WI McCain comes out against the 2008 bail outs

I've been really curious about this one and have no idea how it would have played out. A search under "McCain" reveals that this has not been discussed here, at least recently.

What would have happened if John McCain had denounced, Bowfinger style, and voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the big bailout during the financial crash of that year?
 
With 70%+ of the country strongly against the bank bailouts and 80%+ of the country strongly against the automakers bailouts to the level Congress failed to save American automakers and Bush had to use bank bailout money to do it one decade ago this month to save millions of American jobs... McCain going full economic populist could win him the election and change GOP prospects in Congress somewhat as the public mood was overwhelmingly to let everything burn.

President_George_W._Bush_bipartisan_economic_meeting_Congress%2C_McCain%2C_Obama.jpg


McCain may win if the dominos don’t all start falling until after the election and if so ends up with a Democratic Congress though with reduced numbers to 2009 OTL and the world has another Great Depression worse then the last one. In the end the public blames the GOP as “we did what you wanted us to do” means jack all when Joe Q. Public who was vitriolicly against the bailouts suddenly loses their job and their house.

The Democratic Party goes very far to the left on economic matters and picks up a solid supermajority in 2010 and the WH in 2012.
 
Last edited:
He would be denounced as this great fool who can not be trusted with anything coming close to the presidency by every mainstream pundit both liberal and conservative.
While there was a loud faction of the American people against the bailouts, the vast majority of the American people knew that something had to be done to stabilize the situation and the bailouts were the most immediate available option out there.
McCain would have to offer an alternative solution that would have worked in the mean time that would have been seen as credible.
 
Like most Hail Mary plays, I feel like this would fail in the end. If there is no credit, there is no economy. He better have a solution or he's getting blown out more so than OTL.
 
Like most Hail Mary plays, I feel like this would fail in the end. If there is no credit, there is no economy. He better have a solution or he's getting blown out more so than OTL.

You understand that, but the public at the time didn’t at all and was almost ready for pitchforks over the bailouts at the time.

That is why we are a representative democracy not a direct one.

For McCain it was inconceivable based on his character he not to support saving the countries economy in that hour, but for a Trump like politician willing to lie to the public and tell them everything will be good it’s a scam by the banks and car companies for your cash.... it could very well work if there isn’t a full banking collapse before Election Day.
 
Last edited:
Top