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Panic City

9.23.08 @ 12:01AM

START PANICKING
Re: Robert Stacy McCain's Time for a GOP Panic?:

It's always time for a GOP panic when John McCain is out taking shots at Republicans. His potshot at Chris Cox last week is vintage McCain. In every emergency our boy slams his Republican friends first and conservatives hardest. Now he wants to nominate the Cuomo kid for SEC Chairman...what is John Sidney smoking these days?

A week ago I was ready to vote for him, but I don't know now.
-- Judy Beumler
Louisville, Kentucky

You can spin it any way that you can think of but the truth of the matter is that America woke up and realized that John McCain is losing his mind! I have been a Republican for most of my adult life and I've never seen anything like this. Sarah Palin is no more ready to VP than I am! In fact, I'm probably better qualified. And you want her to be a breath away from the presidency? With an aging man who seems to be suffering from senility? Are you crazy? Or do you think we are?
-- Nancy Hart

Robert Stacy McCain replies:
Well, certainly the proposal that Chris Cox be replaced with Andrew Cuomo as SEC chairman would be admissible as evidence of a Republican candidate's insanity. Putting a Democrat in charge of the stock market? As the kids say, that's wack.

In reading Robert McCain's article, I was thrown off. He tone seemed to indicate that the criticism of Sarah Palin has had a negative effect. He writes, "Relentless media criticism of Palin seems to have succeeded, at least temporarily, in turning Palin from an asset to a debit for the GOP ticket."

Although I am no accountant, I did learn enough in accounting to know that an asset is a debit in double-entry book keeping, while a credit is a liability. So either he's really saying that the criticism (or questions by some standards) has had no effect on Palin, or his accounting is as woeful as Fannie and Freddie's (ace lobbyist cum McCain advisor Rick Davis should have known). Like many Americans I wonder if Sarah Palin (let alone those who write about her) knows the difference between debits and credits -- knowledge fundamental to understanding America's financial crisis. The "criticism" of Palin could be more accurately characterized as asking questions of her mettle. There has been little outrage when difficult questions have been asked about Barack Obama and he has answered those questions. Palin meanwhile has been insulated from answering almost all questions and those being asked are decried as unfair.

Should you have the opportunity to interview our Vice Presidential candidate, go ahead and ask her what's the difference between credits and debits.
-- Matthew Beckwith

"The other" McCain wrote a book on sex, crime and corruption in the Democratic Party. Is there anybody who believes that the Republican Party is immune to these? Who traded an unattractive wife against a rodeo beauty with a lot of money?

Presumably "the other" McCain is not the right man to author a book on these flaws of the Republican Party.
-- Gabriel Sabbagh
Paris, France

The pre-election popular vote is irrelevant. Likely electoral votes would be more informative. Obama could win by a million votes in New York and California and lose by thousands of votes in many other states with more cumulative electoral votes.

Incidentally, it has been decades since pollsters didn't give the Democrat presidential candidate at least a 5% lead, even as late as election eve. Put not your trust in pollsters. They use numbers to effect change, not to measure it.
-- David Govett
Davis, California

I love how it must be the media's attacks on Palin taking their toll, rather than voters merely changing their minds about her as they get to know more about her.
-- Bob S.

Robert McCain refers to former Democratic consultant Jim Johnson as a "disgraced former lobbyist." And Mr. McCain also repeats a completely discredited claim, denied by both the Obama Campaign and Franklin Raines himself in an email Mr. Raines wrote to the McCain campaign. I have three questions. On what basis is Jim Johnson "disgraced"? If it is a disgrace to be a former lobbyist, then the McCain campaign would be utterly disgusting (i.e. Charlie Black, a chief advisor). So I think readers and Mr. Johnson deserve for Mr. McCain to cite examples of Mr. Johnson's public malfeasance that extend beyond him holding a different political perspective.

My second question is: there have been reported ties for days between current McCain staffers and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Today it was reported that Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager, was paid $2 million lobbying for the deregulation that Senator McCain is now blaming for the current Wall Street crisis. Why is that that is less noteworthy to Robert McCain than Mr. Obama's ties to advisors that have either not spoken to him or advised him in months? Also, it seems that Robert McCain is relying on outdated reports that said Franklin Raines was an advisor to the Obama campaign. He was not. They have spoken to one another only briefly on one occasion when Mr. Raines sought a meeting. This is a claim being made by both Mr. Obama and Mr. Raines who wrote an email to the McCain campaign complaining about the ad.

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