So I am trying to enjoy the playoff football here in Boston and every timeout there is a carpet bombing of the senatorial commercials from Martha Coakley and Scott Brown. The sequence of the ads is rather amusing, first there would be a Coakley ad saying that Brown is George Bush’s prodigal son, he lives on Walls Street where he shares his bed with the bankers. Then there would be a Brown ad where he is shown in his kitchen or riding his truck, saying I am just a regular shmo, a National Guard officer, I don’t work on Wall St. Pretty funny actually.
In the old country there was a steady political scapegoat, the Jews. In the post crash America there is a new euphemism for that called “the bankers”. It has somewhat similar undertones, scheming, got all the money (especially our money). And because it hits people in their empty pockets, the response is visceral (so they hope). Too bad that both Coakley and Brown are lawyers, so the lawyer bashing is not available for this campaign. For all we know Bernie Frank might be as culpable in the housing crash as Fannie and Freddie combined. Alas just like with the lawyers, you can’t blame politicians in this campaign either. So for sure, must be the bankers.