Who Really Stands by What They Say?

My favorite part of the bailout rhetoric is as follows.  According to Barack Obama, McCain "votes" with Bush 90% of the time, and we cannot take a 10% chance with the future of America.  This assertion implies that George Bush is wrong 100% of the time.  When the bail out package came into realization President Bush supported it, I assume that this is what Senator Obama meant by votes.  Obama spoke with bush Tuesday morning about the necessity of the bill’s ability to pass congress, and McCain suspended his campaign to support the bill. Both Senators Obama and McCain voted for the bill, it failed anyway, and the DOW Jones industrial average fell 778 points.  With Wall Street in this much turmoil one doesn’t even need to know where Main Street is to guess what kind of condition it is in.  Intricate dances about avoiding and rescheduling debates and street maps aside there is a clear logic problem here.  President bush is always wrong and John McCain is wrong whenever he “votes” with bush, why should Obama voted for it. Further more Barack Obama cares about middle class Americans more than the big banks; but the bill will also help middle class American’s, McCain doesn’t support government meddling in the economy or big spending; but can’t afford to loose a single swing voter who supports the bill, so neither candidate should have voted for it. Congress struck the down, and the American people ran out of confidence in the economy as a result showing their support.  Who is right? It certainly seems that none of the candidates should have voted for the bill because it opposed both of their views in some way. 

Barack Obama’s main focus in his economic policy is the well being of the middle class American taxpayer.  A bill giving $700 billion to banks is not the kind of economic stimulus that senator Obama generally supports. McCain’s economic policy is in direct opposition to the ideals laid out in the bailout plan. McCain is so opposed to government spending, and regulation that he would like to suspend all government spending that isn’t absolutely necessary for the first year of his presidency, and because of this there is no reason, under McCain's plan that he should have supported the bailout either. Aside from this both candidates have attempted to distance them selves from President Bush and his approval ratings, but even senator Obama called the President in order to further plans to help the bill pass.  The tendency in America to associate candidates and their parties with ideals falls through in moments like this.  It is when America is in turmoil that it is revealed that both candidates have the interests of the American people at stake, have viable plans for the future of our country, and a great deal of insight and intelligence applicable to good policy making.  That and neither candidate wanted to be responsible for the recession that could result from not passing the bill and wanted more votes, which is much more likely.