John McCain "declined to take a stand"

On the single most important issue of our time, scuttling the agreement that would have bailed out our markets. From the New York Times:

But once the doors closed, the smooth-talking House Republican leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, surprised many in the room by declaring that his caucus could not support the plan to allow the government to buy distressed mortgage assets from ailing financial companies.

Mr. Boehner pressed an alternative that involved a smaller role for the government, and Mr. McCain, whose support of the deal is critical if fellow Republicans are to sign on, declined to take a stand.

As WaMu collapses, and Wall Street burns, McCain sat silent at one end of a long table. Also from the Times:

The meeting opened with Mr. Paulson, the chief architect of the bailout plan, “giving a status report on the condition of the market,” Tony Fratto, Mr. Bush’s deputy press secretary, said. Mr. Fratto said Mr. Paulson warned in particular of the tightening of credit markets overnight, adding, “that is something very much on his mind.”

Mr. McCain was at one end of the long conference table, Mr. Obama at the other, with the president and senior Congressional leaders between them. Participants said Mr. Obama peppered Mr. Paulson with questions, while Mr. McCain said little. Outside the West Wing, a huge crowd of reporters gathered in the driveway, anxiously awaiting an appearance by either presidential candidate, with expectations running high.

This was McCain's meeting. He wanted it. And what did he do with it? He sat silently, refusing to signal his intentions, and in so doing let the deal collapse. Not all the blame belongs with the McCain, but when Jim Boehner raised his objections to the only plan that anyone in the room had seen -- a bipartisan effort, McCain was the only one in the room who could have turned the situation around. A time to lead and he "declined to take a stand." 

Interview? Or word association game?

Watch an amazing feat, as Sarah Palin plays a word association game ... with herself! Katie Couric gets the party started by asking her a fairly innocuous question about the bailout, and then Palin lays out her five point plan for shoring up the economy (in <1min):

Using my consulting skillz, I have recreated Palin's logic as a "boat chart," as we say in the profession:

Woman's Advocate?

Let's take it as a given that, given two equally qualified candidates of identical ideological bent, one man and one woman, women on average will prefer the woman. (Who knows if this true ... seems like people accept it as a given these days.) I can think of a few reasons for this to be the case:

1. Role modeling -- Nice to have someone who you can admire, whose identity you share in some way, who your daughters can aspire to be.
2. Advocacy -- A woman is uniquely qualified to advocate for women's issues because she is a woman. She understands the unique threats and opportunities concomitant with being a woman in the world.
3. Proof of thesis effect -- The success of the female candidate proves that all women can be successful and improves the standing of all women.

Now, to me, Sarah Palin fails pretty spectacularly on the second two counts, especially advocacy. Take sexual assault. It's an especially pressing issue in Alaska. Check it out:

Select population on the vertical axis, and the forcible rape rate on the horizontal axis. See that little dot all the way out to the right? That's Alaska. Clearly, Alaska is something of an outlier when it comes to rates of forcible rape. The next highest state is New Mexico, and Alaska is two standard deviations away. Fair to say, then, that Alaskan women are uniquely vulnerable to forcible rape. What is Sarah Palin's record on this critical issue to the women of her state?

• While mayor, victims of rape were charged for the rape kits used to collect evidence. Charging someone for something reduces consumption, so, aside from the psychological damage to victims, this policy almost certainly reduced the number of rapes reported and kept rapists out of prison. (It should be noted that until Alaska passed a law preventing Wasilla from charging for the kits the state was not elligible to receive federal funding under the Violence Against Women Act -- authored by Joe Biden and opposed by John McCain.)
• Palin's lawyers have said that while governor, she decided that the "last straw" in her relationship with Walt Monegan, the head of the state troopers, was when he went over her head to seek federal funding for anti-sexual assault programs that she had vetoed. (A shame Palin couldn't find room in those millions of dollars to research seal DNA and crab mating rituals for some funding to reduce Alaska's incredibly high sexual assault rate.)

I'm no expert on Palin's record, so she might have performed as an advocate for women in other ways. But it's shocking that she failed so badly to protect the women of Wasilla, and then the women of Alaska, from sexual predators. If women are looking for advocates in government, might be worth taking a look at Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the coauthor of the Violence Against Women Act.