Another idea

Bad signs for the Democrats in the current election contest: Two wounded candidates, one whom a lot of Republicans and independents don’t like, and the other whose negatives are rising, neither of whom currently poll that well against Republican John McCain. In McCain, you have a one-time centrist Republican who has worked with a lot of Democrats on issues like lowering porkbarrel spending and the federal government deficit, immigration and campaign finance reform, and opposing the government’s use of torture (and even once opposed the religious right). OK, he’s got a temper, and he’s a nut about the war. But the two Democrats also have: no clear, reasonable way to exit the war without leaving either a Somalia or Vietnam situation and no clear, reasonable way to cut the deficit, and both are too shy to attack federal regulators or Wall Street for the real estate/mortgage/credit crisis or come out for the most radical but in some ways most sensible from an economic point of view health care plan (single-payer, sensible because it gets everyone into the same risk pool).

What to do? I’ve blown hot and cold about Clinton, Obama, and even McCain (among others). And I’ve sometimes mused about reaching back into the Democrats’ pool of elder statesmen (Gore, Kerry, even (Bill) Clinton or Carter (constitutional?)). But earlier this week another thought occurred to me: Who’s a Democrat who has credibility to attack federal regulators and Wall Street on the credit crisis. Clinton and Obama both probably have garnered too many campaign contributions from Wall Street, and Clinton’s husband Bill even re-appointed anti-regulation Fed chief Alan Greenspan (now retired). The person that occurred to me was, ex-candidate John Edwards, former North Carolina U.S. senator who was Senator Kerry’s running mate in 2004. Edwards’ anti-poverty-themed presidential campaign was maybe too left-wing/radical even for some Democrats. And the multi-million-dollar mansion and $200 haircuts – his lives of the rich and famous lifestyle – and his use of his very sick spouse in the campaign – tripped him up some. But it seems to me that Edwards, who campaign for working-class people against big corporation who he also went to court against as a trial lawyer, has some credibility, if he’d turn his considerably oratorical skills against Wall Street and the credit industry, and the federal regulators who let them run wild in the streets. Financiers made loans they likely knew very well many people would never be able to pay back, and then turned their backs when the foreclosures began, except to be there at the trough for a taxpayer-funded bailout of themselves and their fellow investors (Bear Stearns, whoever else is next). I am sympathetic with people who have lost the homes, and even with some investors. But, as a renter from a family that wasn’t dumb enough to try to buy a house we couldn’t afford (and suffers a tax penalty for being a renter – even while we profit from the government covering the interest on many of our student loans while we were in school and until recently on economic forbearances), I think people bear some personal responsibility for getting themselves and us in this mess. But among those most responsible are federal regulators who turned a blind eye to this mess as it was developing, even though it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a government bailout would be on the horizon as soon as the mess started to blow up.

John Edwards may be the one to transcend the Clinton-Obama conflict and unite the party by attacking the economic problems that are plaguing a range of Americans, partly through smarter regulation and a willingness to stand up sometimes to big corporations (and to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries for single-payer health insurance).