McCain ad: "Mum"

No, it’s not a commercial for the old deodorant, but instead a description of the reaction to the financial crisis by Barack Obama and leading Democrats. Team McCain want to make a case for leadership in the face of crisis:

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In crisis, experience matters. McCain and his Congressional allies led. Tough rules on Wall Street. Stop CEO rip-offs. Protect your savings and pensions.

Obama and his liberal allies? Mum on the market crisis. Because no one knows what to do.

More taxes. No leadership. A risk your family can’t afford.

In one sense, Harry Reid really bails this commercial out of a weak argument. Barack Obama could have easily countered by arguing that acting rashly could be worse than waiting for a few days to gather more information before formulating a policy. Most Americans probably felt the same way, and would have at least understood the impulse to get more data before acting.

However, Reid gave that game away when he stated that Congress should just get out of the Bush administration’s way, since no one on Capitoll Hill knew what to do. He and Nancy Pelosi gave us a Brave Sir Robin Congress, one ready to adjourn at the first sign of trouble. That epitomized the entire credit-crisis issue, as politicians from both parties who gladly took credit for record home ownership suddenly began ducking the cameras when the loans on which that got built collapsed.

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Obama has a lot less of the blame than other Democrats and some Republicans on the Hill for the credit meltdown. However, Obama never showed any leadership in attempting to solve the problem, leadership which McCain showed in 2005-6 with S190. Maybe future ads could be more specific to this point.

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