” … maybe Cindy should be on the ticket.”

James Ledbetter, writing in Slate, deconstructs McCain’s personal economic experience. Or, rather, lack of it. When McCain tells us he’s lived his life “not for profit, but for patriotism” believe him. It’s his wife who has lived a life for profit, for both of them, God bless her.

McCain’s financial inexperience may explain why his attempts to discuss economics—such as his rapid flip-flop on the need for bailing out homeowners, his pandering suggestion to suspend the gasoline tax, or his happy talk on balancing the budget—sound so tin-eared.

It’s hard — for me, at least — not to view McCain’s admission of economic illiteracy (at a time when Republicans need a candidate who can, at the very least, feign such proficiency) an admission of having absolutely no guiding economic principles. His voting record sure doesn’t produce a tangible fiscal philosophy, only a haphazard collection of pandering and expediency. And with McCain’s recent populist assault on “profit,” I can imagine many Republicans are wondering what exactly they’ve gotten themselves into.