Loans and Leadership
Mar 28th, 2008 at 11:48 am by Susie
When George W. Bush first ran for the White House, political reporters assured us that he came across as a reasonable, moderate guy.
Yet those of us who looked at his policy proposals — big tax cuts for the rich and Social Security privatization — had a very different impression. And we were right.
The moral is that it’s important to take a hard look at what candidates say about policy. It’s true that past promises are no guarantee of future performance. But policy proposals offer a window into candidates’ political souls — a much better window, if you ask me, than a bunch of supposedly revealing anecdotes and out-of-context quotes.
Which brings me to the latest big debate: how should we respond to the mortgage crisis? In the last few days John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have all weighed in. And their proposals arguably say a lot about the kind of president each would be.
He concludes:
All in all, the candidates’ positions on the mortgage crisis tell the same tale as their positions on health care: a tale that is seriously at odds with the way they’re often portrayed.
Mr. McCain, we’re told, is a straight-talking maverick. But on domestic policy, he offers neither straight talk nor originality; instead, he panders shamelessly to right-wing ideologues.
Mrs. Clinton, we’re assured by sources right and left, tortures puppies and eats babies. But her policy proposals continue to be surprisingly bold and progressive.
Finally, Mr. Obama is widely portrayed, not least by himself, as a transformational figure who will usher in a new era. But his actual policy proposals, though liberal, tend to be cautious and relatively orthodox.
Do these policy comparisons really tell us what each candidate would be like as president? Not necessarily — but they’re the best guide we have.
Guess who Obama blames for the mortgage/Wall St. mess…..
This has got to be the worst nightmare-I’d say imaginable-but I don’t think anyone could have come up with this!
Actually, Steveeboy said the same thing last week.
Kevin:
Are you suggesting there is no link between President Clinton’s deregulation of the financial services industry and today’s problems? There is more to it of course, but Clinton, regardless of whatever right wing nonsense you may hear, governed as a centrist and after the budget balancing compromise his economic policies can only be called conservative: NAFTA, welfare reform, deregulation. He talked a good fight and initially at least looked ready to fight a good fight, but by year 3 of his presidency he was governing to the right of where Nixon had governed.
yep,
financial deregulation–including the repeal of glass steagall under bill clinton, is a major contributor to this crisis.
more of the DLC garbage that bill clinton and HRC represent.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=obama_v_krugman