Every part of the economy I oversighted

September 17, 2008 at 2:50 am · Filed under domestic policy, Politics ·Tagged chairman of the Commerce Committee, Economy, John McCain invented the blackberry, McCain, oversighted

When the economy is teetering on the brink between a deep recession and just a bad hangover, the thing to really pull us out of it in a hurry would be a 9-11 style blue ribbon commission to study what went wrong.  They’ll get to solutions on the next panel, I assume.

I don’t even know what Senator Obama’s six-point plan on the economy is.  The fact that it has six points is six legs up on McCain’s commission.  We don’t have time for a commission to be your BIG plan…

It just boils down to what I was saying in an earlier post, you can’t be “fundamentally a de-regulator” who is “always for less regulation” and then whoop and holler about the lack of oversight by the government.  Please!  The dictionary definition of oversight IS regulation.  But perhaps McCain was confused by the other common use of the word “oversight”– something you OMIT to do….

Oversight. noun

1 a: watchful and responsible care b: regulatory supervision <congressional oversight>2: an inadvertent omission or error

Now, when CBS morning show host Harry Smith asked McCain if he is prepared to deal with the economy he bragged about his chairmanship of the Senate Commerce Committee.  Of course, he neatly overlooked the fact that as its chairman he must not have sufficiently “oversighted” (that’s not even a word!) the whole economy under his purview when he had the chance.

Smith: “Let me ask you this. Earlier this year on the campaign trail, you said — or you admitted that you didn’t know a lot about the economy. Why should voters trust you in these perilous times with the economy of the United States?”

McCain: “You know, that’s one of the interesting things about having long conversations. The point is, I was chairman of the Commerce Committee. Every part of America’s economy, I oversighted. I have a long record, certainly far more extensive of being involved in our economy than Senator Obama does. I understand the economy. I know the issues-“

Smith: “Well, if that’s the case, wouldn’t you bear more responsibility for some of the crisis we’re in then?”

Now, McCain doesn’t like to brag too much, so it’s helpful that his aide Douglas Holtz-Eakin gives him the kind of credit he deserves.  Holding up his blackberry, Holtz-Eakin declared, “You’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create.”  Behold!  And he saw that it was good.

Oh, I kid.  But really, I think the folks at Coloradopols.com may be able to clear up this little misoverestimating incident:

McCain is pretty old, so maybe the advisor meant that he invented the actual blackberry – you know, the fruit.

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