question of looking out for homeowners; it’s doubtful that the economy as a whole can recover without the restoration of our housing sector, including a rebound in the home values that have suffered dramatically in recent months.”

So, McCain’s new plan is only new to him. Obama suggested something similar two weeks ago and the Treasury Department is working on a plan. McCain is also going against his pledge of a spending freeze and lied about Obama’s position (as if that’s new). Can you really trust John McCain? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. John McCain is a liar and a disgrace.

The guy that wants to change Washington supports the same deregulation that caused him to be a target of an investigation for fraud. Yes, that’s John McCain, the hero to the corrupt. From Keating Economics.

The current economic crisis demands that we understand John McCain’s attitudes about economic oversight and corporate influence in federal regulation. Nothing illustrates the danger of his approach more clearly than his central role in the savings and loan scandal of the late ’80s and early ’90s.

John McCain was accused of improperly aiding his political patron, Charles Keating, chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. The bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee launched investigations and formally reprimanded Senator McCain for his role in the scandal — the first such Senator to receive a major party nomination for president.

At the heart of the scandal was Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which took advantage of deregulation in the 1980s to make risky investments with its depositors’ money. McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating with federal regulators tasked with preventing banking fraud, and championed legislation to delay regulation of the savings and loan industry — actions that allowed Keating to continue his fraud at an incredible cost to taxpayers.

When the savings and loan industry collapsed, Keating’s failed company put taxpayers on the hook for $3.4 billion and more than 20,000 Americans lost their savings. John McCain was reprimanded by the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee, but the ultimate cost of the crisis to American taxpayers reached more than $120 billion.

The Keating scandal is eerily similar to today’s credit crisis, where a lack of regulation and cozy relationships between the financial industry and Congress has allowed banks to make risky loans and profit by bending the rules. And in both cases, John McCain’s judgment and values have placed him on the wrong side of history.

On a recent stop in McCain’s “Say Anything” tour, John stated that Iraq is “a peaceful and stable country now.” How do people still support this man? It’s apparent he will say or do anything to be President, no matter how much of it he makes up. He can’t win on issues so he attacks Obama, linking him to terrorists, lies about his own record, his VP candidate’s records, Obama’s records, his campaign manager’s business dealings. He is a man surrounded by lies and scandal and he wants your vote. Unbelievable. From Time Magazine:

Today, Time Magazine published an interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that it conducted aboard McCain’s campaign airplane. Reporters James Carney and Michael Scherer described McCain as “prickly” and “at times, abrasive” during the course of the interview.

Carney and Scherer noted to McCain that the Iraqi government is calling for a deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq even though McCain’s previously stated definition of “victory” — “a peaceful, stable, prosperous democratic state” — has not been achieved. The Arizona senator dismissed their characterization of the situation, saying that Iraq is “a peaceful and stable country now”:

Q: Some members of the [Iraqi] government have made it clear in the last month or two that they might want to withdraw before complete stability, before totally secure borders, before some of the completeness of victory as you described. Is there any change, do you think there is some wiggle room there because what you described with Petraeus was an end point that was rather complete — a peaceful, stable country.

MCCAIN: Its a peaceful and stable country now.

John McCain is a liar and a disgrace.

John McCain can’t do anything but lie in this campaign. He doesn’t have a platform to run on, so he lies and lies and lies. He is a disgrace. The straight talk express is now the train to lie-town, and John McCain is mayor. Here are some of his biggest lies via Politico:

1. On “The View,” McCain claimed Sarah Palin did not take or request earmarks as governor of Alaska. “Not as governor, she didn’t,” McCain said. But in her first year in office, she requested $256 million in earmarks from the federal government. Read more…

I think it’s obvious that McCain has lied, yet again. He’s not suspended anything. His campaign offices are still open. Campaign ads are still being shown. His website is still up and taking money. His puppets are still hitting the news shows talking about how great he is. He didn’t even arrive in Washington until almost a day after he said he was suspending his campaign, that was, of course, after hitting various campaign stops, including an interview with Katy Couric. So, why is this man so honorable again? Seems like he is nothing but a pile of lies. Sarah Palin lies. John McCain lies. They are both liars. And they want your vote.

Here is a great article from Salon detailing one person’s involvement with the McCain campaign. Basically, they ghostwrote letters, making up whatever information they wanted to (as long as it benefited the campaign) and then wrote response letters to their original made up letters. Nothing like trying to con the American public that people actually like you. McCain-Lies You Can’t Believe In.

“You can be whoever you want to be,” says an inviting Phil Tuchman. “You can be a beggar or a millionaire. A mom or a husband. Whatever. You decide!”

I volunteer in political campaigns now and then. After a series of outings for Obama and a first mission as a phone banker for John McCain, I returned to McCain’s headquarters in Arlington, Va. The offer was too alluring to delay — they wanted to put me into action as a ghostwriter. Next to commercials and phone banking, writing letters to the editor is the most important method of the McCain campaign to attract voters. At least that is what’s written in the guidelines that McCain campaign worker Phil Tuchman presents to me.

Today he is training six ghostwriters. What on earth is the appeal of McCain for the former Soviet bloc? Last time I was here, an exuberant Polish guy was phone banking next to me. Today, a Russian in yellow suspenders is shimmering at the same table, looking just like an actor who is famous in the Netherlands for star turns as a genius who suppresses his dark side with painstaking self-control.

