McCain plan misses mark

By The News Virginian Staff

Published: October 9, 2008

Contrasts appeared Tuesday night in Nashville’s presidential debate, but not the substance of hope for those yet to be swept into Barack Obama’s celestial mist. The candidates differed most acutely in form: Obama, whose claims were dubious, glided while Republican John McCain shuffled, the latter flailed feebly while the former jabbed smoothly. McCain was Liston to Obama’s Clay. McCain remained upright but on legs of rubber.

The Arizona senator, who thankfully refrained from hoisting his verbal “maverick” banner but not from repeating his pet phrase, “my friends,” swung wildest, hitting only air, when he introduced a plan for the U.S. Treasury to buy distressed mortgages at face value, then reduce the loans, allowing borrowers to stay in their homes.

With pride, McCain declared, “This is not President Bush’s plan; this is my plan.” Henry Ford and John DeLorean also made exclusive claims, the former about the Edsel named for his son and the latter about the DeLorean named for himself. McCain’s mortgage plan fails to equal those, either in originality or in appeal. Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank and Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd rolled out a plan comparable to McCain’s in March. Those two wear the stain of the financial crisis on their hands like thieves marked with dye after a bank heist.

Congress approved a similar plan earlier this year but with a difference: Lenders rather than taxpayers swallowed the loss on principal. The intent of McCain’s plan, which differs from that of McCain himself, is to halt the plunge of home values, stem foreclosures, thaw credit and allow money to begin flowing back into the market. McCain’s goal is less complex but perhaps no more easily achieved: He wants middle America’s votes.

But the details bedevil. McCain expects his plan to aid 10 million to 12 million homeowners. This means government will be tasked with rewriting the terms on as many loans. Government will grow. McCain’s scheme offers no benefits for taxpayers; even the bailout passed by Congress last week could net a profit over time. Amid the economic malaise lurks a recession, which would splinter the plan’s first and most important plank – leveling home prices.

Larger is the philosophical quandary. The man on the right in the presidential race wants to expand government in an era of intervention not seen since the New Deal. Even Obama, with his liberal voting record in tow, notices: “John McCain wants the government to massively overpay for mortgages in a plan that would guarantee taxpayers lose money, and put them at risk of losing even more if home values don’t recover,” the Obama campaign said in a statement.

Only worries about Obama’s experience and his associations keep McCain on his feet. Shaggy-haired terrorist turned balding professor Bill Ayers and his connection to the messianic senator from Illinois are, at last, attracting notice. This guards McCain against knockout.

He might have gone for victory rather than survival by drawing distinctions in thinking. McCain might have combatted rather than supported the bailout, which lurches toward socialism and is laden with pork. When the Dow persisted in convulsing and reports surfaced about AIG spending $400,000 to send executives to a California resort after taxpayers “rescued” the company, McCain would have appeared to be what he claims, what we’ll call the m-word. Instead, he and Obama hold policy hands.

Instead, he looks like what we fear he might be: an aging politician yet to discover his philosophical identity, grasping at the prize at a time when the country yearns in vain for a statesman.