It's about time the McCain Camp put the Fannie Freddie Mess Front and Center

I hope he hits Obama hard on this tomorrow night.

From McCain's speech:

Our current economic crisis is a good case in point. What was his actual record in the years before the great economic crisis of our lifetimes?

This crisis started in our housing market in the form of subprime loans that were pushed on people who could not afford them. Bad mortgages were being backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it was only a matter of time before a contagion of unsustainable debt began to spread. This corruption was encouraged by Democrats in Congress, and abetted by Senator Obama.

Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed. But the truth is I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place.

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.

To hear him talk now, you’d think he’d always opposed the dangerous practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did. He was surely familiar with the people who were creating this problem. The executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have advised him, and he has taken their money for his campaign. He has received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other senator in history, with the exception of the chairman of the committee overseeing them.

Did he ever talk to the executives at Fannie and Freddie about these reckless loans? Did he ever discuss with them the stronger oversight I proposed? If Senator Obama is such a champion of financial regulation, why didn’t he support these regulations that could have prevented this crisis in the first place? He won’t tell you, but you deserve an answer.

MUST SEE MAXINE WATERS/DEMOCRATIC OBLIVION AT THE CORRUPTION, MISFEASANCE AND MALFEASANCE AT FREDDIE AND FANNIE.

New McCain Ad hits Obama's Chicago Machine

John McCain’s campaign released one of its hardest hitting ads in this election on Monday, aiming to ratchet up the guilt-by-association game by linking Barack Obama to convicted felon Tony Rezko.

The new spot, “Chicago Machine” also connects the Democratic presidential nominee to three prominent Illinois politicians– former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, Illinois state Senate President Emil Jones and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich — all of whom have faced criticism for questionable ties to businessmen and political power brokers.

The politics of hope.

John McCain should put accountability for nightmare from subprime mess where it belongs.

The Democrats were putting pressure on banks to give loans to people who couldn't afford to pay them back.

From Real Clear Politics.

The truth is that most of the blame rests on political meddling in the credit decisions of these mortgage lenders.

Twenty years ago the buzz-word in the media was "redlining." Newspapers across the country were filled with hard-hitting investigative reports about evil and racist mortgage lenders refusing to make real estate loans to various minorities and to applicants who lived in lower-income neighborhoods. There I was closing these loans in the afternoons, and in the mornings offering a counter-argument on the radio to these absurd "redlining" claims. Frankly, the claims that evil mortgage lenders were systematically denying loans to blacks and other minorities were a lot sexier on the radio than my claims that when credit histories, job stability, loan-to-value ratios and income levels were considered there was no evident racial discrimination.

Political correctness won the day. Washington made it clear to banks and other lending institutions that if they did not do something .. and fast .. to bring more minorities and low-income Americans into the world of home ownership there would be a heavy price to pay.

With accountability in the right place, the last thing voters are going to do is vote in more of the same. The Democrats are responsible for the economic meltdown.

Oil spiked 25 dollars are barrel today.

Investors fear that the government will have to dramatically ramp up borrowing to pay for the mammoth rescue effort, an inflationary move that could further devalue the dollar and trigger another wave of safe-haven buying in investments like commodities.

“They’re going to have to continue auctioning off a whole lot of Treasurys to finance these projects, so the dollar is going to suffer,” said Matt Zeman, head trader at LaSalle Futures in Chicago. “Right now it’s fear and anxiety driving people who want tangible assets.”

At NRO, thoughts about the bailout, Has everyone in Washington lost their mind?

I’m not an economist, and I wouldn’t pretend to be one, but just as an observer of Washington, and as someone who has worked on the Hill and at the White House, it is simply apparent from this draft that this program will get completely out of control very quickly. It gives the Secretary of the Treasury essentially unlimited power to use $700 billion to make purchases the scope of which is defined very loosely and vaguely. It even says:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

700 Billion.

Freaken nuts!

