The Election of 2008 Washington Consensus by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St
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Tells The FacTs and names The names ocT. 1-15, 2008 alexander cockburn and Jeffrey St. clair vol. 15, no. 17 The End of the The Election of 2008 Washington Consensus By Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair he morning of the third presi- Barack Hussein Obama would be hit with By Michael Hudson and dential debate, a friend of ours in similar accusations (actually, first aired Jeffrey Sommers Landrum, South Carolina, con- by Hillary Clinton last April) of being an Tducted an informal survey of voter sen- alien radical, with intimate ties to a man all Street’s financial meltdown timent in this rural town in the heart of who had tried to blow up Congress and marks the end of an era. What Dixie. He pulled over at a convenience the Pentagon. has ended is the credibility of store-cum-coffee shop, and walked in It might have worked but for the fact, Wthe Washington Consensus – open mar- with a wad of McCain/Palin stickers. which apparently escaped the notice kets to foreign investors and tight money “Don’t you bring those things in here,” of the well-paid campaign consultants austerity programs (high interest rates said the man behind the register. Our running the McCain campaign – that and credit cutbacks) to “cure” balance-of- friend strolled around among the regu- America was engulfed in the worst eco- payments deficits, domestic budget defi- lars sipping their coffee, most of them re- nomic crisis since the Great Depression. cits and price inflation. On the negative tired, and could find no takers. “Not one, There was a total disconnect between the side, this model has failed to produce the and these were people who voted 100 per financial hurricane hitting America and prosperity it promises. Raising interest cent for Bush in 2004. They’re angry.” some archaeology about a Sixties radical rates and dismantling protective tariffs Why? After a terrible summer of soaring sitting with Obama on the board of the and subsidies worsen rather than help gas prices and plunging stock portfolios, Woods Fund, a nonprofit financed by the the trade and payments balance, aggra- “a lot of them have lost their retirement Annenberg Foundation (and today fea- vate rather than reduce domestic budget funds and health savings.” Our friend turing board members from other known deficits, and raise prices. The reason? said that at local nursing homes – an up- terrorist organizations such as British Interest is a cost of doing business while scale place near Tryon – some residents Petroleum and the Swiss banking giant foreign trade dependency and currency are telling staff they can’t afford to stay. UBS, whose U.S. operation has on its depreciation raise import prices. He added that all the talk about Obama’s payroll as a vice president McCain’s pal But even more striking is the positive links to terror, to Islam, to bombers has and advisor, Phil Gramm). side of what can be done as an alterna- also had the effect of intimidating elderly In fact, some of the archaeology is of tive to the Washington Consensus. The Republicans from even putting McCain/ scant comfort to McCain. We can reveal $700 billion U.S. Treasury bailout of Wall Palin signs in their yards. here that in the early 1970s, when Ayers Street’s bad loans on October 3 shows Our friend’s experience in Landrum was underground and being sought by that the United States has no intention of came amid the inglorious tailspin of the FBI, he found refuge in an old min- applying this model to its own economy. the disastrous strategy of trying to sink ing camp in the Oregon Cascades, called Austerity and “fiscal responsibility” are Obama by hanging former Weatherman Jawbone Flats. This mining camp was for other countries. America acts ruth- Bill Ayers around his neck. When then owned by Vic Atiyeh and his wife. lessly in its own economic interest at any Republican consultants like Mary The camp was being run at the time given moment of time. It freely spends Matalin and Steve Schmidt first pon- as a kind of hostel by Atiyeh’s nephew more than it earns, flooding the global dered this tactic in the late summer, it George, a Vietnam vet who would later economy with what has now risen to $4 must have seemed to them like a no- play a central role in the campaign to trillion in U.S. government debt to for- brainer – a reprise of the way George protect the ancient forests of the Pacific eign central banks. H.W. Bush finished off Michael Dukakis Northwest. The crown jewel of these old- This amount is unpayable, given the in 1988. Lee Atwater, Bush’s smear