IN MY OFFICE is a stack of articles detailing everything that went wrong under George W. Bush. It is so tall that if John McCain stood on it, he might be about Barack Obama’s height.

Sifting through the other day, I counted 21 episodes. Yet I was barely a fifth of the way in, and still on the first term.

Remember the big blackout in Ohio? It was in August 2003, and the largest in North American history. Once the lights were back on, analysts traced the slip-up to deregulation. Utility companies had been slashing staff and skirting maintenance to save money.

Regulatory failure turns out to be a big Bush-era theme. It brought us Enron, lead-encrusted toys, proliferating data and identity theft, roads clogged with gas guzzlers, collapsed mines, the foreclosure crisis and more.

The Republicans have painted themselves as regulatory minimalists at least since Ronald Reagan. They assure us that the market can take care of everything, indeed, is wisdom itself. But without sensible rules in place, the market turns dopey. We supposedly learned this lesson during the Great Depression. Nevertheless, like Bush, McCain despises government refereeing. In the mid-’90s, he pushed unsuccessfully for an across-the-board moratorium on federal regulation. Last March, he told The Wall Street Journal: “I am fundamentally a deregulator.”

Now and then he has talked about making changes in the financial system. But through one and a half presidential campaigns, McCain has pretty much stuck to his Deregulator Guy image.

Then, last week, the market began its deepest slide since 9/11. McCain went out and pronounced “the fundamentals” of the economy strong.

He had a lot of folks scratching their heads. Could he even name a fundamental? Or was he more like a contestant on The Family Feud, the batty uncle who blurts out an answer matching zero responses from the audience. (Game show host: “Name an economic fundamental!” McCain: “Dr. Pepper!”)

As Black Monday progressed, McCain said that maybe a panel of experts should look into things. (Translation: Don’t saddle me with this problem; I’m just running for president.)

Later still, he called for “major reform.” He’s been mentioning regulation ever since.

But why so late to the situation room?

For a good year now, economists, financial gurus and even ordinary newspaper columnists have been worked up about the approaching train wreck. The basic problem has been outlined over and over.

A separate, little regulated financial system (operating via investment banks, hedge funds etc.) has arisen alongside our traditionally regulated commercial banks. It brought new, largely hidden levels of risk into the market. (The spike in sub-prime mortgages was one result.) The temptation to take risks was augmented by a huge, post-9/11 injection of cash into the system.

Government, under George W. Bush & Friends, looked the other way.

Barack Obama reacted to the problem early last year, warning that a crisis neared. In March, while McCain was still all “eee-yew” over the idea of regulation, Obama was laying out a plan to extend the types of rules governing commercial banks to mortgage brokerages and other institutions.

Then came the summer. While Congress dithered, more Americans lost their houses. McCain checked to see how many he had. Bush chatted up the U.S. volleyball team in China, and presided over another T-ball tournament at the White House.

Which brings us to now.

Voters might look at McCain and think: Older guy. Experience. I’ll go with that.

But experience without judgment is like a Hummer without gas.

As the governor of a large state for almost six years, George W. Bush arguably had experience. It just did not leave much of a mark on him. He entered the White House a tabula rasa, braying about how he was the decider and surrounding himself with lousy advisers.

One of McCain’s favorite economic counselors has been former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm. In 1999, Gramm pushed through a weakening of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which separated investment and commercial banks in a bid to prevent widespread financial catastrophe. The ensuing deregulation helped bring us this month’s headlines.

But McCain is perfectly capable of messing up on his own. In the late 1980s, his anti-regulatory bent placed him in the thick of the savings-and-loan crisis. Meeting with regulators on behalf of Charles Keating, a campaign contributor who headed a large Arizona thrift, McCain became one of the so-called Keating Five, accused of wielding improper influence.

The S&L crisis led to a $124 billion bailout courtesy of taxpayers. McCain got off lightly, with the Senate Ethics Committee officially accusing him of “poor judgment.”

Despite his recent change of tune, the essential John McCain would rather let the current crisis go away on its own.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, saw some time ago that our financial system was ailing, and offered a plan. Maybe he should get some points for judgment.

M.J. Andersen is a member of The Journal’s editorial board.