Obama on McCain, falling markets

McCain's solution to the meltdown: order the pit bull to attack, Swift Boat style. I guess that's still better than having Phil Gramm tell everyone to stop whining.

Talking about change. Would that include chnaging the rules about contributions? Remember Fannie Mae, a government sponsored entity crated in 1997 and regulated by Congress?

During 1999-2005 they paid millions to 354 congressmen and senators from both parties. Do you know who were the top four?
1- Sen Christopher Dodd; 2- Sen Barack Obama; 3- Sen Chuck Schumer; 4- Rep Barney Frank.
Did you also know that Franklin Raines (ex- Fannie Mae) is now an adviser to the Obama Campaign?
This information and more is available in --Congressional Records (5/25/06)- Herald Tribune- (4/18/08) and www.govtrack.com (9/17/08).
Interesting reading. EFB

Why doesn't he mention that the bailout will not work and Paulson and Bernake should step down? Obama should also realize the markets are reacting to his presidency. http://www.bop-o-rama.com
McCain would be smart to attck Obama's empty rhetoric and ask him bluntly, where is the money going to come from for a new stimulus plan?

"We need fundamental change and that's why I'm running for president". Everyone agrees, change is needed, but can you explain yourself? What are you Mr. Obama going to do differently? Does change mean reform? You have no history of reform having never challenged any of the status quo political practices in your career as a state rep or in the US senate so how am I supposed to make an informed decision. I think both candidates are poor choices. I also think the dumbing-down of America is seriously putting our freedom in jeopardy. What plans do you have to improve education. All I've heard from either candidate is "more money". We've been doing that for years and it's only gotten worse. Foreign policy in Darfur. During the VP debates, both Biden and Palin said we should get involved in Darfur. Why? Does Darfur somehow threaten our national defense? I would really like to have some answers.

Talk, talk,talk, no actions that the fed's can do to "make everything right". Didn't Sen. Obama ridicule the Bush stimulus package six months ago? Was it not enough or too much? Now "his" plan is what's needed? The US Economic market can be led to water but making it drink is up to the investors in the US economy, not the government.

His comments regarding the "political shenanigans and scare tactics that have come to characterize too many political campaigns" pegs him smack square in his character flaws and exposes his life long associations with nefarious character's, namely his Chicago Democrat Combine mentor's.

As the Dow free-falls toward 9,000 territory, McCain's army of mudslingers can't get the smears up fast enough. "Country first" McCain has totally lost my respect, and is fast earning my contempt.

McCain's Fannie and Freddie Connections

John McCain railed against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the campaign trail today, saying that the CEOs that led the lenders to ruin "deserve nothing" and should have to pay back their severance packages. In an Wall Street Journal op-ed co-bylined by his vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin, McCain suggested bold reforms for Fannie and Freddie that would "terminate future lobbying, which was one of the primary contributors to this great debacle."

If that's the case, McCain should look first to his campaign staffers as the cause of that debacle. One of them was Fannie Mae's head of lobbying, and spread tens of millions of dollars around Washington in the form of lobbying contracts. A number of McCain staffers were on the receiving end of those contracts, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each from the lenders to rep their interests. And McCain's campaign manager served as president of a lobbying association that fought to protect Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from the sort of regulation that McCain is now proposing.

Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in. As recently as September of last year he said that subprime loans had been, quote, “a good idea.” Well, Senator Obama, that “good idea” has now plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Beyond platitudes about how great the American worker is and how government stands in the way of average Americans, Palin/McCain doesn't have much to say. Of course they're going to SwiftBoat Sen. O. All they have left is slime.

Obama can hit him all he wants, but one thing is for sure, raising taxes on people and businesses isn't going to help the current situation. You've got two of the most liberal senators in Congress in Obama and Biden, and regardless of what they say, they are going to hit everyone except those that pay no taxes already.

Matt, here is an abbreviated history of Obama's reform efforts:

Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.

In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.

In 2003, Obama sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.

In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority.

During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.

Obama voted in favor of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.

In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act. Obama introduced two initiatives bearing his name: "Lugar–Obama," which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, and the "Coburn–Obama Transparency Act," which authorized the establishment of www.USAspending.gov , a web search engine.

Obama sponsored legislation requiring nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks.

In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the "Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act," marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor.