man- growth stands, Opal Creek, is adjacent to chronic U.S. trade deficit and overseas ager, picked up Al Gore’s use of Horton the mining camp. military spending. But it does pose an – the black rapist furloughed for a week- Vic Atiyeh, a Republican of Syrian de- interesting problem: why can’t other end under a law passed by Gov. Dukakis scent, became the first Arab-American countries do the same thing? Is today’s – and retooled it, throwing in slurs about governor in the United States, when policy asymmetry a fact of nature, or is it Dukakis as being some foreign outsider. Oregonians elected him to the post in Hudson/sommers conT. on Page 3 So, in the final weeks of Campaign 2008, 1979. He served as one of best and most ocTober 1-15, 2008 popular governors in Oregon’s history, Mae’s payroll, McCain chickened out, as ties. Five weeks later, he won 19 per cent from 1979 to 1987. And yes, Atiyeh the he always does. He played a feeble role of the vote, thereby costing George H.W. Arab, host of domestic terrorists, is now in Washington and voted meekly for the Bush the election. John McCain’s honorary campaign chair- bailout, and, thereby, threw away the A similar scenario could have unfold- man in Oregon. chance to put Obama on the defensive ed in this election, with the most likely It could have been different. At the and to allow Palin to taunt Biden for his standard bearer of a third force being Ron end of August, the gods seemed to be vote, when she faced the paid agent of the Paul, the libertarian congressman from smiling on McCain. Hurricane Ike kept credit card companies in St. Louis. Texas. Paul had plenty of money and a Bush and Cheney out of the Convention This election has advertised not only national organization. He would have in St Paul. Palin’s surprise nomination McCain’s stupidity but also the absence been able to launch effective attacks on nullified Obama’s bounce and seemed of an effective third force in American both candidates on the issue of war and to invigorate McCain. Then the eco- politics, at a moment when the cred- the bailout. At his well-attended shadow nomic crisis intensified. At this fraught ibility of both parties and of both major convention in St Paul, he could have de- moment, with Obama keeping a cau- candidates is open to sweeping chal- clared as an independent. He declined. tious profile, McCain could have seized Ralph Nader is a man for whom the initiative. Even after the stumble This election has the economic crisis has come as total about the fundamentals of the economy advertised not only vindication of everything he has been being sound, the senator could have re- proclaiming for decades about the cor- couped by saying that he was returning McCain’s stupid- ruption of Wall Street, the ties between to Washington to lead the opposition ity but also the ab- Wall Street and Congress, the economic to the bailout. McCain could have gone sellouts of Clinton time, from free trade into the first debate attacking Obama for sence of an effec- deals to the repeal of Glass-Steagall. Yet, his support of the bailout. He could have tive third force in Nader has no party and hence suffers sent Palin across the country denouncing from hugely diminished political pur- Wall Street greed and predatory bank- American politics, at chase on everything, from volunteers to ers, as she did in her debate with Biden. a moment when the finance to media presence, at a moment Unlike McCain, Obama and Biden, Palin when his message could have resonated had no Wall Street cash showing in her credibility of both hugely with the furious and fearful elec- campaign war chest, filled only with vir- parties and of both torate. The political groups and coalitions tuous mooseburgers. that rallied to Nader in 2000 are all shad- With Phil Gramm whispering in his major candidates is ows of their former selves. Eight years of ear and McCain’s campaign manager open to challenge. Bush have pushed the environmental and Rick Davis’ lobby shop still on Fanny labor lobbies back into the Democratic lenge. Voters are disgusted with the en- Party, where their voices are inaudible tire system and the direction the country and political influence scarcely visible to is taking. Disapproval of Bush and of the the naked eye. Obama pounds the drum Democrats running Congress is at the for nuclear power and hugely toxic coal- EDITORS same high level. Obama and McCain to-gas conversion plants and campaigns Alexander Cockburn share many positions, starting with the through the industrial wastelands of the Jeffrey St. Clair bailout and continuing with endorse- Midwest, while remaining more or less ment of a belligerent foreign policy from mute on “free” trade.