A Savage prediction for McCain

Not only do I predict that John McCain will lose to Obama in a landslide, but that McCain will also lose his Senate seat in Arizona because he ran an incompetent campaign and will soon disappear from the political landscape.~ Michael Savage’s radio show, Oct. 6, 2008

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who will guard the guardians?)

~ Plato, “The Republic” (question to Socrates)

As we approach the November elections, I – like many conservatives – am in a state of impending angst. I am convinced during these perilous times that without the Bible, WorldNetDaily and the Michael Savage radio show to comfort me, I would be certifiable for the asylum by now.

Last Monday, while listening to Dr. Michael Savage perform one of his brilliant impromptu monologues, he made the following statement, which I will paraphrase in the following manner: “Not only do I predict that John McCain will lose to Obama in a landslide, but that McCain will also lose his Senate seat in Arizona because he ran an incompetent campaign and will soon disappear from the political landscape.”

As he spoke these words, I felt a burning in my heart like I was listening to a prophet of ancient Israel. While I hoped he was wrong, I knew deep down in my soul that Savage was right. But who’s listening? Certainly not the McCain campaign.

Sen. McCain, despite his self-admitted lack of knowledge of economic issues, should be taking a crash course by reading “An Idiots Guide to Economics.” He and Palin should be hammering Obama and the Democrats every day regarding the bailout of the Wall Street crooks and incompetent mortgage executives at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and others. These corporate criminals have been protected for years by the Democrat majority in Congress, even as Republicans repeatedly sought for tighter regulations of Wall Street and the home mortgage industry.

Instead, what does McCain do? On Sept. 24th he concocted a ridiculous political stunt by suspending his presidential campaign and traveling to Washington, D.C., ostensibly to help the Senate steal $1 trillion dollars from the American people in order to pay off the arrogant thieves of Wall Street and their Democrat enablers in Congress, particularly Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, chairmen of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee, respectively.

Why would Sen. John McCain, a so-called “conservative Republican,” so cavalierly misuse the taxpayers’ money by voting for this outrageous $1 trillion corporate welfare bailout bill, yet seems oblivious to his own political suicide by continually angering his conservative base?

The fix is in.

Savage then did a masterful analysis of the current congressional hearing of Lehman CEO Richard S. Fuld Jr. who received $350 million in compensation just since 2000, including a $20 million bonus shortly before for bankrupting Lehman Brothers, a once-vaunted investment bank on Wall Street that has existed for almost 160 years!

Below are some excerpts of the testimony from a New York Times article:

At the start of 2008, Mr. Fuld said he believed that Lehman’s capital position was strong and that it did not face an impeding liquidity crisis. It was on that basis that he approved billions in compensation and other cash payments, he said. As late as five days before Lehman’s collapse, investors were told in a conference call that no new capital would be needed, that the bank’s real estate investments were properly valued.”Did you mislead your investors?” Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat from Ohio, asked Mr. Fuld.

“No sir, we did not mislead our investors, and to the best of our ability at the time, we made disclosures that we believed to be accurate,” Mr. Fuld responded.

Mr. Fuld’s individual compensation, which totaled some $350 million since 2000, was repeatedly criticized by lawmakers. But Mr. Fuld pointed out that he had still held 10 million shares in Lehman when the bank filed for bankruptcy, and therefore lost out on tens of millions in additional compensation.

Savage then reminds Congress that as part of its investigatory powers, they can immediately arrest someone brought before one of its committees who is found to commit perjury while under oath.

What galls me the most regarding Fuld’s testimony is the last sentence where he arrogantly and in an accusatory manner states that, “he had held 10 million shares in Lehman when the bank filed for bankruptcy, and therefore lost out on tens of millions in additional compensation.”

Boo hoo hoo!

Fuld’s jaded, selfish view of America’s dire financial collapse is extremely insulting to all Americans of good will. It was as if he was some great heroic figure that was doing America a favor by giving up tens of million dollars of his ill-gotten gain.

While the hubris of Fuld and the titans of Wall Streets is beyond the pale, Savage reminded his listeners of Plato’s paradox from his magnum opus, “The Republic,” where Socrates answers the question: Who will guard the guardians? with these words for the ages:

“… [W]e must choose from among our guardians those men who, upon examination, seem most of all to believe throughout their lives that they must eagerly pursue what is advantageous to the city and be wholly unwilling to do the opposite.”Analysis: Plato’s Socrates is clearly saying that in addition to having the wisdom-loving and spirited parts of their souls well-trained, the rulers of his ideal state are to have a very highly developed sense of social concern [care] (throughout their lives, he says, they are to be tested to see that they don’t put their own advantage above that of the state).

Essentially, Plato’s Socrates contends that the guardians will guard themselves. This view admittedly is Pollyannaish; however, in his defense, Plato hadn’t considered scoundrels like Fuld, Wall Street and their enablers in the Democrat majority of Congress – men who place profits above people, principle and morality. Surely in the ideal republic or state these men would not be allowed to benefit from their thievery, right?

About 200 years before Plato’s dialogues on Socrates were written, 2,600 years ago, the great biblical prophet Ezekiel declared: I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. So it is in America today.

As the stock market continues to drop around the world, I am not at all hopeful that those who have abused our financial system in America will not only profit greatly, but are enabled by our very own guardians (i.e., Congress, the president, the SEC, the Federal Reserve, the courts) who are supposed to protect the interests of “We the People” over their own selfish needs.

Tragically, McCain is neither the philosopher-king that Plato exalted in “The Republic,” nor the man to stand in the gap as the ancient prophet Ezekiel longed for the nation of Israel. McCain seems to be an example of an old, moribund, uninspired political hack of a bygone era who is desperately trying to have his last hurrah on the backs of America’s taxpayers.

America’s other choice for president is a certified Marxist Manchurian Candidate against whom I probably played basketball 20 years ago while at Harvard.
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