Bush: McCain’s Mistake (McCain fumbled GOP handling of financial crisis)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 2010-11-09 | Louise Radnofsky

[rabscuttle385]

Republican presidential nominee John McCain cornered President George W. Bush into convening a White House summit on the financial crisis – one that top administration officials thought could hurt the administration’s response to the crisis, Mr. Bush says in a new memoir.

Mr. Bush writes that Mr. McCain, trailing in the polls and seeking to appear on top of the crisis, asked him to convene a special meeting to discuss a rescue package for the financial markets. Mr. Bush says he told the Arizona senator that he would first check with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to make sure a meeting wouldn’t undermine the secretary’s efforts to reach a deal with Congress. Minutes later, Mr. McCain went on TV to call for the meeting and announce the suspension of his campaign to work full-time on passing the legislation. Mr. Paulson and other aides were opposed to it, but Mr. Bush says at that point, he was stuck: “How could I say no to John’s request?”

The former president says Mr. McCain’s performance at the meeting was poor. While Mr. McCain needed to be seen “handling the crisis in a statesmanlike way,” he punted when asked to talk about what he would do to get the bill passed. Instead, at the end of the meeting, he spoke only “in general terms about the difficulty of the vote for Republican members and his hope we could reach a consensus.” Mr. Paulson had offered a similar recollection.

[calcowgirl]

McCain is vile - it is all about him.

He wanted to “suspend his campaign” to look like a hero.

His campaign advisors were quoted saying that a terrorist attack would be “a big advantage” for McCain.
If McCain had his way, we would have gone to war with Russia over his pet project, Georgia — all to improve *his* image.

What a sick pathetic little man he is.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” But the real problem was that Paulson was already working with the enemy. He was in close contact with Obama while refusing to answer McCain’s calls. Pelosi and Reid were also in on the deal.

Bush had a bad habit of putting people who were determined to undermine him into top positions—or of leaving clinton appointees there. Tenet. Sessions. Paulson. To name just a few.

If McCain insisted on a meeting, that was dumb. But it was Paulson and Obama who engineered the October Surprise, the suddenly announced banking crisis, that won Obama the election.”

Those of us who have been in investment banking for many years agree with you on Paulson and Obama. You may correctly add Soros and Goldman Sachs Chairman Lloyd Blankfein.Lehman Bros. was a MAJOR competitor to Goldman Sachs, for a number of financial instruments. Blankfein wanted to make sure Lehman was not bailed out. He got his wish, and the resulting financial meltdown was their gift to Obama. (With the proviso that Obama played ball)

[stephenjohnbanker]

” That was the October Surprise: The world is going to end, unless we pass the bank bailout and elect Obama to fix things. McCain thought he could just step in and grab the credit. He was sadly mistaken, and left with egg all over his face.”

Perfect analysis.

Yep