We've been waiting to hear We've been waiting to hear John McCain's proposal for dealing with the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and here it finally is. Of course, it contains the requisite dog whistles about not bailing folks out who've exercised "bad judgment" in taking on sub-prime mortgages. But reading through the speech, I was struck by just how politically inhospitable this moment of looming recession is for McCain, who only developed a platform on housing, joblessness, and the cost of living tardily and reluctantly. Talking about the malfeasance of the finance industry and the futility of tax breaks for construction companies just doesn't sound very Republican. Indeed, at Politico, Jonathan Martin runs down just how turned off economic libertarians were by McCain's entry into the economic debate.
--Dana Goldstein
