The gods are conspiring against John McCain this year. There was bad weather when he was trying to visit an oil platform in the Gulf, all those crazy zealots prayed for rain at the DNC but instead got Ike at the RNC, and then came the economy. On the day of one of the biggest economic crises in modern history, McCain made the mistake of claiming that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.

And now this. Paul Krugman of the NY Times points out an unfortunately timed piece by McCain in the current September/October 2008 issue of Contingencies magazine, in which he suggests deregulating the health care market just like the banking industry.

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

Oops.

Of course this view is nothing new in the McCain camp, just bad timing. A few weeks back, the architect of McCain’s health care plan insisted that Americans shouldn’t use the word ‘uninsured’ because we all have ER access. Did you know they also want to wipe out your employer-provided health care plan? And then tax you on the benefits you receive. Really. It’s the tax increase no one is talking about.

And just imagine the world of hurt our seniors would be in today if McCain and Bush had succeeded in privatizing Social Security. Though he has contradicted himself several times about whether or not he supports privatization. One thing is clear, he’s not clear on what Social Security is or how it works. Yet he still wants to gamble away our retirement security.