According to Sarah Palin, our country’s financial system needs some “shakin’ up and fixin’.” John McCain decries the “casino culture” of greedy investors. Barack Obama recently promised to “punish those who set this fire.”

The colorful sound bites hang on this current economic crisis like ornaments on a Christmas tree – and are just as useful. As the presidential race draws to a close, both sides want to own the reform-the-crooks angle while avoiding specifics. Plenty of ire is available for Wall Street’s greed and the inaction of a regulation-phobic Bush administration. But remarkably little anger has been reserved for the special interest influence that caused this failure of government in the first place.