I've been an entrepreneur for almost 30 years (geeze!  is it really that long?).  Along the way, I've raised money for a few different companies.  Not super-ultra-large piles of money, mind you; not $billions, and certainly not $700 billion. (That's $700,000,000,000.00!  Looks even bigger that way, eh?)

But even when raising a couple million dollars for a business everyone believes would grow, my investors insisted on comprehensive analysis... use of funds, revenue projections, risk factors, etc., etc., etc.  You'd think (I certainly would) that if I were asking for a billion dollars, let alone $700 billion dollars, and that I was asking on behalf of a business that is failing, my investors would want at least the same level of analysis (and likely much, much more.)

Ah, but I am not the Bush administration.  And my investors were not my puppets.

The Bush administration does not need careful analysis.  It uses something even more compelling.  Fear.  Just tell everyone we are on the brink of <insert tragedy here e.g., WMDs, depressions, etc.> and that the president must have unbridled authority to act quickly to save our nation.

So, how did the Bush administration come up with the $700 billion figure?  As reported in Forbes.com:

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

Scary, huh?

David Letterman ain't buyin' it.

In his characteristically witty style, David describes why he smells something fishy behind McCain's claim that he is "suspending his campaign" to go and save us from the mortgage crisis.

All jokes aside, David is spot on.  He raises some very good questions, like:

• Why did McCain have to cancel his campaign?  Can't his backup, Sarah Palin, carry on the campaign?  (Hint: No; that would involve giving the press access to her.)
• Why did McCain tell Letterman at the last minute that he could not appear on Letterman's show because he had to "race" back to Washington, but then stop on his way for an interview on with Katie Couric for the Evening News?  (Hint: Because the CBS Evening News is a great campaign stop.)

Take a quick listen to this short video and tell me if you don't agree.

So, John McCain says he's needed in Washington to help solve the financial crisis.  Sounds like "the dog ate my homework" to me.

This is an incredibly transparent move by McCain to avoid a likely embarrassing for him debate with Obama.  McCain is clearly not  a the "change" candidate and his handlers fear that even more people will recognize that after a debate.  You gotta hand it to the him though, he sure knows how to play the gullible public.  This is just another example of the do-whatever-it-takes-high-road-be-damned McCain I wrote about in McCain: Victory with Honor (or Not... Whatever Works).

This election is about who we should hire for the next four (and maybe eight) years to lead our country out of many messy problems and into a new and better tomorrow.  We, the voters, have the right to hear the candidates address questions in a forum other than self-controlled political ads and campaign stop appearances.  But John McCain is afraid of that idea.

McCain is afraid of what voters will decide if they hear him debate, face to face, with Obama about how to move forward.  This is especially true in light of the recent financial turmoil.  For decades McCain has pushed for more and more deregulation.  Now, when even George Bush is pushing hard to essentially socialize the mortgage industry, it is difficult to explain the wisdom of all that deregulation.  On top of that, McCain has said--and very recently--that that the health care system needs less regulation and more privatization.  McCain has been promising that as president he will do for health care what we have already done for banking.

Whoops!  No wonder he's afraid to meet Obama in an open debate tomorrow.  There is simply no time for his spin meisters to prepare damage control by then.  His only hope is to avoid the debate, and that is just what he is scrambling to do.

But lets not underestimate the skill of his spin meisters.  They are good.  They even enlisted President Bush to play a role in this massive spin effort.  By getting the President to call for a meeting with both McCain and Obama, it creates a sense of legitimacy (at least among those who respect the president's wisdom, of which, apparently, there are some) to skipping the debate to attend more pressing matters--a presidential calling, no less.  But it is all just part of a scheme to keep McCain from the debate.

The GOP strategy for victory this year includes limiting real access to both McCain and Palin because they are literally afraid of what their candidates might say.  Throw in some low-road ads to mislead and stir up bigotries and, sadly for most of us, and for most of the world, it just might work.

John McCain and the Lying Game

A few short weeks ago, Senator John McCain was still trying to take the high road by congratulating Senator Barack Obama on his nomination and saying, "this is truly a good day for America."  But here we are a few weeks later and, apparently, the McCain camp has decided that John McCain cannot win honorably on the issues, so it has resorted to the dishonorable tactics that the (formerly) "straight talking" senator ripped into--transparent and phony diversions, outright lies.

