New York Times: McCain Seemed "Angry And Desperate"

Wednesday night’s debate was another chance for Mr. McCain to prove that he is ready to lead this country out of its deep economic crisis. But Mr. McCain stuck to his script, and the nasty tone of his campaign, including a rather bizarre claim that Barack Obama had told a plumber in Ohio that Mr. Obama wanted to take away his wealth.

In one astonishing exchange, Mr. McCain acted as though he was the truly aggrieved party. And he insisted that he had repudiated all of the attacks on Mr. Obama by surrogates and misguided supporters. Mr. McCain didn’t mention that his vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, is one the loudest attackers — and he certainly didn’t repudiate her absurd, repeated charge that Mr. Obama has been “palling around with terrorists.”

Quite the opposite. In the debate, Mr. McCain again raised Mr. Obama’s old and meaningless association with William Ayers, a violent, 1960s radical who served with Mr. Obama on the board of a charitable foundation. The overall effect was to make Mr. McCain seem angry and desperate, which didn’t surprise us much given how badly his campaign has been doing.

Mr. McCain’s biggest problem is that he is desperately short of good ideas for fixing the country’s desperate problems. His big speech on the economy this week was replete with seriously bad ideas, starting with a call to cut the already very low capital gains tax in half. That won’t rescue the economy. What it would do is dig the government further into debt while making the current tax structure that rewards the rich even more unfair.

Mr. Obama has some good ideas — for the short term, to respond to the financial crisis; and for the longer term, to put the economy back on the right track. He supports a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and more money for states and localities, both of which would quickly bring relief beyond Wall Street.

Mr. Obama wants to raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation. Mr. McCain wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent — a big break for the top 1 percent of society. Mr. Obama would cut taxes for low- and moderate-income families and raise them for richer Americans.