My son is a wee bit over 18-months old and he’s hitting that wonderful stage mankind has aptly named “The Terrible Twos”; aptly labeled because our daily routine has very rapidly become increasingly trying and somewhat "terrible". Nap and bed times are a fight, finding an acceptable meal to feed him is impossible, and he’s begun throwing temper tantrums over the slightest perceived grievances.

The thing about it is this: as awful as his tantrums are, they’re also mildly amusing in that he will point his finger at me accusingly after receiving discipline, as if I were the one who was misbehaving. It’s kind of funny actually. And the one thing you absolutely cannot do EVER is laugh at your child when he’s in trouble. It reinforces the bad behavior, as your child will think the situation is funny if you’re laughing at it. So you have to stifle the chuckle and put on your serious face when you correct him.

Images of my son’s tantrums come to mind while watching the Obama camp’s flailing attempts to point the finger at McCain for the current financial crisis.

McCain’s recent ads (here and here) are scathing and, unfortunately for Obama, incredibly accurate. Also harmful is the fact that in his short time as a U.S. Senator, Obama has received the second highest amount in "donations" from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (amounts were totaled for a period of NINE years). Also in trouble are his Democratic cohorts for not only being at the top of the Fannie and Freddie dole but for also blocking a 2005 bill (sponsored by none other than the Maverick McCain himself) that would have endeavored to correct the problem well before it reached the point we’re at today.

What’s the Obama camp's response, you ask? He’s spent his time pointing the finger at McCain/Bush/Republicans for “deregulation” that led to the Fannie and Freddie failures.  Let’s be clear: the free market is not the problem here. If the housing and loan markets hadn’t been tampered with by Clinton and company in the 1990s, opening the door for and actually ENCOURAGING mortgage companies and the like to give out high risk loans to those who were “less fortunate” (ie, less capable of actually paying back the money they borrowed) we wouldn’t be in this mess right now.

When we forbid businesses to follow good business practices and require them to run as charities, this is the kind of garbage we’re gonna get.

Instead of trying to pass the buck to McCain, Obama’s cause would be better served by laying the blame at the real culprits and standing up to his own party on this issue. Doing so would reflect a true spirit of accountability and reform and would back up his to-date unfounded claims of being a “post- partisan agent of change”. As usual, the only one willing to buck his party when they need a good bucking is John McCain. And we see very clearly yet another example of what’s wrong with today’s political climate: law makers towing the party line at all costs and, in the process, sticking it to the rest of us.

No matter how hard Obama and company stamp their little feet and point their fingers in defiance, it doesn’t change the fact that they’re wrong and need correction. Hopefully the American people will enact that correction appropriately in November.