A Tour de Force in Projection and Hypocrisy

John McCain's speech today is, hands down, the most shamelessly hypocritical political speech I've read in my lifetime. It's beyond parody. Here are a few choice excerpts (via Halperin), with my commentary:

My opponent has invited serious questioning by announcing a few weeks ago that he would quote — “take off the gloves.” Since then, whenever I have questioned his policies or his record, he has called me a liar.

This is from a man whose campaign, just this weekend, announced in all the major newspapers that they were "taking the gloves off" in order to "turn the page" on the unfolding financial crisis. And the reason everyone (not just Obama) has been calling McCain a liar is because he and his running mate have made a habit lately of lying rather egregiously and unrepentantly about everything.

Rather than answer his critics, Senator Obama will try to distract you from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked. But let me reply in the plainest terms I know. I don’t need lessons about telling the truth to American people. And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldn’t seek advice from a Chicago politician.

Obama's trying to distract people? Again, this is a man whose campaign announced to all the world just this weekend that the plan for the remainder of the campaign was to distract people from the economic crisis by going after Obama personally.

My opponent’s touchiness every time he is questioned about his record should make us only more concerned. For a guy who’s already authored two memoirs, he’s not exactly an open book. It’s as if somehow the usual rules don’t apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, there’s always a back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults.

McCain calling Obama "touchy" is just too rich. Obama has been the measure of calm this entire campaign. McCain has been erratic as hell. Just last week he gave two interviews where he appeared to be on the verge of a Colonel Jessup moment. And just what is McCain implying when he asserts that Obama's is not an "open book" and that we don't know who the "real Barack Obama" is? Could he possibly be trying to capitalize on scurrilous rumors that have been circulating for the last year about Obama? Could he be playing to people's prejudices? Nahh. McCain is way to honorable for that.

Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed.

The chutzpah of that statement is pretty stunning. This is, in a nutshell, the central Republican political strategy of the last 20 years. And McCain has been one of the worst offenders. How many times has he claimed that Obama will raised taxes on those making over $42,000?

But the truth is I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place.

No, the truth is that McCain is a career deregulator. Moreover, Fannie and Freddie were not the cause of the current crisis and the regulations McCain is talking about would have done nothing to stop what has happened.

As recently as September of last year he [Obama] said that subprime loans had been, quote, “a good idea.” Well, Senator Obama, that “good idea” has now plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

This is just flat out ridiculous. Obama wrote a letter to Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson in March 2007 warning about the problems with subprime loans. And Obama wasn't even in Congress during the crucial periods of this crisis, when subprime loans were proliferating and trade in CDOs and credit default swaps was taking off (thanks in large part to the actions of Phil Gramm, McCain's chief economic advisor).

To hear him talk now, you’d think he’d always opposed the dangerous practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did. He was surely familiar with the people who were creating this problem. The executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have advised him, and he has taken their money for his campaign. He has received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other senator in history, with the exception of the chairman of the committee overseeing them. Did he ever talk to the executives at Fannie and Freddie about these reckless loans?

This is where the hypocrisy meter goes completely through the roof. McCain has much closer links to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than Obama does. His campaign is littered with ex Fannie and Freddie lobbyists, including his campaign manager, who was on their payroll until last month. And contrary to McCain's claim, McCain has taken WAY more money from Fannie and Freddie executives and lobbyists than Obama has ($169,000 to $16,000, according to CNN). And finally, it wasn't the loans that Fannie and Freddie were issuing ("prime" loans) that were the heart of the problem here. It was the subprime loans. Those were being issued by Fannie and Freddie's competitors.

I could go on, but it's just too exhausting. This is the speech of someone who longer has any self-respect and is willing to literally say anything in order to win. John McCain is a disgrace.