COURIC: You've said, quote, "John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business." Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?
PALIN: I think that the example that you just cited, with his warnings two years ago about Fannie and Freddie — that, that's paramount. That's more than a heck of a lot of other senators and representatives did for us.
COURIC: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.
PALIN: He's also known as the maverick though. Taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about — the need to reform government.
COURIC: I'm just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation?
PALIN: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.
What makes matters worse is McCain chief economic advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin dropped out of the Stanford SIEPR Associates Obama vs. McCain Debate to brief Palin. This would be hysterical, if Palin didn't have a chance of being a heartbeat away from the presidency.
I don't think Palin is dumb. It's obvious she is a skillful politician. That doesn't mean she has a grasp of the economy.
Update: here is the video. Palin is unsure if Rick Davis was involved in his lobbying firm's dealings with Freddie Mac.
Davis' firm received the payments from the company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by the government this month along with Fannie Mae, the other big mortgage lender whose deteriorating finances helped precipitate the cascading problems on Wall Street, the people said.
They said they did not recall Davis doing much substantive work for the company in return. They said Davis' firm, Davis Manafort, had been kept on the payroll because of Davis' close ties to McCain. Davis took a leave from Davis Manafort for the duration of the campaign, but as a partner and equity-holder continues to benefit from its income.
Another gem: Palin on the bailout.
Palin: the interesting thing, in the last couple of days, that I have seen is that Americans are waiting to see what John McCain does on this proposal. They're not waiting to see what Barack Obama is gonna do. Is he gonna do this and see which ways the political winds are blowing. They're waiting to see that John McCain will be able to see these amendments implemented in Paulson's proposal.
Couric: Why do say that? Why are they waiting for John McCain and not Barack Obama?
Palin: He's got the track record of leadership qualities and the pragmatism that is needed at a crisis time like this.
Couric: But polls have shown that Senator Obama has actually gotten a boost as result of this latest crisis. With more people feeling that he can handle the situation better than John McCain.
Palin: I'm not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans, at the end of the day, are going to be to go back and look at track records.
Palin's message is pay no attention to McCain's shitty economic numbers. My God. The Daily Show could air this entire video uncut.
Update: I have more on Palin's interview and McCain's decision not to appear on David Letterman's show.
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