McCain Blasts SEC Chairman

John McCain has called for the firing of Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). This is quite an aggressive move by McCain. He cites poor wall street oversight by the SEC. In doing so, McCain states that Cox has betrayed the public trust.

There is no question that the economy and stock market have been hit hard recently. Speculator have been selling stocks short. In other words, they have been betting that stock prices will go down. Not only that, some have been doing naked short sales. Investors often blame these short sellers when stock prices fall. Whether or not they are the direct cause is a point of debate.

We should return to some facts of the matter. The SEC did eliminate something called the uptick rule for short selling. Essentially you could not sell a stock short unless the price was increasing. Another fact is that even good companies are suffering due to the recent events in the stock market.

Now let’s discuss the fate of chairman Cox. The chairman of the SEC is appointed by the president of the United States. Bush has come out and said Cox has his full support. Cox also rebutted McCain’s call with a 10 point list of positive actions the SEC is taking to deal with the stock market.

So why would McCain make such an aggressive move against Cox? He previously had stated that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Big mistake. His campaign is also losing some steam as the news of Sarah Palin wears off. I would hope that McCain would work on some real action to help the economy instead of some cheap methods like declaring the SEC chairman should be fired.

Sarah Palin's Daughter

The big news for a while was that Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant. Luckily the democrats are very gentle when dealing with Palin. They don't want to appear to be attacking women in general.

A funny thing about this story is that it generated all kinds of Internet rumors. I would be reading message boards about company stocks, and I would see stories about Palin, her children, and her future grandchildren. That was spooky.

Personally I don't care if Sarah Palin is pregnant. I don't care if her daughter is pregnant. And I do not care if her daughter is married or not and pregnant. All that matters is whether Palin can do the job of Vice President well. I suspect she can given her experience in Alaska. Her choice as Vice President may have been the move that pulled me to the McCain side.

Another Reason to Vote McCain

Here is another reason to vote for John McCain. Heidi Montag (of The Hills fame) has thrown her support behind McCain. This in and of itself is of no great consequence. However you normally hear about her so called real life relationship with Spencer. It is refreshing to hear something about her that has nothing to do with The Hills.