That's right, friends...That impeccable authority on all things political, Newsweek, has declared the inevitable to have come to pass: We're turning French.
And, as one might expect, they can't even get through the second paragraph without finding someone conveniently absent to blame it on:
...The U.S. government has already—under a conservative Republican administration—effectively nationalized the banking and mortgage industries. That seems a stronger sign of socialism than $50 million for art.
...and again in the third...
We remain a center-right nation in many ways—particularly culturally, and our instinct, once the crisis passes, will be to try to revert to a more free-market style of capitalism—but it was, again, under a conservative GOP administration that we enacted the largest expansion of the welfare state in 30 years: prescription drugs for the elderly.
...and again...
The architect of this new era of big government? History has a sense of humor, for the man who laid the foundations for the world Obama now rules is George W. Bush, who moved to bail out the financial sector last autumn with $700 billion.
There's a whole lot more in there about how "the political conversation" has changed, and the perils of fighting 21st century battles with 20th century tactics, blah, blah, blah.
More telling, however, is what is NOT in there.
The words "Fannie Mae", "Freddie Mac" and "Countrywide". NOT ONCE.
"Mortgage" is mentioned twice. "Housing" is mentioned once. All three instances are used only to mention that there is a problem.
There is, however, apparently not enough time or textspace to air any whiff of how the problem came about. Except (duh) to blame Bush, during whose term the trap was sprung.
Never mind who started the mortgage avalanche...who gleefully egged it on...and who made a pretty nice pile of hay on it before the trigger was pulled.
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