McCain gets a D from O'Neil

Paul O'Neill, former Treasury Secretary under Bush was fired because he wouldn't buckle down to the Bush's nonsense. He was interviewed Sunday in the New York Times Magazine. O'Neill says what he means, which is why he was fired. A few quotes below --

Times -- It's so hard to understand how the subprime mortgage crisis has triggered a financial crisis of global proportions.

O'Neill -- If you have ten bottles of water and one bottle had poison in it, and you didn't know which one, you probably wouldn't drink out of any of the ten bottles: that's basically what we got there.

Times -- Instead of helping Bear Stearns, why doesn't the Fed help homeowners?

O'Neill -- It's too late now. Going back a year ago, if the Fed and the Treasury had set out to help the institutions provide clarity and differentiate between good loans and bad loans, we wouldn't have gotten in this freeze situation.

Times -- How do you feel about McCain, who claims to be a straight talker?

O'Neill -- I don't want a straight talker, I want a leader. And a straight talker is one dimension of a leader.

Times -- McCain recently confessed in public that his grasp of economics is limited.

O'Neill -- Yeah, that's a great place to start from, isn't it?

Times -- Do you feel bitter about your service for the Bush administration?

O'Neill -- No. I'm thankful I got fired when I did, so that I didn't have to be associated with what they subsequently did.