I thought Parker gave particularly poor answers to two questions.

When asked about the home mortgage crisis he said some of the blame fell on individuals who made poor choices. Good answer in keeping with his personal responsibility ethos. But then he went on to say that some blame lay with unethical lenders, which sounds more like what George Will would call the “rhetoric of victimology.” If a lender did something illegal then the debtor can use the judicial system to right the situation to some extent. However, unethical acts in this situation are usually equally divided between lender and debtor. Take “liar loans” that don’t require proof of income. If the lender says, “We’ll just write down that you make $100k per year,” and you nod your head (cause you really want the house) is the lender solely to blame? And who cares what their qualifications for loaning money are anyway? If I want to loan my money to a homeless man with no collateral then I should be allowed to do so.

The other sorry answer was, I believe, to a question about NAFTA. He essentially said that he didn’t know what he would do because he’s only been running for two or three weeks. Some might view that as a prudent approach and that he wants to carefully study the issue. I hear that and say, “Why in the world are you running for congress?” Has he not been keeping up with issues well enough to have an opinion? I could announce I was running today and at least give a thoughtful answer to any policy question.