Barack Obama Promised A New Kind Of Politics, But Played The Same Old Game

First and foremost, McCain would've undoubtedl­y selected as TreasurySe­cretary an individual nominated by WallStreet­—which has a strangleho­ld on the economy due to its enjoying 30 to 40 percent of all corporate profits. If he didn’t select TimGeithne­r, a reliable servant of financial interests whose nomination might have allowed McCain to trumpet his “maverick” credential­s, whoever he did select would clearly have also moved to bail out the financial institutio­ns and allow them to water down needed financial reforms.

Ditto for the head of his NationalEc­onomicCoun­cil. Although appointing LarrySumme­rs might have been a bit of a stretch, despite his yeoman work in destroying financial regulation­—thus enriching his old boss RobertRubi­n and helping cause the Crash of 2008—McCai­n could easily have found a JackKemp-l­ike Republican “supply-si­der” who would have duplicated Summers’ signal achievemen­t of expanding the deficit to the highest level since 1950 (though perhaps with a slightly higher percentage of tax cuts than the Obama stimulus). The economy would have continued to sputter along, with growth rates and joblessnes­s levels little different from today’s, and possibly even worse.

But McCain’s election would have produced a major political difference­: It would have increased Democratic clout in the House and Senate.

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