McCain should have stood by his words

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WASHINGTON -- The problem wasn't that John McCain said, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong," as Wall Street was imploding last week.The problem was that he didn't stand by his own words.Democrat Barack Obama instantly seized on the quote for a hard-hitting campaign ad. The seven words became Exhibit A in Obama's case that the Republican McCain is wrong and out of touch. But, so what?If McCain believed what he said, he should have stuck to his position and defended it with some examples. That would have shown real straight talk. He could have claimed the banner of hope and optimism.Even with economists willing to back him up, though, it wouldn't have been easy. In the continuous news cycle, complicated issues get boiled down to sound bites and slogans.McCain didn't need to remind people that during the primaries last year he acknowledged that economics isn't his strong suit. By not sticking to his words, McCain left the impression that he didn't know how bad the economic mess is or that he was just blowing political smoke -- or both.McCain also called for a 9/11-style commission to study what brought on the economic woes and how to prevent another catastrophe. Obama jumped on the idea as typical Washington-speak for not solving problems.To be sure, the nation's economic picture seems to darken by the day. Joblessness has soared as have mortgage foreclosures. Banks are teetering, the government is in major bailout mode and the financial markets appear to be in free fall. A Page One headline in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday declared: "Worst Crisis Since '30s, With No End Yet in Sight."How bad is it? So bad that the White House refused to say the fundamentals are strong. After saying for months that the economy is strong, press secretary Dana Perino wouldn't say it after McCain did, claiming to do so would put the president in the middle of the presidential race.For his part, the president canceled a trip to help raise money for GOP candidates to stay in the White House and monitor the economic situation. Translation: It would have looked bad for him to be glad-handing fellow Republicans when the financial world was spinning out of control. This is the Katrina lesson applied to the financial hurricane.At this point in the campaign, McCain obviously didn't want a repeat of the storm that surrounded his former economic adviser, Phil Gramm, when he dismissed people worried about the economy as whiners.But McCain hadn't insulted voters. Nor had he said the economy was a banana split with a cherry on top.After noting "tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and on Wall Street," he said, "People are frightened by these events. Our economy, I think still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong. But these are very, very difficult times." Instead of standing firm, McCain did what Washington politicians do when something they say ricochets around the talk-filled universe. He waffled and then he caved. First, he said he meant to say that American workers are strong. And then he scurried away from his words entirely and declared the economy in "a total crisis."He also reversed himself on whether taxpayers should bail out the insurance giant AIG, first saying no, then yes. It was like watching him play both sides of the net in a tennis match.McCain and Obama both say more financial regulation is needed. That's been a consistent position for Obama. McCain is strongly for deregulation unless he's for more regulation.Interestingly, New York's billionaire Independent mayor, Michael Bloomberg, did stand by McCain's remark."America's great strength is its diversity, its hard work, its good financial statements, its broad capital markets, its enormous natural resources," Bloomberg told a news conference Monday, Politico reported.Bloomberg, who contemplated an independent run for president, hasn't endorsed either Obama or McCain.The mayor told an audience at Georgetown University on Wednesday that what he looks for in a presidential candidate is intelligence and a pragmatic approach to problems.He said the public chooses the person they believe is most honest and straightforward. That's hard to measure, Bloomberg said, so people vote their instincts.(E-mail Marsha Mercer at mmercer(at)mediageneral.com or comment at mgwashington.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)