In January 2007, Obama co-sponsored the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007. He introduced S. 453, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections. Obama also introduced the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007.

Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges. He sponsored the "Iran Sanctions Enabling Act" supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.

Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.

Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006.

In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama has made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

Springfield: "His comments regarding the "political shenanigans and scare tactics that have come to characterize too many political campaigns" pegs him smack square in his character flaws and exposes his life long associations with nefarious character's, namely his Chicago Democrat Combine mentor's." Right. What we need are four more years. Start the chant.

Jeff: "Well, Senator Obama, that “good idea” has now plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression." Right. Four more years, four more years, four more years.

"The fundamentals of the US economy are strong"

John McCain September 15, 2008.

Gee, do you think Nancy and Barney are posing for any photo-ops today? They were so pleased with themselves last week.

I just turned the TV on and flipped thru' the cable news stations. All of them had McCain and Palin campaigning in separate cities. Both were attacking Obama on everything...what is MOST SCARY about these attacks is the JOY EXHIBITED by each of the Republican candidates.

I say dispel the rumors get everything out in the open and be done with it. Why taint the presidency with this stuff. McCain Obama come clean!!!

****

Very soon after she was picked to be McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin was attacked by Obama campaign spokesmen and a Democratic member of Congress for once being seen wearing a Pat Buchanan button. She had an answer and the campaign offered it. Yet now we are asked to believe that it’s somehow inappropriate to inquire why Barack Obama’s political career began in the home of an admitted and unrepentant domestic terrorist of the radical left? “Who is Barack Obama?” is not an irrelevant question given the job Obama is seeking, and it’s a question he has sought mightily to avoid answering. The veil of secrecy he has thrown over his past (journalists have been denied access to his state legislative office records, documents about state earmarks he distributed in Illinois, a list of his legal clients, his state bar application, billing records related to Tony Rezko, medical records, academic records — all of which are the sort of documents candidates routinely make public) forces the question all the more.

Wow, I thought the meatballs on the Chicago Bears board were dumb but it's easy to see that Republicans take the cake! Kenneth Janowski wants "Four More Years", um.. did you see the markets dip again today? McCain and Palin are a bust to nowhere and won't bring any change to America. Too many Republicans are uninformed and need to do their homework!

Obama is again twisting the
truth. McCain didn't say he
is going to stop talking about
the economy but that discussing
Obama's character and judge-
ment is going to get a higher priority, as it should.

Vanessa, I had to laugh at that litany of nothingness. Never were more words used to describe so little. Nice work.
You do realize, don't you, that Obama's "ethics bill" was so watered down and such a non-threat to the status quo that congress didn't bother to call a roll-call vote for it, don't you? It was not reported in "The Hill" or "Roll Call," the two papers that cover congress full-time, or any of the major media as important legislation.
In fact, because Obama's bill was such a weakling Congress STILL hasn't banned earmarking, pork, or any of the other questionable practices that have earned it an 8% approval rating today.
Senator Coburn's been fighting for that transparency bill for 12 years. Like McCain, he's never taken or asked for an earmark. Obama has obtained $500 million worth of them and he's lucky Coburn was nice enough to allow him to attach his name to that bill. Do you realize that as chairman of the subcommittee on foreign affairs that he's NEVER visited or spoken to any of our generals fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq? Some accomplishment, being given a subcommittee chair and doing nothing with it.
Boy, this one REALLY did something (not) "and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures." Obama and the democrats were responsible for NOT regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and allowing those agencies to give TOO MANY MORTGAGES TO PEOPLE WHO COULDN'T AFFORD THEM. If anything Obama HELPED allow "predatory lending."
You're doin' one heckuva job, Vanessa and Barack!

Even carefully nonpartisan sources are feeling the need to spread the word. That includes Dr. Patricia Yarberry Allen, president of the nonpartisan Women's Voices for Change, who writes today (http://tinyurl.com/4k62xp) after a passionately evenhanded discussion of the crisis:
"Vote as though your life depends on it. Trust me, it does."

acarponzo wrote:"Obama should also realize the markets are reacting to his presidency" ...........you have it backward Obama presidency is due to the market. Dems=Mommy=money,Repub=Daddy=War

Democrats failure to pass S190 back in 2005 caused this mess. Now Junior Senator B.H.O. says that he will forgive all these people who can not afford or will not pay their debts at the direct expense of hard working Americans. Obama, wants America to become a socialized form of government, where people; corporations who get themselves into trouble do not have to take any responsibility for their actions.

this is far from over and there's one issue that everyone is ignoring--ARM loans are going to reset again in april 2009, then what happens? more people will defalut on their mortgages and that means more foreclosures and we'll be right back here again with another wave of "gee, we didn't see this coming," from the big lenders again.

