McCain's Economic Plan (See Below)

Obama has said, often, that McCain is running for Bush's third term.  It's a sharp line, reminding us of the strange way that McCain has tried to embrace Bush -- literally,  with an on onstage hug -- while trying to keep at least notional distance from the most hated presidential polices since LBJ.  Or even since Reconstruction.

The gentleman from Arizona has come up with his own response:  "He says I''m running for Bush's third term?  It seems to me he's running for Carter's second."

Well, now.  That's a good sound-bite, isn't it?  But let's be serious.  Carter gets the blame, deserved or not, for inflation and high oil prices -- but we've already got those, in spades.  That's the Bush legacy.  Carter also gets the blame for an ineffective response to the Iranian hostage crisis -- after all, eight American soldiers died, and America came out looking a bit milquetoasty.  But now we have 4100 dead soldiers, and we look like a lying, warmongering bully.  Again, that's the Bush legacy.

So in fact, Bush seems to combine, and greatly excel, some of the failures for which Carter is routinely excoriated by the right.  Of course, he has utterly failed to realize any of Carter's genuine accomplishments, such as the Camp David accords.  (Needless to say, Bush will never be a candidate for any Nobel, but he couldn't score the Peace Prize if they put it in a box of Cracker-Jack.)

The real point, though, is that Obama's proposed policies bear no particular resemblance to Carter's.  Both men are churchgoing Christians, but other than that they have little in common.  What is McCain trying to suggest?  We have no idea, except -- perhaps -- to frighten the ultra-Israeli bloc with the threat of peace initiatives.

But here's what we love best about the brief Politico piece linked above -- one commenter's description of McCain's economic plan:  "Dump wife and marry rich."