Newt adds his two cents.

Watching Washington rush to throw taxpayer money at Wall Street has been sobering and a little frightening.

We are being told Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has a plan which will shift $700 billion in obligations from private companies to the taxpayer.

We are being warned that this $700 billion bailout is the only answer to a crisis.

We are being reassured that we can trust Secretary Paulson "because he knows what he is doing".

Congress had better ask a lot of questions before it shifts this much burden to the taxpayer and shifts this much power to a Washington bureaucracy.

Imagine that the political balance of power in Washington were different.

If this were a Democratic administration the Republicans in the House and Senate would be demanding answers and would be organizing for a “no” vote.

If a Democratic administration were proposing this plan, Republicans would realize that having Connecticut Democratic senator Chris Dodd (the largest recipient of political funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) as chairman of the Banking Committee guarantees that the Obama-Reid-Pelosi-Paulson plan that will emerge will be much worse as legislation than it started out as the Paulson proposal.

If this were a Democratic proposal, Republicans would remember that the Democrats wrote a grotesque housing bailout bill this summer that paid off their left-wing allies with taxpayer money, which despite its price tag of $300 billion has apparently failed as of last week, and could expect even more damage in this bill.

But because this gigantic power shift to Washington and this avalanche of taxpayer money is being proposed by a Republican administration, the normal conservative voices have been silent or confused.

It’s time to end the silence and clear up the confusion.

Congress has an obligation to protect the taxpayer.

Congress has an obligation to limit the executive branch to the rule of law.

Congress has an obligation to perform oversight.

Congress was designed by the Founding Fathers to move slowly, precisely to avoid the sudden panic of a one-week solution that becomes a 20-year mess.

Read the whole thing - good stuff.

What a mess!

John McCain on The View

If John McCain is looking to ingratiate himself to stay at home Moms and politically independent women, he's not going to find them watching "The View".

I suppose some would say that eliciting their reactions could possibly serve as a turn off to women who like men, serve God or generally reject the "let it all hang out" meme, perhaps he'd be better off selecting his appearances more carefully.

Good round up from on the link above:

Today, the ladies seemed to have gotten their scripts straight out of DailyKos. Barbara Walters dropped her usual facade of objectivity and Joy Behar was particularly aggressive. They seemed to want to focus on the fabricated ’scandals’ about Sarah Palin. Behar took off after alleged ‘earmarks’. McCain told Behar that Palin had not gone after earmarks as governor. Behar said that she did. She took ‘a lot’, Behar said! Of course, the Obama campaign was faxing over talking points for the girls to use against McCain and Palin.

Behar even accused McCain of no longer being a ‘maverick’ and walking in ‘lock step’ with …. I wasn’t sure who she was accusing him of walking in ‘lock step’ with. McCain assured her that he is the same person he’s always been.

I really hope people aren’t getting their views from The View.

The point is, the left is out of control with fear and are flailing around in a very unseemly desperation that is just not at all attractive.

Giuliani: Palin More Qualified Than Obama

He also said Obama “is the least experienced candidate for president in the last 100 years.

“I mean, he's never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run a business, he's never administered a payroll, he's never led people in crisis,” Giuliani said.

“I think here he wanted to send the message, get somebody fresh, somebody really who represents the other America outside of Washington where people don't care whether you have an 'R' or a 'D' after your name, they just want you to get something done to help them deal with the problems they have,” Lieberman said. “And Sarah Palin comes from that other America.”

In the mad dash between throwing away the talking points the Dems had for vp candidate Romney and drumming up new ones, the following jewels from the emergency broadcasts at NPR:

Obama hearts polar bears (but not infant survivors of botched abortions).

McCain is jaded from too many years experience in Washington.

Obama lacks experience but represents change.

Palin lacks experience.

What happens if something happens to McCain.

Joe Biden is a good pick because he has a lot of experience in Washington and balances out Obama's lack of experience. (Isn't the more important question, what happens if something happens to Biden?)

