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Jewish World Review Oct. 14, 2008 / 15 Tishrei 5769 What about the economy Obama, McCain? By James Klurfeld
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | There was a surreal quality to the presidential debate Tuesday night that was very discouraging. Even as both candidates went about their scripted, well-rehearsed routines, they all but ignored the 800-pound gorilla stalking around the room: the global financial meltdown. Oh, sure, both John McCain and Barack Obama gave a grudging acknowledgment to the gorilla. How could they not? But then they proceeded to debate each other as if the gorilla had left the building. Health-care plans, energy plans, getting rid of lobbyists in Washington, eliminating earmarks and, of course, cutting taxes. Obama talked about how he had warned of excessive deregulation of the financial markets. McCain talked about how he had warned of the lending practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It all seemed so irrelevant to what's really on everyone's minds: How are we going to survive the financial meltdown? How long will it last? How much will we have to sacrifice? At the very least, somebody needs to give a clear explanation of what has gone wrong. The political blame game has not done it. What I was looking for in the debate was some candor, not oversimplified finger-pointing. There has rarely been a sadder example of the disjunction between campaigning and governing than the debate Tuesday night. Maybe I expect too much. Clearly there are no magic potions out there that will, presto-chango, bring back our faltering markets or instantly restore our depleted retirement funds. But I was waiting for some straight talk, something that McCain was willing to do back in the 2000 campaign and that the super-articulate Obama has done so well, at times, this year. But neither candidate even tried to give a sober explanation of why things have gone so wrong and why the steps the government is taking now are necessary. Yes, the race is still so close that any possible misstatement or even a discouraging note will be turned into a devastating 30-second sound bite by one campaign against the other. But if a candidate doesn't call for sacrifice during a campaign, on what basis can he or she ask for it once in office? President George W. Bush has seemed almost irrelevant to this financial crisis. The leadership burden has fallen to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke. But they are more technocrats than political leaders. So is either Obama or McCain up to the role that Franklin Roosevelt played during the Great Depression, explaining complex matters clearly and giving the American people a sense of hope? Neither stepped up to the task Tuesday night. Both chose the politically safe route: keep to the mantra of tax cuts, don't even hint at anything smacking of real sacrifice by the American people, and don't dare suggest that our own profligate ways have anything to do with the crisis. Just blame it on Wall Street and the Washington lobbyists. McCain's proposal for the government to purchase faltering mortgages and refinance them for homeowners might be a sound program. It's the type of big concept that should have been part of the debate. But he presented the concept in such a confusing manner, using verbal shorthand and garbled syntax, that its impact was largely lost on the audience. And much of the media seemed as interested in the fact that McCain referred to Obama as "that one" in answering a question, than in the concept - let alone the details - of McCain's mortgage proposal. I believe both McCain and Obama are better than the campaigns they are running. I was attracted to Obama in the primaries because he seemed to understand intuitively that he must bridge the gaps between left and right to govern effectively. McCain, in his better moments, also has been willing to govern from the center, but his recent tendency has been to campaign from the gutter. That won't work when the problems we face are so serious. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
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James Klurfeld is a professor of journalism at Stony Brook University.
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