Obama claims McCain can't be trusted because the Keating 5 had something to do with the S&L crisis of the eighties. What about the subprime mortgage crisis of today?

Just look to Penny Pritzker, Obama's National Finance Chair and a long time supporter.

The Pritzker Family co-owned the Superior Bank FSB, which collapsed in 2001, resulting in a $460 million payment to federal regulators. Penny served as head of the Board from 1991-1994 and is a director of the bank's holding company, Coast to Coast Financial Corp.

You won't be surprised to learn that Superior Bank specialized in sub-prime lending, the kind Obama advocated for and the kind that has caused the current crisis. According to Kathy Bergen of the Chicago Tribune on December 28, 2004:

“Auditors Ernst & Young…agreed to pay the FDIC $40 million in restitution in connection with the collapse of the bank, a subprime lender that made risky mortgage and auto loans to people with poor credit histories. It had about $2 billion in assets when it was shuttered.”

I voted at noon today in Indiana at my satellite voting site. I was voter # 72 and the site opened at 10 a.m. This is ONE of four satellites AND people can vote at the Clerk's office and the local universities. Something is happening all right!

Whoever said, "Vote as if your life depends on it" (above) was RIGHT!!

I am a 62-year old white woman, by the way and Obama got my vote for my children's and grandchildren's futures.

Wasn't it Bill Clinton and the Democrats that declared,

"Every American should be able to own a home"?

Well, thanks to their efforts to lower the standards by which mortgage companies approved credit to borrowers, we now find ourselves in a economic disaster.

Of course, once these standards were lowered, the mortgage companies schemed and took advantage of the situation, so they are to blame as well.

I am 35 years old and have owned 3 houses already. My current house is affordable because I did not run out and take a stupid loan I knew I couldn't afford in a few years. While friends of mine got into bigger nicer houses with interest only or ARMs, I stuck with the 6.25% fixed rate.

Now if I loose my job as a salesman due to this economic disaster, I will not be able to pay my bills.

Thank you Clinton, Democrats, Greedy Mortgage Companies, and all you greedy idiots who thought you were so successful buying that big house with no money down and an adjustable rate mortgage.

YOU ALL RUINED OUR ECONOMY!

That is why I am voting Republican.

acarponzo, you seem to have some sense about what Obama wants to do. We are drowning in debt and all he can talk about is spend, spend and more spending. Spend more money on a stimulus package, spend more money to extend unemployment. Where does he think the money is coming from. The same place the 700 billion is coming from. If he keeps taking our money to cover his extravent spending pretty soon there will be nothing left. And we are close to that right now. We need someone with a level head who will start drilling so we can stop spending billions on oil from other countries, we need to cut the budget and reduce spending, not encourage more spending. You know what they say about the weather .. you can't do anything about it so what good does it do to talk about it. Stop talking and start doing, and that doesn't mean more spending.

"Do you realize that as chairman of the subcommittee on foreign affairs that he's NEVER visited or spoken to any of our generals fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq? "

Another whopper of a lie from Jeff, The Official McCain schill of the Swamp.

http://obama.senate.gov/press/080721-statement_of_se_48/

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=3794382

http://www.military.com/news/article/September-2008/report-obama-gave-petraeus-afghan-advice.html?wh=news

Just like his Hero John McCain, Jeff has no honor and will tell any lie at any time.

Now that I have once again exposed Jeff as the liar he is, I will educate him a bit.

Barack Obama is the Chairman of the Senate Foriegn Relations Subcomittee on European Affairs. Iraq and Afghanistan are not in Europe. They are not part of the area of oversite of his subcommittee, so his role as Chairman of that particular sub committee has absolutely nothing to do with oversite of either War. It would in no way be part of the responsibility of a Subcomittee on European Affairs to meet with US Generals fighting wars in the Middle East.

