The Blame Game

There aren't many politicians coming away from this bailout bill thing looking good, and it's because so many of them have fallen into the trap of name-calling and finger-pointing. This morning, when it was thought that the bill would pass, McCain makes a speech claiming some of the credit for the success and knocking Obama for not being as involved in the process, then when it fails, his campaign issues a statement saying it's all Obama's and the Democrats' fault. Now, I don't think anyone can realistically lay the failure of the bill at the feet of McCain anymore than he would deserve the credit had it passed, but if you're going to try to claim some of the credit for success then you have to be equally willing to accept some of the blame for failure. Meanwhile, the Republican leadership made a statement claiming that the decisive votes were lost because Speaker Pelosi made a partisan speech on the floor of the House shortly before the vote. I suppose the intent was to lay the blame for the failure squarely at Pelosi's feet (and certainly the Democrats deserve their share), but if I were to take the statement as truth (which I don't), it certainly paints a picture of House Republicans that is petty and short-sighted. The implication is that these twelve Republicans were ready to vote for the bill, and therefore, one would assume, believed it was in the best interests of the country. But then Nancy Pelosi said something mean so they decided to vote against the bill. I'm not so cynical about politics to believe that our elected officials are that childish. The real failure was selling the bailout to the public in the first place. Of course you're going to have a hard time getting votes for the plan when the majority of the public falls into the catagories of "opposed" or "undecided". It doesn't help that left leaning organizations have been trying to use the financial situtation to hit the Republicans for their past policies. It may be fair comment to say that the Republican policies are responsible, but right not pointing fingers is getting in the way of solving the problem. Really, it seems like, other than a few "Chicken Little" pronouncements, that our leaders have been talking to each other too much and to their constituents too little.

It's days like today that are to blame for so many people being so turned off by politics. What a mess.