John McCain - Steady at the Helm in Turbulent Seas

John McCain on the state of the economy

1/10 McCain: I don't believe we're headed into a recession. I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong, and I believe they will remain strong.

Huzzah, the fundamentals are strong!

9/15 McCain: Our economy, I think, is still -- the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times.

Well, at least the fundamentals are still strong.

9/15 McCain: And my opponents may disagree, but those fundamentals -- the American worker and their innovation, their entrepreneurship, the small business, those are the fundamentals of America, and I think they're strong.

Um, what exactly do you mean by fundamentals?

9/15 McCain: The fundamentals of our economy are at risk.... And those fundamentals are threatened, they are threatened and at risk because some on Wall Street have treated Wall Street like a casino.

Sorry, I'm totally lost now.

John McCain on bailouts

9/15 McCain: I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be on the hook for AIG...We cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else.

No bailout!

9/16 McCain: I didn't want to do that. And I don't think anybody I know wanted to do that. But there are literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investment, whose insurance were at risk.

Sometimes you have to bail.

9/29 McCain: Now it's time for all members of Congress to go back to the drawing board. I call on Congress to get back obviously immediately to address this crisis. I speak to you in an hour of crisis for our nation's economy. I believe that the challenges facing our economy could have a grave impact on every American worker, small business owner and family if our leaders fail to act.

Bail! Bail! Bail!

John McCain on the blame game

9/29 McCain: Now is not the time to fix the blame. It's time to fix the problem.

No blaming, people!

9/29 Doug Holtz-Eakin, a senior policy adviser for McCain: Their partisan attacks were an effort to gain political advantage during a national economic crisis. By doing so, they put at risk the homes, livelihoods and savings of millions of American families...Just before the vote, when the outcome was still in doubt, Speaker Pelosi gave a strongly worded partisan speech and poisoned the outcome. This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country.

It's Obama's fault!

John McCain on phoning it in

9/29 McCain: I will never, ever be a president who sits on the sidelines when this country faces a crisis. I'll never do that. I know that many of you have noticed it's not my style to simply phone it in.

Not his style.

9/29 McCain aide Mark Salter: He's calling members on both sides, talking to people in the administration, helping out as he can.... He can effectively do what he needs to do by phone.

Not phoning is so 3 hours ago.

John McCain on whether Americans are better off than they were

1/30 Anderson Cooper: Senator McCain, are Americans better off than they were eight years ago?
McCain: I think we are better off overall if you look at the entire eight-year period, when you look at the millions of jobs that have been created, the improvement in the economy, et cetera.

Bushie, you're doing a heck of a job.

8/05: McCain Ad: Washington's broken. John McCain knows it. We're worse off than we were four years ago.

George Bush? Never heard of 'em.

John McCain on his understanding of economics

11/26/05 McCain: I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.

No shit.

12/17/07 McCain: The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should. I've got Greenspan's book.

Did you read it?

12/17/07 McCain: Now, I am not an expert on Wall Street. I am not an expert on some of this stuff.

I think we get the picture.

1/27/08 McCain: Actually, I don't know where you got that quote from. I'm very well versed in economics.

And you've got a strong grasp of the fundamentals.

I have also previously written about McCain's erratic shifts on the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and supply-side economics. That article can be found here.

Late update: Thanks to TPM cafe member dnegri for alerting me Robert Greenwald's video on the subject.

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