'Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill

[elleng]

said today that our nation's leaders -- especially President Bush -- are "in a panic" and haven't thought through the $700 billion bailout plan in a rush to pass it by the end of the week.

"I don't think he understands or knows much about any of this and it shows," O'Neill said, adding that current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson "knows a lot of about this, and it's good that he's there."

O'Neill, who served as Bush's first treasury secretary until being fired over diverging views with the president about tax cuts and other issues, didn't have favorable things to say about the economic policies of either presidential candidate, Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain.

"I think most of what has been said by both campaigns about economic stuff is ill-informed and ill-advised," he said. Asked for specific problems, O'Neill said: "Everything."

"Hopefully, whichever one of these two people ends up being president, my prayer is that they will be better than what they have said in the campaign," O'Neill said in an interview with ABC News this afternoon.

"We have spun ourselves into a position where intelligent people don't believe they can tell the people the truth and still get elected, so they pander," he added. "One can only hope that they understand the difference between campaigning and governing, and that their governing will be better than what the campaign said."' >>>

ihttp://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5887486r

[stillcool]

1. Isn't that the truth..

no candidate can speak the truth and ever hope to get elected. It is so convoluted, but I guess it's what the American people want, because they so thoroughly reject those who let the truth sneak in. Like Reverend Wright.

[tblue]

2. You are so right. About Rev. Wright, too. I heard that whole sermon, and he made a lot

of sense. The few words that have been plastered throughout the media were taken completely out of context.

I wish that JMc and Obama could have an honest, explicit policy debate, and let the people decide which way we wanna go. What a concept, huh?

[elleng]

3. You've struck on it:

The Media is fully responsible for our inability to elect the best, as the best will ALWAYS recognize the interests of The People. The Media is controlled by big business, which becomes bigger and bigger.

This happens largely because of the lack of decent regulation, about which a good part of the present debacle is concerned. And its not just financial regulation, tho that's a big part of it; its 'economic' regulation, like over communications/transportation/energy enterprises, and others.