Right Wing Orthodox...

Say what he will about the need to change Washington and how "greed" is causing the problems on Wall Street, McCain hasn't in the past and doesn't seem interested now in breaking with the right wing orthodoxy, who hold that derregulation is the answer to pretty well any economic question. Despite their resistance to government regulation, they don't seem to mind a government bailout now and again. Something like socializing the costs, while privatizing the profits.

But his record on the issue, and the views of those he has always cited as his most influential advisers, suggest that he has never departed in any major way from his party’s embrace of deregulation and relying more on market forces than on the government to exert discipline.

While Mr. McCain has cited the need for additional oversight when it comes to specific situations, like the mortgage problems behind the current shocks on Wall Street, he has consistently characterized himself as fundamentally a deregulator and he has no history prior to the presidential campaign of advocating steps to tighten standards on investment firms.

He has often taken his lead on financial issues from two outspoken advocates of free market approaches, former Senator Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman. Individuals associated with Merrill Lynch, which sold itself to Bank of America in the market upheaval of the past weekend, have given his presidential campaign nearly $300,000, making them Mr. McCain’s largest contributor, collectively.

History of supporting deregulation; takes advice from a key architect of the mortgage bubble (Greenspan); significant campaign donations from a failing financial firm; now that my friends is obviously setting the table for some REAL CHANGE.