Ignorant and dishonest, that's our buddy Jeff.

Jeff, Hey buddy, If being associated with a director if a bank that failed is so bad, let's look at another example, shall we?

Silver State Bank failed on September 6, 2008. Andrew McCain, John McCain's son was a director of that institution as recently as July of this year. The bank failed due to it's bad housing loans. It had about $2 billion dollars in assets when it was shuttered.

Andrew McCain had been a Member of the Audit Committee responsible for overseeing the Banks accounting.

I guess, by your own standard, that means McCain was connected to the sub-prime mortgage mess, wasn't he?

Nice how the McCainiacs forget how much the Republicans wanted to make sure that regulation didn't actually happen (talk about it, sure -- HAPPEN? Oh, no!). Bush was as in favor of all Americans owning homes as Clinton ever was. No, Democrats are NOT without blame, but we're NOT THE SOLE CULPRITS, either -- This from factcheck.org:

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html

Barack Obama has been thoroughly examined over the last two years by the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times. He has withstood all attempts to keep him on the defensive. And his campaign keeps rolling along. He will govern like his campaign is run, solving problems and staying focused. Our next President: Barack Obama.

Vanessa, sorry, Jeff is correct. That ethics reform you touted as a success for President Obama, there was zero mentioned of it in the NY Times and the Washington Post after its passage. This was after the Post carried an 1800 word op ed written by Obama prior to its passage.

Using a basketball metaphor, that "reform" was a lay-up. Pretty hard to miss. NONE of his "accomplishments" suggested he committed HERESY against his party. McCain has made a career out of committing HERESY against Republicans to get something done.
(Want to see what Democrats do to anyone who commits heresy against the Democratic "themes?" Please ask Joe Leiberman. He's currently being stripped of his Senate Committee chairmanships.)

How about campaign finance REFORM? That was McCain, not Obama. Obama chose NOT to abide by campaign finance reform, choosing to opt out of federal money, after he had voice support for such reform.

How about a REFORM of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bill? Oops, that was S. 190, cosponsored by John McCain, OPPOSED by 100% of Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee, SUPPORTED by 100% of Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee.

President Obama, needless to say, was "present." He was silent on the matter.

Easy to see why--as we know now, Dodd received $133,900 in campaign contributions from Fannie/Freddie (per opensecrets.org), ranking #1 in Congress. Obama received $105,949 from Fannie / Freddie (per opensecrets.org), ranking #3 in Congress.

I voted at noon today in Indiana at my satellite voting site. I was voter # 72 and the site opened at 10 a.m. This is ONE of four satellites AND people can vote at the Clerk's office and the local universities. Something is happening all right!

Whoever said, "Vote as if your life depends on it" (above) was RIGHT!!

I am a 62-year old white woman, by the way and Obama got my vote for my children's and grandchildren's futures.

"Now if I loose my job as a salesman due to this economic disaster, I will not be able to pay my bills." Way to go Chase. Start the chant: four more years, four more years, four more years.

"How about campaign finance REFORM? That was McCain, not Obama. Obama chose NOT to abide by campaign finance reform, choosing to opt out of federal money, after he had voice support for such reform."

As McCain did during the Primaries. So what's your point? For McCain and his supporters to attack Obama on that point is pure hypocrisy, nothing more. But that's what we expect from the Republican's lies, hypocisy and deceit.

Psst, Andrew. That was sarcasm.

Last Tuesday, October 7th, the second presidential debate that took place in Belmont University in Nashville attracted over 60 million viewers. Instead of coming to a more firm deliberation on how to improve the well-being of the United States and all of the American citizens who inhabit it, more questions have raised about how exactly these presidential candidates intend to better our obliterated economy. Frequent questions asked about the $700 billion Wall Street bailout were left unanswered. People are upset and even fear that it would not work and are in search of reassurance and a solution. It seems like their main focus is basically to criticize each other in hopes of rounding up a larger number of followers than the other. Their proposed intentions are based on completely irrelevant issues. Let’s take Barak Obama’s stance on payday advance lenders for an instance. He categorized them as “predatory lending”- effectively sanctioning the industry. This is not an issue that is downheartedly affecting our economy. As the real economic problems are ignored, they spend more time finding and using the pettiest affairs to add spice to the banking production.