Beyond his tax notions, this is the clearest exposition that I have seen of John McCain's complete cluelessness about economic issues. He sized up the crisis, and completely blew it.

He IS clueless about economics. Of course a spending freeze would spell disaster at this point; we need spending, but it is the kind of spending that matters. Throwing newly printed cash at Wall Street is just dumb, and we can already see that they are giving themselves bonuses and golden parachutes and lavish parties at our expense. The impact of the bailout on our already shaky economy will be massive inflation, devaluation of the dollar, job layoffs, and further erosion in the value of our homes. The only real spending should be in infrastructure, alternative energy, and temporary programs designed to keep people in their homes and on the job. After this election, I'm almost as sick of McCain as I am of Bush, if that's possible.

All of a sudden, it's trendy to go on the record as supporting bigger and bigger bailouts. I'm guessing that they think they're going to have to talk the statist talk in order to not find themselves unemployed after the Obama Empire takes over.

It's time to reverse the deficit now. The national debt is going to cause a Wiemar like implosion when there's no money left on earth to lend out because ass hats in Washington spent it all. McCain is right and Marty's a buffoon who drank the Pelosi koolaid.

Who would have thought that we all would end up agreeing with Tricky Dick?

"We're all Keynesians now." Richard Nixon, 1972.

In addition to suggesting strongly that McCain does NOT in fact listen to his advisors, it also underscores the impression that, like GW Bush, McCain does not think things through carefully, that, instead, he tends to shoot from the hip and that he uses stock reasoning to deal with novel situations resulting in incorrect solutions. This is not the sort of thing that we need in the WH for the next 4 years (or that we needed in the WH for the past 8 years, of course, but that is proverbial water, money and lots and lots of blood under the bridge).

Jesus H Christ I hope Obama wins this thing.

but of course the MSM is obsessed with McCain's potentially miraculous comeback. Oh, and instead of analyzing Palin's bizarre interpretation of the first amendment, CNN is wondering how much Elizabeth Hasselback is helping her campaign.

Are there any senators who don't lambast government spending one day and lavishly praise specific spending bills the next?

All government everywhere is about who gets taxed and who gets paid. Anyone who pretends differently is trying to sell you something. Usually himself as a candidate for office. The only real political differences, social conservative wedge issues aside, are in who gets government largess and who gets taxed to pay for it.

...if anyone in the McCain campaignn is actually talking to John...

It'd also be great if people understood that fiscal stimulus would be much more effective if we hadn't run up a massive debt during boom years. But as Cheney said "deficits don't matter"

He's spent his entire career in the Senate lambasting government spending.

Well, except when a Republican president tells him it's necessary. Or when his Savings and Loan buddies tell him it's necessary. Or when ...

Are there any senators who don't lambast government spending one day and lavishly praise specific spending bills the next?