What's Important 52

Note: this post has been overtaken by events: the McCain campaign has produced the letter. See here . Fifty-second in a series.

On Tuesday, during the debate, McCain decided to tell us for the first time about how he, too, had written a letter:

I think if we act effectively -- if we stabilize the housing market, which I believe we can if we go out and buy up these bad loans so that people can have a new mortgage at the new value of their home; I think if we get rid of the cronyism and special interest influence in Washington so we can act more effectively -- my friend, I'd like you to see the letter that a group of senators and I wrote warning exactly of this crisis. Senator Obama's name was not on that letter.

We already know he's changed the proposal to buy up mortages at the original value. But how about that letter, presciently warning us "exactly of this crisis"? There's a little problem: his campaign can't won't hasn't produced the letter. They have produced it. But this part still stands: Oh, and there's evidence from his own lips that he wasn't quite as prescient as he'd now like us to believe. From an interview John McCain gave to the Keene Sentinel in November 2007, when "straight talk" still had a smidgen of meaning for him:

I don't really know of hardly anybody who, with the exception of a handful, that said, wait a minute this thing is getting completely out of hand and is overheating. So, I'd like to tell you I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk. I did not.

So, what price that letter?

(hat tip TMP who pointed me at Pro Publica)