It's sad, really.  In 2000, I very seriously respected John McCain and very seriously considered voting for him.  In the end, I did not, but it was his fundamental honor and integrity that drew me in.  But now, that part of him is, unfortunately, no more.  He has chosen to take the decidedly low road to the White House.

Perhaps he feels the stakes are just too high for the country he so loves (loved?).  Perhaps he believes that an Obama presidency would truly be a disaster.  Perhaps he realizes he is old enough that this is surely his last chance at the oval office.  Whatever the reason--which I'm sure is a good one, in his mind--he has decided to come down for the high road of honor and  chart his course through the muck.

In a way, I can understand this tactic is his only chance at victory in November.  After all, he is closely aligned with arguably the worst administration this country has ever seen.  By his own account, John McCain stood with the administration 90% of the time; the same administration that started an ill-advised war, drove oil prices through the roof, drove the stock market through the floor, wasted unimaginable sums of money, brought torture back to dinnertime conversation, turned the clock back on scientific progress, left many a child behind, drove the price of health care up and tax rates for the wealthy down.  I could go on, but you get the point.  The country simply wanted a change and only a candidate for change could possibly win.

So, what to do?

Enter the spinmeisters. If the country wants a candidate for change, make John McCain be the candidate for change (in the minds of 51% of the voters, anyway.)  No matter that Barack Obama actually is the candidate for change.  Simply change tactics.  Change messages.  Sure, many voters will realize they are being worked over, but those are the voters that were lost to Obama in the first place.  There are still plenty of voters out there to be taken (and taken in).

Let the spin begin...

Co-opt the "candidate of change" mantra.

Avoid substantive discussion of real issues; focus on McCain's war hero biography and how honorable he is; attack Obama on every front (lie when it seems effective to do so.)

Belittle Obama's career as laughable ("Community organizer? What!?!?")

Criticize Obama as "elite" (which, in my opinion, is a good thing, not a bad thing.)

Bring on Palin as VP candidate (diametrically opposed to McCain on numerous issues, dubious qualifications for the job, questionable ethical background, but an attractive woman who may help swing disappointed Hillary fans--which, unbelievably works on some people, but don't get me started just now on how absurd that is.)

Keep Palin away from reporters (Charlie Gibson and Sean Hannity are far from top-notch journalists) and on a well-defined list of sound bites.

Accuse Obama of teaching sex education to preschoolers.

Blame Obama for the mortgage industry collapse.

To prop up the "honorable man" image as long as possible, start the attacks using hatchet men (and women)--Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Sara Palin, and various other GOP minion.  Have McCain keep to the high road for a while; have him congratulate Obama, speak of ending attack politics, being a uniter (remember George Bush as "the uniter"--its all so cynical.)

But, there is a glimmer of hope.

In college, my friends called me cynical.  They said that people were more decent than I gave them credit for.  I claimed back then that I was not cynical, I was a realist.  That I did not doubt fundamental decency, I just doubted education, objectivity, and rationality.

Over the years, I've not been proven wrong.  This campaign, McCain's fall from Honor, Hillary Supporters for McCain (or worse, for Palin) only reinforce the views I've had since college.

But for the first time since, well, ever, I sense a slight glimmer of hope.  I'm noticing more and more folks recognizing the cynicism and calling it out for what it is.  And not just from the Bill Maher's, John Stewart's, and Al Franken's of the world, but the Karl Rove's, Scott McClellens's, Lou Dobbs's, even the Bill O'Reilly's.  More and more people are starting to say, enough of the lies and and spin; this is going too far.

The McCain team wants to win.  Nothing wrong with that.  So does the Obama team.  The problem is the depth to which the McCain team is willing to sink in order to win.

When even Karl Rove says the McCain minions have gone to far, you know they've really gone too far.

In her article, Can I Just Tell You?--The Promise of Governing Pretty, NPR's Michel Martin calls out the McMinions for their outright hypocrisy in their use of the "E" word.

Where did the principled McCain of 2000 go? We've all heard that power corrupts.  I guess the promise of power does too.