The death of Reaganomics.

Obama gets it spot on. McCain can't be the person to sort out the lack of regulation on Wall Street as McCain doesn't believe in regulation.

He has said the American economy is strong more than sixteen times during this campaign alone, so it is simply not feasible for him to now, as it collapses, to pretend that he understands it.

His campaign has been changing their stance on this so much that it is becoming laughable.

On Monday morning, as the financial system absorbed one of its biggest shocks in generations, Senator John McCain said, as he had many times before, that he believed the fundamentals of the economy were “strong.”

Hours later he backpedaled, explaining that he had meant that American workers, whom he described as the backbone of the economy, were productive and resilient. By Tuesday he was calling the economic situation “a total crisis” and denouncing “greed” on Wall Street and in Washington.

Obama blames not McCain, but the economic philosophy which he ascribes to, for the current economic woes, and he is right to do so.

The Republican party have, since the days of Ronald Reagan, favoured deregulation and a worship of the power of the market to sort things out on it's own that has bordered on fanatical. It's simply ludicrous for McCain to offer himself up as the person to impose regulation as he has proven - throughout his 26 year career - that he simply doesn't believe in it.

He, and the entire Republican party, have ascribed to Reagan economics and it is the entire Reagan economic philosophy which is dismantling in front of our eyes. Regulation is necessary as the Democrats have always said.

The Republican belief of Reagan economics was always that the more one gave to the rich, the better the whole of society would be as wealth would "trickle down" to the rest of us. It was as audacious as it was utterly false.

Obama:

"What we have seen the last few days is nothing less than the final verdict on an economic philosophy that has completely failed".

Reaganomics is dead and McCain has struggled during the current election to accept that fact, constantly making Reaganesque arguments, only to later have to withdraw them:

His first big speech on the mortgage crisis warned against excessive government intervention; a month later he released his plan for government action to help people keep their homes.

McCain is, like many Republican politicians, operating on a map of reality which is outdated. They are spouting meaningless cliches. And, McCain's constantly changing positions are merely a reflection of that fact.

UPDATE:

Here is Obama's entire speech. It is so unusual to hear an American politician speak with such confidence and such assurance on this subject.



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Tags: Obama, McCain, US economy, Reaganomics, Reagan, Wall Street, Wall St, US election 2008