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McCain Wants SEC Chief Out; Obama Says It's Not Enough
Candidates at odds over blame for market meltdown; Dem faults all Bush cronies
By John Johnson
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Posted Sep 18, 08 5:25 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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John McCain said today he would fire the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission and blasted federal regulators for being “asleep at the switch,” Bloomberg reports. McCain, who's lost ground in the polls during the recent economic turmoil, said the SEC “kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino.”
Later, Barack Obama responded that it's not enough to "get rid of one guy," the AP notes. Voters should "fire the whole trickle-down, on-your-own, look-the-other way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path," he said. Technically, the president can't fire the SEC chief, but he could make one of the other appointed members chairman. Current chief Chris Cox had no comment.