Dr. Edward Hudgins, executive director of The Atlas Society, was quoted in a Boston Globe article on September 18, 2008 entitled “Amid turmoil, McCain turns to regulation.” This piece looked at the Republican presidential candidate’s recent advocacy of more government regulation in the face of the problems in the banking and housing markets.

Many observers quoted in the article criticized McCain for having a history of favoring deregulation and changing his position only in the past few days for political reasons. But the Globe reported that:

“ Edward L. Hudgins, former director of regulatory studies at the Cato Institute, and the executive director of the Atlas Society, a Washington-based free-market think tank, called John McCain ‘someone who is not a man with firm ideological or economic principles. It is not that he is not passionate. It’s that he doesn't have a rule that he could generally apply to any situation’.” \

In portions of the interview with journalist Farah Stockman not included in the article, Hudgins observed that McCain has always called himself an admirer of Teddy Roosevelt, the Republican president known as a “trust-buster” and opponent of big business. Hudgins also observed that McCain’s record on free markets has been mixed, criticizing wasteful government spending on the one hand but also opposing tax cuts on the other.

As with most elections, this one shows philosophical confusion and the desperate for a discussion in terms of clear, rational, moral principles as well as sound economics. This country needs the Objectivist perspective now more than ever!