Mercurial McCain: 'Erratic, Uncertain'

We were ruminating over the details of John McCain's wildly mercurial home mortgage crisis plans earlier today. And, lo, here's Barack Obama speaking out on the same subject several hours later at an Ohio rally.

We didn't write his speech. Honest.

(Transcript of clip, above)

"Now this is just the latest in a series of shifting positions that Senator McCain has taken on this issue and just about every issue. His first response to the housing crisis in March was that homeowners shouldn't get any help at all. Then a few weeks ago he put out a plan that basically ignored homeowners. Now, in the course of 12 hours, he's ended up with a plan that punishes taxpayers, rewards banks, and won't solve our housing crisis.

"This is the kind of erratic behavior we've been seeing out of Senator McCain. You remember the first day of this crisis he came out and said the economy was "fundamentally sound." Then two hours later he said we were in a crisis.

"I don't think we can afford that kind of erratic and uncertain leadership in these uncertain times. We need steady leadership in the White House. We need a President we can trust in times of crisis. And that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America."

As Steve Benen puts it, while evaluating a new Obama ad for Tee-Vee, the word "erratic" is appropriate because McCain "has been all over the map in response to the financial crisis."

He said it wasn't a time for blame, and then blamed Obama. He was for and against the AIG bailout on successive days. He pushed Chris Cox's firing, then dropped it. He wanted a commission to study what had gone wrong, and then never mentioned it again. He "suspended" his campaign 10 days after the crisis began, but never actually put his campaign on hold. McCain has simply gone from one ridiculous notion to another, flailing around, looking desperately for something coherent to say.