The assignment is simple: We are going to write letters to the editor and we are allowed to make up whatever we want — as long as it adds to the campaign. After today we are supposed to use our free moments at home to create a flow of fictional fan mail for McCain. “Your letters,” says Phil Tuchman, “will be sent to our campaign offices in battle states. Ohio. Pennsylvania. Virginia. New Hampshire. There we’ll place them in local newspapers.”

Place them? I may be wrong, but I thought that in the USA only a newspaper’s editors decided that.

“We will show your letters to our supporters in those states,” explains Phil. “If they say: ‘Yeah, he/she is right!’ then we ask them to sign your letter. And then we send that letter to the local newspaper. That’s how we send dozens of letters at once.”

No newspaper can refuse a stream of articulate expressions of support, is the thought behind it. “This way, we will always get into some letters column.”

It is the day after Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican convention. Today, she is our main subject. The others are already enthusiastically hammering their keyboards. I am struggling with a tiny writer’s block. “Dear Editor …”

Phil Tuchman has handed out model letters, and talking points and quotes from Sarah Palin’s speech. But whom do I want to be?

Let’s loosen up my fingers a little first — and my principles, too. Am I actually allowed to make up letters? At the moment, it seems to be the only way to demonstrate how this is done in a campaign. So yes. I start practicing attractive sentences about Sarah Palin:

“Her biggest plus to me is that, besides being amazingly smart and qualified, she managed to remain a woman like us. She is the PTA hockey moms. She is the working mothers of special needs children. She is every caring mother of a challenging teenager.”

Her pregnant daughter Bristol (17) is not a talking point. A talking point is her son Track (19), who will be deployed to Iraq.

“And most of all, she is just like any mother of a child who deploys to Iraq in the service of this country.”

Now we are getting somewhere. I look around. I type:

“My son, too, is there.”

Oh god, you liar. Now build up suspense. New paragraph.

“And my heart needs him back safe so much.”

Yes, yes. Well done. Another paragraph — why not? Now let’s pump some iron in that mother, for after all, we are not with the Democrats here. Look up the right, patriotic phraseology in the model letters.

“But when I see him again, I also want to see his face glow with pride. Just like the day he told me he enlisted.”

Yes, like that. And now full speed in the direction of McCain’s plans to continue the war. Sell that war. With a mother’s heart.

“That is why Senator John McCain could count on my vote from day one.”

But whatever happened to Sarah Palin in this story? I gaze out of the window. This takes 10 minutes. Then:

“With Sarah Palin, I have even more reason to trust in victory. She represents my heart.”

Hmm. Does that sound like total doublespeak? Or does it sound like logical reasoning to a McCain supporter? I cannot come up with anything better.

“Sincerely …” I leave the dots for somebody else’s signature.

Does Phil Tuchman want to read it?

Phil bends over my computer screen and reads. This takes a while. I am expecting roars of laughter or to be kicked out. Then he says drily: “I like that. It appeals to the hearts of people. Can you write more letters?

Andrew Sullivan made a great post on 12 Lies of Sarah Palin. Make sure you check it out and read some more of his articles. He’s done a fantastic job this campaign season covering political news. Much respect goes out to him. Here are the lies that Palin told that have been proven to be lies:

- She has lied about the Bridge To Nowhere. She ran for office favoring it, wore a sweatshirt defending it, and only gave it up when the federal congress, Senator McCain in particular, went ballistic. She kept the money anyway and favors funding Don Young’s Way, at twice the cost of the original bridge.

- She has lied about her firing of the town librarian and police chief of Wasilla, Alaska.

- She has lied about pressure on Alaska’s public safety commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law.

- She has lied about her previous statements on climate change.

- She has lied about Alaska’s contribution to America’s oil and gas production.

- She has lied about when she asked her daughters for their permission for her to run for vice-president.

- She has lied about the actual progress in constructing a natural gas pipeline from Alaska.

- She has lied about Obama’s position on habeas corpus.

- She has lied about her alleged tolerance of homosexuality.

- She has lied about the use or non-use of a TelePrompter at the St Paul convention.

- She has lied about her alleged pay-cut as mayor of Wasilla.

- She has lied about what Alaska’s state scientists concluded about the health of the polar bear population in Alaska.

I don’t understand how people can trust the McCain campaign to tell the truth. This reflects very poorly on this man. Not only do they block investigations into their VP nominee, refuse to let her speak to the press, and lie about everything they possibly can about their opposition, now they are telling lies about the little things, which happen to be their mistakes. The McCain camp is saying this about the image they placed behind McCain during his speech:

“The changing image-screen was linked to the American thematics of the speech and the public school was simply part of it,” Mr. Bounds said, adding that during the speech, Mr. McCain “called for public education reforms that empower parents and students before bureaucrats and labor unions.”

This was said after the McCain campaign’s chief, Rick Davis, admitted it was a mistake. At the Google/Vanity Fair party celebrating the last night of the RNC, McCain chief Rick Davis was telling people the whole thing was the fault of McCain ad man Fred Davis.

What else is the McCain campaign lying about?