So confident that the bailout would pass yesterday that upon hearing the news Barack Obama had to rework a prepared speech declaring it was as good as a done deal. That is pretty much where the Presidential campaigns stand in terms of offering up solutions to this fiscal problem.

Obama says its failed Bush economic policies that got us here, McCain said its corporate greed. Neither seems ready to look deeply into the culture of Washington and its closeness to the media, to understand how a “lack of regulation” might not entirely be the issue but instead how government policies formed with corporate interests and ideology in mind may have caused a perfect storm that was sold by the media and digested by a public who liked rising home values and rising 401k’s.

That understanding is too complex, points too many fingers and makes too many waves for a political campaign. When the bailout deal failed the only solution offered by our candidates, our Congress, our President and his cabinet went down in flames. Now, we have nothing to replace it with.

I have one clear suggestion for both of the candidates, get to work. This election is not about the Iraq War, not about Health Care, not about flag pins. In the closing weeks of this race the economy is once again the defining issue and neither campaign or party has a detailed solution for the short term other than handing out $700 Billion.

Many can argue that this helps Obama, regardless of whether he puts together some kind of policy or regulation proposals or SOMETHING, anything. McCain is holding the bag for a Party that has been in power for eight years and people are looking for anything resembling change they can find. It doesn’t matter anymore what Obama knows or doesn’t know about fiscal issues, just that he seems like someone who isn’t responsible for the mess.

McCain is the Washington insider who doesn’t want to be an insider. He is friends with the people who put us in this mess, he spent last week rounding up votes for a bill that failed to pass because it did not have enough votes. He is behind the eight ball and he, like his rival, has no alternative plan to offer. McCain has been unwilling to truly explore the depth of this crisis, to dig out the many moments when Republicans questioned Freddie & Fannie before Congress only to be shot down by Democrats called them demons for questioning the right of those who could not afford houses to secure mortgages. His campaign is either unaware of this history or unwilling to use it, either is a failure on their part.

In the vacuum the McCain campaign has allowed to form, Obama can simply say “eight years of Bush policies” and the electorate knows what he means. It isn’t so much about Bush’s handling of the economy as his handling of spending, the Iraq War, Katrina and the many failed leaders he put into his administration. It points to a failed Republican Congress, littered with corruption and lost in petty bickering. It isn’t enough to just “be” a Maverick, McCain needs to offer maverick ideas. He needs to create questions about the official story with this bailout and the very crisis we face. A maverick sometimes speaks of things that are ahead of their time, incomprehensible and counter to the status quo. Typically, in politics, this is the worst thing imaginable making you sound like Kucinich or Paul when you want to sound like Lincoln and Roosevelt.

This is no ordinary time.
The people want something different, they are open to fundamental changes in the very makeup of our government. Radical ideas that are, of course, built on the very fundamentals they understand, honor, truthfulness, character, charisma. This election is made for John McCain, this time was built for all the qualities. Last week though, McCain left the building and since that time we have been treated to the insider, the status quo, the Washington backroom dealer that is also McCain but is typically hidden from our view. It wasn’t that going to Washington alone hurt him, it was that when he got there he did nothing of interest, nothing that shook up the culture or gave threat to those willing to sell the American people out.

Make no mistake about it, McCain’s campaign is teetering on the edge of oblivion. Their declaration yesterday that they would, “Let Palin be Palin” was the first start. They need to “Let McCain be McCain” and put all the cards on the table. This is time to propose sweeping changes and reforms, to shake up the nation on both Wall Street & Main Street, to say the tuff things no one wants to hear, that isn’t politically expedient.

If not, his campaign is finished and the next few weeks will give little “change” from either candidate or party.