1115.org

(1)
Normally, when something dominates the news the way the current financial sector meltdown has since last week, the media is full of stories about the last time something similar happened.

However, the Obama campaign has noted that the NYT has not run a single story about “the last major financial regulatory crisis, resulting in a huge bailout, and which John McCain was centrally involved in with his political godfather Charles Keating.”

Nor have most other media outlets of note, as far as I can tell. Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter spoke about this on MSNBC’s Countdown on Monday night:

… (McCain’s) really getting a free ride on the fact that he was in the middle of the last great financial scandal in our country. But his reaction to that, you would have thought, would have been more regulation of the financial services industry. Instead he moved forward on campaign finance reform after being caught in that scandal, but did nothing — nothing — to try to prevent another savings and loan crisis from happening down the road. He was missing in action when it came to even learning the basic lessons of a scandal that he said taught him all kinds of things that he would never forget.

But whether we can expect to see a story along these lines in Newsweek is anyone’s guess.

(2)
On September 17, McCain told CBS:

The influence that Fannie and Freddie had in the inside the Beltway, old boy network, which led to this kind of corruption is unacceptable…

Two days later, it was:

The financial crisis we’re living through today started with the corruption and manipulation of our home mortgage system. At the center of the problem were the lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats who succeeded in persuading Congress and the administration to ignore the festering problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

That must mean that John McCain was consciously trying to hire the sleaziest possible people in support of his candidacy, the scum de la scum, as it were.

Why else would he make one of Freddie Mac’s biggest lobbyists the head of his presidential transition team, the man who “earned more than a quarter of a million dollars this year representing Freddie Mac”? In fact, the only reason that William Timmons Sr. didn’t rake in even more from Freddie Mac this year was that the lobbying activities of Timmons’ firm “were barred under terms of the government rescue of the failed mortgage giant”.

And why else would McCain pick a former Fannie Mae lobbyist to be his campaign manager? Rick Davis’ firm, incidentally, was being paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac “from the end of 2005 through last month“.

(Two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement) said they did not recall Mr. Davis doing much substantive work for the company in return for the money, other than speak to a political action committee composed of high-ranking employees in October 2006 on the coming midterm congressional elections. They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis & Manafort, was kept on the payroll because of Mr. Davis’s close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who was widely expected by 2006 to run again for the White House.

(3)
Politico reminds us that since being crowned Lady-in-waiting to McCain’s Going-going-goner, Palin “has yet to hold a single press conference or take questions from any group of reporters”. But that’s fine. The American people are vetting her, are we not?

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign’s determination to protect her from any kind of scrutiny is leading to more and more ludicrous situations:

John McCain’s presidential campaign has shielded the first-term Alaska governor for weeks from spontaneous questions from voters and reporters, and went to striking lengths Tuesday to maintain that distance as Palin made her diplomatic debut.

The GOP campaign, applying more restrictive rules on access than even President Bush uses in the White House, banned reporters from the start of the meetings, so as not to risk a question being asked of Palin.

McCain aides relented after news organizations objected and CNN, which was supplying TV footage to a variety of networks, decided to pull its TV crew from Palin’s meeting with Karzai.
[...]
Before Palin’s first meeting of the day, with Karzai, campaign aides had told reporters in the press pool that followed her they could not go into meetings where photographers and a video camera crew would be let in for pictures.

Bush and members of Congress routinely allow reporters to attend photo opportunities along with photographers, and the reporters sometimes are able to ask questions at the beginning of private meetings before they are ushered out.

At least two news organizations, including AP, objected to the exclusion of reporters and were told that the decision to have a “photo spray” only was not subject to discussion. After aides backed away from that, campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said the reporter ban was a “miscommunication.”

Just keep reminding yourself that Sarah Palin is not only experienced but fully qualified. And ready to step into the presidency at a moment’s notice.