Why John McCain May Have Already Lost

In the aftermath of this week's massive, historic economic interventions by Washington, D.C., free markets will be (incorrectly) blamed as the culprit while government will be (also wrongly) hailed as the savior.

In such an environment, you hire the guy who has said all along that more government is the solution.

You elect Barack Obama.

Too bad John McCain can't explain how government was the prime mover behind the credit crisis; he should be telling how Alan Greenspan's 1% Fed Funds rate blew up the housing bubble, how poorly-crafted accounting rules are causing a mark-to-market valuation spiral in financials, etc.

Instead, McCain seems out of touch every time he opens his mouth. Worse, he manages to remind his least enthusiastic Republican supporters--myself included--how little he has always seemed to understand about free market economics.

Indeed, the Wall Street Journal was right to clobber McCain over his remarks yesterday about SEC Chairman, Chris Cox. Then today the Senator blamed the current credit crisis on the "Washington culture of lobbying?"  Huh? Even if he has a small, related point, could he seem more out of touch or more like he's talking around the salient issues?

Bizarre.

The Palin bounce is over. Polls are already slipping (expect them to get worse based on McCain's woeful performance this week). Unless Obama turns up with a small boy in a closet somewhere, it is hard to imagine how McCain is going to get the momentum back after having fumbled the economic ball so badly.

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