Timotheus has got it exactly right. This is the perfect storm of politics and problems – a recipe for wrongheaded government action. Like Timotheus, I have no doubt that the financial problems are real and will hurt the economy. I don’t want to diminish the very real hurt that will likely come.

Still, it seems as though conservatives like us – defenders of the free market principles that have built and sustained this country for almost two and half centuries – should not so quickly abandon our principles in the face of adversity. Indeed, it is when the call for government action into markets is so strong that we need to be most resolute. I could cite numerous sources of economists and other market watchers who can place the blame squarely on bad government policy – government incentives to lend to undeserving borrowers. Yet politicians think that more government is the answer, while doing nothing to address the underlying bad government policies.

Unfortunately, many elected officials can only see the expediency of the next election. These are the same people that have allowed the budget to bloat beyond control. They see the vote for the “bail-out” as their ticket to re-election – a way to show constitutents that they were “doing something.” That kind of “doing something” is the kind of good intentions that lead to one of those four letter words.

A thought about the “Financial Crisis.” Don’t get me wrong about the Quotes. I do think we are in a financial mess and calling it a crisis is probably appropriate. Unfortunately, a lot of the panic is being fueled by politics. Consider two, probably competing, interests. One: Bush and the Administration wanting to do anything they can do to avoid economic turmoil and the blame that goes with it. Two: The democrats wanting to harp on how bad Bush has ruined the economy. Together, they have convinced everyone that the world as we know it is coming to an end.

Now, the world may very well come to an end tomorrow. This may be the last you hear from me on My Man Mitt or anywhere else. But if it does, a lot of it will be because the “crisis” hit during prime time political season. Consider the stock market for a moment. People the country over who have any kind of money tied up therein are trying to find any other kind of investment vehicle that exists for their money because of the “crisis.” Someone with more financial wisdom than me may dispute this, but aren’t we talking primarily about financial institutions being in trouble? I was under the impression that many companies that are traded publicly have little to nothing to do with the credit derivatives and other gnarly schemes the JP Morgan types all conspire about at the cocktail parties. Even if there are problems with the insurance companies, do we realy think all of these other companies are going to default on their credit obligations for some reason?

The problem here is that the government lacks credibility and so they have to scream at the top of their lungs “crisis” to get attention and that doesn’t reassure us, it just makes us want to pull money out of our banks. Oh yeah, and since the government wants to throw another 700 billion on the credit card to buy stupid loans, we have lingering doubts about the whole FDIC thingy. We’re acutely aware that if all goes south as predicted, the FDIC is grossly undercapitalized.

So, where does this leave us? The Republicans are choking, many Democrats are gagging, and the whole country is turning blue as the administration, Pelosi and co. try to shove the package down our throat. If it doesn’t pass and all goes bad, its the Republicans fault. If it passes, it is the Republicans fault for getting us into this mess. And if the world doesn’t end tomorrow, it will be the Republicans fault we have to live to feel the hangover all of this “crisis” talk is giving me. So, I just want to thank the Democratic controlled Congress for the important work they have done the past two years to keep this from being worse than it could have been. I look forward to many more fine years with their steady hand at the helm.

“Holding Sarah Palin to just three interviews and microscopically focusing on each interview I think has been a mistake,” Romney said. “I think they’d be a lot wiser to let Sarah Palin be Sarah Palin. Let her talk to the media, let her talk to people.”

Link

From LATimes:

People who donated $420,690 to his presidential campaign have given no less than $2.72 million in support of Proposition 8. We could find no donations to Romney for president from people who oppose the initiative.

Feel free to compare to video’s below.

Video

P.S. I want to make sure everyone knows when I knock Palin in these posts these are my opinions, not anyone else here at MMM. So don’t worry too much. Also, Palin is better than Biden, but I think in the same way a headache is better than catching Mono.

And I am not talking about Couric, I am talking about Palin.

Yeah, I get the fact that Couric was asking Gotcha questions and did a bit of a cut and paste job on the interview. But did Palin expect anything less?

I was initially happy with McCain’s pick for VP, but I gotta be honest, this isn’t anything to be proud of. I mean, are we really trading intelligence and coherence for excellent hunting skills and a good outside shot?

I have read several comments and posts about Palin being the best positioned for 2012. If this is the future of the Republican party, we will certainly long for the days of the academic prowess of George W. Bush.

Via Glen Beck.

McCain gave a shout out to Romney in remarks about the Wall Street bailout plan. This is the appeal of Romney in many ways. While Democrats like to paint him as corporate raider, when the economy really is tanking, competence in economic matters is more important than silly rhetoric.

I haven’t seen any Romney quotes on the proposed bail-out. McCain has offered Romney’s name and Michael Bloomberg’s and Warren Buffet’s as potential executives to oversee the plan.

That being said, Romney had a saying in the primary that I thought was spot on: “When Republicans act like Democrats, everybody loses.” I can’t help but think that the bail-out is exactly the kind of thing that Romney was talking about.

President Bush, for all the credit he gets for tax cuts, deserves some serious blame for previously expanding the budget more than LBJ and now proposing the largest socialization this country has seen since FDR. He has turned his back on the free market and the principles of prosperity that underly it. If that is not acting like a Democrat, I don’t know what is. The ultimate consequence, as our man Mitt said so succinctly, is that everyone is going to lose.

Businesses will lose by not being punished for their bad behavior (i.e. lending with no prospect of being repaid) and not learning the lessons from their bad behavior. Taxpayers will lose because all we are taking on is debt, with no prospect of a profitable (or likely any) return. The government will lose because the additional debt could (and I think likely will) swamp the solvency of the government itself, destroying the value of the dollar and preventing the government from getting loans (even from such predators as China) to cover its own debts. All this will lead to the problem becoming not just a financial sector and housing problem, but to being a broader crisis of all Americans AND its government, too.

In short, everyone loses, all because Republicans and other defenders of market principles don’t have the courage to say that the market can and will correct the problem, which it is doing right now by punishing those institutions and homeowners who were reckless. Republicans should know better than proposing such an anti-market plan. The bail-out will not just lead to socialism, it is socialism. It is government at its worst, fighting against the market to impose its own idea of economics. It’s the type of thing we have come to expect from Democrats. Now that Republicans have taken on a similar tactic, we will all lose.