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Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Douglas MacKinnon :: Townhall.com Columnist
Our Scapegoats Say: "The Fault is Yours"
by Douglas MacKinnon
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More than two months into the "worst economic crisis of our lifetimes," and here is the prevailing—and increasingly angry—complaint I'm hearing from real people : "Why is no one accountable for this?"

Shouldn't true leadership be defined by someone coming forward and simply saying, "I messed up. I should have seen this coming. I should have done something to help avert the untold pain this crisis is visiting upon our businesses, our retirees, our families and the very health of those who have been devastated financially by the obvious warning signs I ignored or the steps I failed to take."

When I worked for former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), several times a day I would walk past a handwritten note by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. A note that said it all about leadership and responsibility. Just before D-Day and the Normandy invasion, Eisenhower drafted the brief note should the landings fail. As D-Day was a success, the remarks were never delivered.

Here are the words of a leader who would have been willing to take the blame—deserved or not:

"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone."

I submit that tens of millions of Americans are desperate for that kind of selfless leadership. Where is that person? Surely the rock under which most of these "leaders" have crawled must be about ready to melt from the collective body heat of those shaking and hiding under its cover. Can't one of them step out into the sunshine, take a deep breath and say: "For the good of the nation, someone has to be accountable. That list starts with me."

Republicans blame Democrats. Democrats blame Republicans. Hedge fund managers blame bankers. Bankers blame their own customers. Chief executive officers blame unions. Everybody blames Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Yeah, yeah. We get it. While clearly someone should be on the hook for a crisis that has wiped out the future security for millions of us, it's not you. You—our political or business leaders—did absolutely nothing wrong.

I would further submit that the most insecure and thin-skinned people in business tend to be economists, weather forecasters and political pundits. When they think they've nailed a particular prediction, they will make sure they trumpet the news from the highest mountain. When they are wrong, they crank up the excuse machine and blame everyone but themselves for their blunders.

Today, we are being bombarded with diametrically opposed "solutions" from these very economists, politicians, CEOs and other alleged "experts." On top of that, President-elect Barack Obama seems to be bringing Team Rubin (former advisers to Robert Rubin when he was the secretary of the Treasury for President Bill Clinton) back into the fold to deal with a crisis that some believe they helped create. So as not to heap undue blame on these Rubin protégés, we just as strongly need to ask where were the Bush teams of Paul O'Neill, John Snow and Henry Paulson when our national piggy bank was being smashed and looted?

Obviously, there are tens or hundreds of people at fault for all of this. Unfortunately, there is not a Gen. Eisenhower among the bunch.

Douglas MacKinnon was press secretary to former Sen. Bob Dole and served in the White House and the Pentagon.
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About The Author

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of the forthcoming novel, The Apocalypse Directive.

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(55 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Dec 2, 2008 - 10:33 PM EST
FASB in my crosshairs
The crisis was not caused by mortgage failure. It was caused by a collapse of the derivatives market. The derivatives market collapsed because the FASB arbitrarily forced companies to write down the value of their assets, precipitating a sell-off. And it is no exaggeration to say that they did it just because they could.
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Reply # 2
Date: Dec 2, 2008 - 10:29 PM EST
No Christopher
They don't need to be "fixed", they need to be eliminated. Fixing them assumes that they should exist in the first place.

And who exactly is going to "fix" these institutions except the very same people who caused and covered-up the problems in the first place? Barney Frank? Nancy Pelosi? Chris Dodd? Charles Rangle? Barak Obama?

Dead. Horse. It's time to let the ship sink.

Signed,
John Galt.
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