Posted by Jed Lewison on Tue Sep 23, 2008 at 8:54 PM Pacific

Make McCain Pay A Price For Opposing Bailout

This is a political analysis, not a policy analysis.

I'm starting from the assumption that Barack Obama wants to support the bailout, and probably will vote for it.

I'm also starting from the assumption that John McCain (even though he has said he supports the bailout) wants to oppose the bailout because he thinks it will give him a chance to separate himself from the Bush administration.

The political risk here is obvious: the bailout isn't very popular, and those who are most passionate about it are against it. So politically, the easy answer is to just say no.

But Obama believes there are substantive reasons to move forward, so he should. But he needs to make sure he does so in a politically responsible way, and that means he needs to insist that the bailout plan deliver something tangible for Main Street, something big enough and easy enough to understand that John McCain just can't say no.

On The Daily Show tonight, Bill Clinton proposed one such solution: conditioning the bailout on a moratorium on home foreclosures. There might be other solutions. (Update: Josh Orton discusses Clinton's ideas at length in a post from earlier, based on a meeting with Clinton and other bloggers.)

But whatever it is, Obama needs to insist on something in the bailout package that people will want, and will be angry at John McCain if he he opposes. If he doesn't, and he makes it easy for McCain to say no, he will be taking a huge political risk.

Make McCain Pay A Price For Opposing Bailout

This is a political analysis, not a policy analysis.

I'm starting from the assumption that Barack Obama wants to support the bailout, and probably will vote for it.

I'm also starting from the assumption that John McCain (even though he has said he supports the bailout) wants to oppose the bailout because he thinks it will give him a chance to separate himself from the Bush administration.

The political risk here is obvious: the bailout isn't very popular, and those who are most passionate about it are against it. So politically, the easy answer is to just say no.

But Obama believes there are substantive reasons to move forward, so he should. But he needs to make sure he does so in a politically responsible way, and that means he needs to insist that the bailout plan deliver something tangible for Main Street, something big enough and easy enough to understand that John McCain just can't say no.

On The Daily Show tonight, Bill Clinton proposed one such solution: conditioning the bailout on a moratorium on home foreclosures. There might be other solutions. (Update: Josh Orton discusses Clinton's ideas at length in a post from earlier, based on a meeting with Clinton and other bloggers.)

But whatever it is, Obama needs to insist on something in the bailout package that people will want, and will be angry at John McCain if he he opposes. If he doesn't, and he makes it easy for McCain to say no, he will be taking a huge political risk.

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