Why McCain will lose

Gas out here in California now tops $4 a gallon for 91 octane. Soon, it’ll top that for 87 octane.

That’s why McCain is going to lose, probably to Obama, maybe to Hillary. None of these candidates has a clue what’s going on. They all have “energy policies” that would reduce American independence on “foreign oil” (although most U.S. foreign oil comes from Canada and Mexico) and force conservation.

But the problem isn’t energy policy, it’s monetary policy. It’s inflation. It’s not returning to the gold standard, which would keep the value of the dollar constant, instead of inflating it.

I can understand why McCain doesn’t want to touch inflation. It’s Ron Paul’s issue. And Paul is still out there campaigning, even though McCain has enough delegates to win the nomination. Paul wants some more delegates so he has a greater presence at the GOP convention. McCain is clueless on economics, and sure won’t give any credit to Paul.

Republicans used to understand this stuff cold, how inflation was caused by the Federal Reserve Board creating too much money. Now, aside from Paul and a few other exceptions, the GOP is as clueless as Democrats. I remember how in 1976 Republicans, especially conservatives, ridiculed their own president, Jerry Ford, for his ridiculous WIN campaign (Whip Inflation Now), which was supposed to encourage people to refrain from asking for pay raises. Ford passed out WIN buttons (as in the picture above). It didn’t work. Jerry was urged to return to the gold standard Nixon had abandoned in 1971, but didn’t. Must have played football without a helmet too many times for the University of Michigan (as Reagan once quipped).

It wouldn’t surprise me if Bush brought back WIN buttons. In addition to his own mistakes, he seems eager to repeat every mistake of his predecessors.

Democrats also clueless

For Democrats, they just don’t get it. They should. The three biggest inflators in history were Republicans: 1. Nixon (the worst); 2. George W. Bush; 3. Lincoln.

The fourth was FDR.

Democrats should return to the gold standard espoused by every Democrat up to JFK, and to some extent even LBJ. That means only two Demo presidents didn’t favor the gold standard: Carter, who was done in by inflation; and Clinton, who enjoyed a rare period of low inflation off the gold standard. (FDR, after debasing the currency in 1933, didn’t do so again. This meant World War II was paid for on low-interest, gold-standard money, easing debt payments during and after the war.)

Inflation slams the party in power. It helped defeat LBJ in 68, Ford in 76, and Carter in 80; and helped push Nixon to resign in 74. Sure, there were other factors for these political defeats. But when the economy is crashing from inflation, people just want a questionable president out.

And for a lame duck like Bush, with his Bushflation, people just want the incumbent party gone and the other party put in power to try something new. In addition to $4 gas, we have rice rationing at Sam’s Club and Costco — sort of like China under Mao. And and I’ve noticed that bourbon has gone up in price at least 10% in recent weeks, a real tragedy.

So McCain is toast — which, by the way, costs more that it used to because of the inflated price of bread.