Bush: "Wall St. got drunk"

I heard about this on Today this morning, so I had to post it - a rare moment of candor when we get to see President Bush's inner-frat boy. I'm sure his handlers would have preferred that he NOT say this.

Wall St. got "drunk," huh, Mr. President? (I'll resist the temptation to poke fun at his own issues with alcohol. Oops. As the saying goes, It takes one to know one.) How about a lack of oversight and regulation, two hallmarks of the Bush Presidency. The anti-government regulation sect of the GOP (which pretty much encompasses the whole party, actually) has to take some of the blame here, without question. It's certainly an oversimplification and unfair to blame the Bush administration for the entire mess the mortgage industry is in, but it certainly must take some of the blame.

One valuable lesson that we've learned during the Bush years, that I hope America and the Democrats don't forget, is that when regulation is left up to corporations policing themselves, in the end the working men and women of this country get screwed. We've seen it with the mortgage industry, the power industry, cable TV, many aspects of the media, the commodities markets (President Clinton must share in the blame there as well), etc. It's the unregulated commodities markets that are partially responsible for screwing Americans at the pump. (Despite John McCain's laughably absurd new TV ad blaming high oil prices on Barack Obama [and presumably, other Democrats] for opposing drilling on the OCS and in ANWR.)

Bush has screwed up so much, the next president is going to have to spend his first term cleaning up Bush's considerable messes, and take many political hits in the process.

Much more to come later today, including a comparison between the McCain and Obama tax plans (There is a great deal of misinformation out there), and much more, so please stop back this afternoon.