As virtually everyone–even the holdouts on rightist radio–now recognizes, this election is about the economy. It’s no coincidence that Senator McCain’s poll numbers have been sinking as the stock market has been tanking.
Last night’s debate was one of McCain’s few remaining opportunities to change the dynamics of the race. But to do so, to use a baseball analogy, he had hit at least a double, if not more. I’m not even sure he even connected for a single. Here were McCain’s three major economic talking points in coping with the recession:
- Earmarks
- Freezing government spending
- Some kind of mortgage bail-out plan
The first two of these are wild strikes, and the third is probably a foul off.
Earmarks: I assume that many, if not most, voters don’t like wasteful pork barrel spending. However, it’s not clear to me that this issue sways many votes, even during good times. Given how both parties indulge in earmarks, I suspect that many voters simply don’t believe a presidential candidate who claims he or she will end the practice. And even if they are inclined to believe to believe it, how many actually care?
During bad economic times, as we are today, voters are even less concerned. People are scared about their personal finances. They are worried about their jobs, their health care coverage, their home’s value, their retirement savings. During this time of duress, is a crusade against earmarks going to resonate? No.
Freezing government spending: A second tenant of McCain’s economic “plan” is to freeze government spending. This point misses with voters for the same reason that earmarks fails–Americans are more worried about their own economic fortunes than they are about deficit spending. They want government to do more, not less.
Moreover, as an economic matter, it simply doesn’t make sense to curtail government spending during a severe downturn. There’s no driver for jobs in the private sector, apart from health care. Government spending is the last refuge we have to combat unemployment. It would be foolish to cut it now.
Mortgage bail-out plan: This is the only economic swing McCain launched that may have connected. He unveiled this idea early in the debate. However, he failed to follow up and elaborate on the proposal; instead, he reverted to his worn, ineffectual lines on earmarks and government spending. So, I can’t comment on the merits of this idea, though my hunch is that it’s not going to gain political traction.
Given conservative opposition to increased government involvement in the housing market, and given the mortgage provisions already included in recent bailouts this plan looks like a non-starter to revive the McCain campaign.
Drastic times call for drastic measures. Once again Senator McCain failed to demonstrate that he can cope with the severity of our economic crisis.