Soundbite Idiocy

Who knows whether Charlie Gibson's World News Tonight slants the coverage of the McCain and Obama campaigns, perhaps taking the most inane soundbite over the most profound observation. In any case, today the ABC show contrasted what the two were saying about the economy. In a morning speech, McCain said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong; later in the day he said the economy is in serious crisis.

In the Obama soundbites, he was grandstanding on McCain being out of touch: Can you take a chance on McCain, who has voted against the minimum wage 19 times?!?!

Makes me wonder: does this mean Lehman went bankrupt because the minimum wage was too low?

Does this mean homebuyers are now facing foreclosure because the minimum wage was too low?

I mean, even if the minimum wage had been eleven dollars/hour, who on that wage could get the financing to buy a house in the first place? Even with the easy credit and lax rules?

And has not the minimum wage increased over time in spite of McCain's no votes? What in the world has the minimum wage law got to do with the economic crisis? Is Obama winning or losing votes with such nonsense? Or is ABC News taking him out of context and neglecting his more substantive points?

In any case, one or the other (or both) called for more "common-sense regulations" of Wall Street and Washington. But our financial woes can be traced back to central planning. A quasi-governmental agency, the Federal Reserve, can no more be "correct" in setting the interest rate than a government agency can be correct in setting the price of shoes or computers or anything else. But the entire economy reacts to the Fed's inflationary policies, and the "free money" the Fed pours into the economy leads to speculation in stocks, then real estate, then oil, and round and round it goes until there's a bust.

And neither Obama nor McCain has a clue. That much is apparent, whether or not ABC News is fair in its coverage.