As Michelle Malkin says, this quote from John McCain is something we can cheer:

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Let’s start with some straight talk:I will not play election year politics with the housing crisis. I will evaluate everything in terms of whether it might be harmful or helpful to our effort to deal with the crisis we face now.

I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers. Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy.

In our effort to help deserving homeowners, no assistance should be given to speculators. Any assistance for borrowers should be focused solely on homeowners, not people who bought houses for speculative purposes, to rent or as second homes. Any assistance must be temporary and must not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren’t. I will consider any and all proposals based on their cost and benefits. In this crisis, as in all I may face in the future, I will not allow dogma to override common sense.

When we commit taxpayer dollars as assistance, it should be accompanied by reforms that ensure that we never face this problem again. Central to those reforms should be transparency and accountability.

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He seems to leave himself a little wiggle room on the issue, particularly regarding a possible bailout for a person’s main residence, but even saying what he did is real progress. I completely agree that “it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly.” By rewarding the people who did not act in a responible manner, it punishes those of us who did. I could have bought a house, and had the government bail me out, but I did not take the foolish risks that led some people to this situation. So now I don’t have the house, and someone who took a foolish risk does. ON MY DIME! Let’s just hope McCain can stick with this sort of thing.