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Bring back Professor Obama
I read a comment somewhere about how it didn't exactly instill confidence to hear McCain speak woodenly about "credit default swaps" when he sounded like it was the first time he'd heard the term.
The economic crisis is the perfect time to put the nail in the coffin of the anti-intellectual propaganda of the right. I think most Americans are a little baffled by the nuances of the economy, but they're trying to understand it. And they probably are realizing that just bringing some random beauty queen off the slopes of Alaska to run the country has its risks. Rather than talk in broad generalities, Obama should take the time in each speech to explain the sources of the economic crisis in simple but accurate terms. He should demonstrate, as only he can, why we might want to put someone smart in the Whitehouse.
Obama's surrogates should remind people that Obama is brilliant--bring out all the economists from UofC who can talk about how deep and broad his understanding is--and even remind people that he did work for a short time writing investment strategy advice to fortune 500 companies (even if it goes against his noble community organizer image).
I also think he should mock McCain for his goofy faux-populism. "McCain says he's going to end greed on Wall Street. Well, I can't say that I'm going to change human nature, but I am going close the CMFA loophole, which Phil Gramm snuck into the 2000 appropriations bill, which encourages lenders to make risky loans and then compound that risk by betting on it, and this loophole, which Phil Gramm rammed through congress in 1999, which ended the protections put in after the depression and left sectors of the banking industry unregulated, and I'm going to put people in the regulatory agencies who actually believe in the mission of that agency...etc."
And he should stop calling Gramm one of McCain's advisors--he should say Gramm wrote McCain's economic policy.
Comments (3)
Good post, Sara, and I agree.
After witnessing the wooden, deer-in-the-headlines speeches coming from McCain and President Bush, voters would likely welcome some reassurance that the economy would be under more competent, intelligent direction under Barack Obama.
September 19, 2008 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops. I meant deer-in-the-headlights.
September 19, 2008 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I like that accidental pun! Palin, in this case, would be the moose in the headlines.
September 19, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
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