Incoherence

This is shaping up as a pretty bad week for the McCain campaign. First, the economic fundamentals are sound. Then we're in a major crisis. He talks about the excessive compensation that CEOs receive, but continues to have Carly Fiorina ($100 million for her failed stewardship of Hewlett Packard) as an economic spokesperson. He wants to have a vigorous new regulatory regime patrolling Wall Street--even though he has always opposed such a regime and his pal Phi Gramm was the guy in charge of dynamiting the regulations--and yet he is running this ad, warning against excessive federal power.

This is called flailing. This is why his campaign is losing some altitude. It seems to me McCain has to make a choice: reformer or deregulator. Reform means the restoration of a serious, activist regulatory presence--in other words, more government. Deregulation means more of what we're seeing this week on Wall Street, the excesses that occur when government steps away from its responsibility as referee and guarantor of a fair playing field.

As in recent weeks, McCain has made a bet on the stupidity of the American people--he thinks he can have it both ways. The drift away from him in the polls may be a sign that the public says he can't.