McCain under fire as master of the backflip
Noam Levey and Maeve Reston in Grand Rapids, Michigan
September 19, 2008
WITH the US economy in turmoil and the country's second-largest insurer faltering, John McCain was unequivocal: "We cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else." The following day he had changed his mind.
The rapid about-face on Wednesday followed another quick retreat by the Republican presidential nominee earlier this week when he insisted that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" even as one brokerage house filed for bankruptcy, another nearly went under and the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 504 points.
Senator McCain's reversals underscored the difficulty he has had finding the right response to the deteriorating economy, the issue voters say is most important. They are also highlighting the contradiction between his oft-repeated campaign message - that the government should largely stay out of the economy - and his new promises to help voters whose jobs, houses and retirement accounts are disappearing.
The wildly swinging rhetoric from the McCain campaign has delighted Barack Obama, who just last week was struggling to respond to the enthusiasm whipped up by the unexpected arrival on the national stage of the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin.
Campaigning in Nevada on Wednesday, the Democratic candidate mocked Senator McCain's attempts to cast himself as a reformer.
"Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he's president, he'll take on the 'old boys network' in Washington. I am not making this up. This is someone who's been in Congress for 26 years - who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. The old boy network? In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting."
The Obama campaign purchased an extraordinarily long two minutes of television time to air a commercial blaming Washington for the tougher economic circumstances confronting Americans.
"That's why we need change. Real change," it said.
But the notion of a federal bailout presents difficulties to both campaigns, as the website Politico.com pointed out.
While Senator Obama avoided taking a position on the AIG rescue plan on Wednesday, saying, "we do not know all the details", his running mate, Joe Biden, a day earlier had rejected a bailout.
Nevertheless, several recent polls suggest that Senator McCain's post-convention lead is slipping away. The latest New York Times/CBS poll, taken between Friday and Tuesday, found that Senator Obama had the support of 48 per cent of registered voters to 43 per cent for Senator McCain.
Voters overwhelmingly indicated the economy was their top issue, and they had more confidence in Senator Obama than Senator McCain to make the right decisions.
The poll also found that Senator McCain was widely viewed as a "typical Republican" who would continue or expand President George Bush's policies,
And a CNN/Time/Opinion Research poll, taken from Sunday to Tuesday, showed the race deadlocked in some battleground states, including Florida and Ohio. Both states are considered crucial for victory in the November 4 presidential election.
Los Angeles Times, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press
This story was found at: smh.com.au |
