McCain: It Wasn't Just Me -- America Was 'Misled' On TARP (VIDEO)

The job of a legislator is to write laws. When the legislator votes for a law it is supposed to define what is permisible and what is not. If a legislator votes for a law that doesn't acomplish what it is supposed to that legislator isn't very good at his job.

Something else to think about here: Paulson slammed McCain in his book, essentially saying that McCain was clueless about the financial crisis, and didn't have any constructive input when it was a pressing matter.

So, I'm sure McCain is trying to give himself some political cover on those votes (though he may be making things worse while trying to do that). But, I also think he's got an axe to grind with Paulson. I think that axe-grinding is part of the dynamic. McCain's attacking Paulson's credibility, even at the expense of drumming up wild accusations, in an attempt to protect his own.

he has become what he decried, a politician who will say anything to get elected. i voted for him in two michigan primaries and even sent him money but he has completely compromised his principles beginning in his bid for the presidency. too bad.

McCain is going off the deep end. He was probably so busy suspending his campaign to avoid the debate with Obama, that he forgot to pay attention to the most pressing legislation last fall. I didn't know what I voted for, therefore I'm not responsible for it is a lame excuse. I am so thankful this man isn't president. We'd have a president who is increasingly appearing to have some dementia and a vice president who is obviously clueless about most everything. All at a time when the US is facing some of the most serious issues in decades. So, for those who are disappointed in what Obama has or hasn't yet done, think of where the country would be if McCain had been elected. It's a scary thought.

This may be the first time I've ever come to John McCain’s defense. ----- Everyone knew that this would benefit banks and Wall Street (which is really the same thing.) That wasn't the issue - the issue was frozen credit markets which was KILLING Main Street. Businesses borrow money all the time for short term needs – like payroll. This kind of lending smoothes out the bumps related to cash flow. It’s SOP. ----- The "Troubled Assets" portion of TARP was specifically sold to Congress as a way to get the sub-prime derivatives that financial insertions were holding off the books. These toxic assets were creating a crisis of confidence and freezing up credit transactions. With these out of the picture - credit would supposedly flow again which would benefit everyone. ----- McCain is correct in saying that Congress was misled. Instead of buying the sup-prime derivatives, within two weeks Treasury said that the valuation process related to those derivatives would be too difficult and time consuming to have the immediate effect that was needed. So instead they recapitalized the banks; they gave them a huge infusion of cash which made the bad assets a smaller portion of their total holdings. ----- So the money went out – but hardly anything changed. In fact banks used the money for just about everything but lending – including new acquisitions. ------ So McCain wasn't even streching the truth on that issue. ----- The part about getting a call from the President to rush back to Washington to help fix things -- that was a whooper.

Technically speaking, McCain has a point.

The original plan for TARP was to buy toxic assets from the banks, taking those obligations off their balance sheets and allowing the banks to resume lending. Largely because pricing these assets was too complicated or would take too long, the gov't decided to simply give the banks $ in return for a stake in the company.

But that is where any resemblance to the truth ends. The authority for Treasury to simply give banks $ was explicitly included in the bailout legislation. And either way, the $ was always going to the banks. To portray TARP as a program that was supposed to help the housing market or homeowners that was then diverted into a bailout for the banks is a blatant lie.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised given the style of campaign he ran in '08, but to me it's sad how he has let his principle take a backseat to political expediency on a range of issues (immigration, climate change, campaign finance). There was a time when I would have expected more from him - guess I was wrong.

I don't think McCain has changed at all. At one point, he believed that it was in his political interests to pretend that he was more liberal than his party. Now, he believes he has to be as conservative as anyone in his party. So he has never stood for anything except himself. Unfortunately, the Villagers still can't see the obvious truth.

McCain has to have Alzheimer's......he was the one who called and practically demanded that Obama suspend his campaign and join McCain in "solving" this problem at the White House....he claims that Bush wanted him back at the White House.....he gave David Letterman that reason and it is on tape.....he managed to lie because it has come out in several books that Bush didn't ask McCain to suspend his campaign.

