Before it's too late, three cheers for the lead editorial in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, "McCain's Scapegoat," which began this way: "John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street" -- oh, wait a minute -- "any better than Barack Obama does."
Hmmm ... make that half a cheer.
The editorial calls McCain "untethered," as well as misinformed and dishonest. It says that in seeking a "scapegoat for [the] financial panic" his "populist riffing" is "both false and deeply unfair. It's also un-Presidential." While it does not go as far as calling him "liar, liar, Gasbag on fire," doubtless out of misguided politeness, it says his finger-pointing is not only "unsupported by any evidence" but also misleading and contradictory.
They got that right.
What does the editorial say about Obama? Nada. After equating him with the Gasbag, there is no mention, not one, of how or why he misundertands the Wall Street crisis, let alone misunderstands it as badly as the Gasbag.
The Obama part of their lede? Totally unsupported.
In fact, for the rest of the editorial -- nine paragraphs, 710 words -- there is no mention of Obama at all, until the very last sentence, which says the Gasbag will "never beat Mr. Obama by running as an angry populist" -- oh, and get this -- "like Mr. Gore, circa 2000."
So much for truth in editorializing.
To be fair, I should mention I have no love lost for the Gasbag's chief scapegoat, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox, who was appointed by the Bullshitter-in-Chief. Cox was a rightwing BananaRepublican jerk when he represented the Orange County, California, BananaRepublican 48th Congressional district, and he's still a rightwing BananaRepublican jerk. Just like the Gasbag.
Postscript: Sept. 22 -- Here's a headline: "Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million." And not just any adviser. It was the Gasbag's campaign manager, Rick Davis, who was paid $35,000 a month for five years [italics added] to push for less regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
But last week the McCain campaign stepped up a running battle of guilt by association when it began broadcasting commercials trying to link Mr. Obama directly to the government bailout of the mortgage giants this month by charging that he takes advice from Fannie Mae's former chief executive, Franklin Raines, an assertion both Mr. Raines and the Obama campaign dispute.
So what? So this: Notice the headline (in large type). Notice the commercial (gets free play as news coverage). Notice the denial (is a tagged-on update). Notice it's posted by a major "liberal" daily, no less.