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.

One of the best zingers Rudy Giuliani got off last Wednesday night at the RNC convention was in re: Obama's continuously shifting position on the conflict between Russia and Georgia. After he and his 300+ policy advisors went flailing about for several days looking for the right response, Obama ultimately looked at McCain and went, "Uh, yeah. What he said!" Rudy's observation was that Obama should start asking John McCain first.

Well, it turns out that Rudy was right on more than one count. As the Wallstreet Journal points out, Obama has now changed his mind about the raising taxes on "the rich". Apparently he's realized that if we go into a recession it may be bad for the economy to raise taxes on the people who are actually providing jobs and signing paychecks. Too bad he didn't consult McCain before he sent out his tax plan.

If you will recall, originally McCain wasn't in favor of the Bush tax cuts. McCain, who has always been a HUGE proponent of reducing government waste an reigning in federal spending, felt at the time that we hadn't made enough cuts on our federal tab to justify a cut in rates. However when it turned out that the tax cuts stimulated the economy and the government actually started taking in more revenue than it had previously, McCain was man enough to admit his initial misgivings turned out to be incorrect and made the decision to support keeping the tax cuts. You see this is what's called "the ability to exercise good judgment".

Obama, on the other hand, has apparently only recently gotten the memo that the tax cuts worked (possibly included in the same memo telling him about the success of the troop surge, to which he has FINALLY admitted) and is now staking out a contingency plan to keep taxes low "just in case". Unfortunately the same miracle worker who managed to convince Obama that raising taxes on "the rich" during a recession would just make things worse has yet to convince him that the same logic carries over into non-volatile economic times. Apparently, Obama believes taking money that would otherwise go into production (ie, corporate expansion, jobs, and wages) will magically create wealth and opportunity in good times, even though the same policy is a disaster in poor times. Excellent reasoning and judgment, Barry!

Seriously, man: take Rudy's advice, dump the 300+ useless "advisors" and start consulting John. You'll have a much better chance at being right.