I think J.D. Hayworth is a real idiot but Arizona is going to have to pick the lesser of the evils during the primary or another way of looking at it is the evil of 2 lessers. McCain is a very bitter old man.

I can't believe that in all of Arizona there isn't one democrat or a progressive independent to run against the two clowns that call themselves repukes.....wasn't Hayworth involved in the Abramoff mess?

That pic of McCain has a real 'Body Snatchers' vibe. Our 'maverick' has been taken over by pod people politicians!

I'm gonna have to get a new pair of flip-flops to wade through all the bulls***.

So when McCain shut down his campaign to fly to the rescue and usher TARP through Congress, all that time he didn't have a clue what it would do? Even I knew. Jeezus H. Christ, this guy reminds us almost daily how the country dodged a bullet by not electing him.

Thank goodness MtP has him on every week to update us on his latest version of history. No sense wasting time on people who confine themselves to a single reality when we can have story time with Grandpa Grumpy.

David Gregory is an utter failure. McShrill lied, again, and Gregory did not challenge him.

The craziest aspect of the whole TARP bailout is the number of Americans (especially among the tea bag clan) who believe that the Obama Administration was responsible for the TARP bailout program ... which took place before he took office.
Kinda like when Limbaugh declared that the crashing national economy was officially the "Obama Recession" .... back in November of 2008.

I'm a liberal dem but if my only voting choices were McCain and Hayward, I'd have to vote for Hayward. At least we know what he is. McCain reminds me of a buoy in a hurricane these days. To say he didn't understand the bill he voted for is an insult to the people of AZ.

Even if we were lied to about TARP by Paulson, we weren't in any position to do anything about it.

McCain was. And he voted for it.

Personally, I think it was a wise decision by Paulson, and I bet that McCain just rubber stamped it not knowing that he'd be up against insanely stupid teabaggers, but what's done is done, and he needs to man up and take responsibility.

I'd love to see Paulson come out and trash McCain for the two-faced, lying coward he is.

So how is it the public was up in arms about TARP and fully realized the banks needed to be bailed out to keep the economy from collapsing but also needed to be taken to task for their screwup. And still do.

And the senate had and has no idea of any of this? Gimme a break!! Liars and dumbfucks every one. They're all fucking criminals and should be shot for egregious commission of treason against this nation. Same with Goldman and Citi and JP Morgan etc. The entire crew is stealing the country blind. That they have the legal power to do this is beside the point. They're all criminals for having conspired to make it possible. That's what all the changes in banking and financial regulation were about all of these years. And now they say they had no undertsanding of any of this!!! Every bit of this, all the signs point the same way. There is no challenge at all in grasping what has gone on.

McCain's nervous giggling gave it away again. No need to listen.

From the snippet I saw of McCain's MTP appearance he came off as bitter and whiny, not to mention clueless. He should heed that famous advice, "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

On the one hand, McCain is, or was, the most recent standard bearer for a party that prizes cluelessness above all else. For example, didn't Lame R Alexander just tell the country that we shouldn't try to reform our health care system because "it's too complicated?"

On the other hand, we've just come off eight long years of clueless government. The memory of having a president who literally could not find his ass with both hands is fresh in the minds of all who were paying attention.

Do we really want to go back to that?

McCain has now shown that he is too stupid to be a U.S. senator, and he should resign because either:

1. He has such little regard for his constituents and the American people that he'd tell a bold-face lie and expect us to believe it. Which shows he's a complete fool. (This is the correct answer by the way.) Or ...

2. He admits he didn't bother to understand one of the biggest, expensive pieces of emergency legislation that has come through the Senate since he's been there.

Either way, he's in the Jim Bunning Hall of Stupidity and should get the hell out of Congress. Thank God he wasn't elected president or we'd have another Alzheimer's patient in the White House.