Cultural Cuisinart

The NY Times has an editorial discussing why McCain's economic plan is shallow and comes across both as uninformed and harsh. A key passage:

His suggestion that federal aid might wrongly reward “undeserving” homeowners sounded both mean-spirited and economically naïve. And then there is the double standard. He seemed less concerned about the government helping reckless bankers, endorsing its role in preventing the bankruptcy of Bear Stearns.

No one has ever proposed helping real estate speculators. And the senator’s language obscures the reality that most troubled homeowners did not get into trouble by themselves. Lenders, aided and abetted by bankers and do-nothing regulators, lured many borrowers into overly complex, ultimately unaffordable loans. Mr. McCain also failed to grasp that the foreclosure problem has gone far beyond the issue of the deserving and undeserving. What is on the line now is the health of the economy, including the viability of the financial system: Helping troubled borrowers stay in their homes would help the banks by reducing defaults and foreclosures.

The economy has to be pretty high on most Americans' list of "Things the next President needs to fix". You've got to wonder about a voter who favors McCain, despite the fact that he himself is on record admitting he doesn't understand the economy very well.