OPINION
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Bush Gambles Left US Broke; McCain's Could Kill Us
Palin choice shows Mac is just as willing to roll dice—but now's not the time for that
By Gabriel Winant
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Posted Oct 2, 08 12:02 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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With Wall Street unraveling, Roger Cohen writes in the New York Times, we should remember who taught America all about incautious betting: President Bush, “the first person to reprice risk on the basis it no longer existed.” The Iraq war was a gamble with US lives and money, even as he allowed the markets to “turn capitalism into a pyramid scheme for trading worthless paper.”
Enough gambling for America, says Cohen. If John McCain is elected, actuarially speaking, there is a 1 in 6 or 7 chance of Sarah Palin becoming president. That's quite a roll of the dice. "The lesson of the last 8 years is this: when power is a passport to gamble, people can end up seriously broke or seriously dead."