The Repugs don't care about victims of hurricanes.

The Democrats spent gazilliion dollars on a glitzy convention.

The Repugs are toning down their convention to put efforts into victims of the impending hurricane Gustav, must be a sign.

A mystifying puzzle I hope some crackerjack at the Kennedy School of Government can solve at some point?

Doug Kmiec, trying to hold off the Friday morning post convention stampede to McCain has a new article up on the bastion of orthodoxy, Slate.

He explains on his way home from the losing battle of selling Romney to Catholics he came up with the next best thing to Romney for Catholic sensibility, Obama. Obama is the new Reagan.

"Now, don't think me daft,...", he says, which surely indicates he's aware selling a candidate who supports infantcide to practicing Catholics is as offensive as selling the common good policies of Karl Marx, Adolph Hilter and Joe Stalin.

"Much of the Catholic primary vote has been in the Democratic column, going at first to Hillary Clinton over Obama, as in New Hampshire, where she won 44 percent to 27 percent."

No, actually, if you take the number of Catholics in every diocese in these states, you'll actually find that most Catholics didn't find a compelling reason to go to the polls to vote between Obama and Clinton.

" Catholics or reveals that rare gift of empathy that defined Reagan and that one glimpses in Obama. "

I'm not sensing empathy, I'm getting a strong sense of ambition from a couple well-healed, well groomed with clips of Jack and Jackie O for the last four years, and lurking under that veneer is a couple filled with rage.

While McCain ran a commercial congratulating Obama for a job well done on the night of his acceptance speech, the Obama campaign made a snide/duplicitous remark in response to the announcement of Palin. This the politics of hope and unity?

Kmiec's article draws the conclusion that teachings of the Catholic Church are on a collision course with the culture and therefore we are released from It's prohibitions on voting and, in fact, there really are no prohibitions:

"While no papal instruction will ever condone the "right to choose," the church does ask for a consistent and realistic defense of life that actually takes steps to reduce the incidence of the practice, not just condemns it. Catholics will note that McCain and Huckabee's pro-life postures collapse when it comes to the death penalty."

Kmiec avoids the Papal instruction to refrain from voting for promoter of killing at will and he knows full well that the death penalty for convicted war criminals or mass murderers and sociopaths is not in conflict with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Deliberate deception.

Catholics should rise to the occasion and contact Kmiec's Bishop.

What ever happened to She Can Bring Home the Bacon, Fry It Up in a Pan?

Remember that commercial?

"I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan and never, never let you forget you're a man, cuz I'm a woman.."

I'm positively fascinated by the reactions of some of my liberal friends who suddenly find it preposterous that a woman can be attractive enough to be a former beauty queen, have a husband, children and a consummate career.

"This woman has five children and attends their soccer games.", said one of my most liberal friends, "I think the old man has gone senile".

"You've got to stop reading WaPo and get out of Cambridge, and the sooner, the better", I said.

I've had multiple conversations with this same friend over the last several months about the importance of getting somebody on the ticket who frequents a grocery store because the wealthy Republican establishment is a bit out of touch with the realities of the current economic nightmare.

"Who's gonna take care of her children?", she asked.

How come nobody's ever asked this question about Al Gore?

Was Mary's vocation as the Mother of God some kind of injustice to Joseph and the institution of marriage? Christ was aware of the impact of being an Apostle upon a husband and father and He chose them anyway?

It's true, people, both men and women, mothers and fathers take positions that are cumbersome on their schedules. Entrepreneurs, doctors, deacons, lawyers, lay apostolates, politicians, single parents who have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet, etc., are not going to have the same kind of provisions of a home-schooled or stay-at-home Mom. Just the same, we can be decent parents and our children can turn out to be productive and decent human beings. When people are called to a vocation, God provides and family and friends pitch in.

With trepidation and reluctance, I would have pulled the lever for John McCain in most circumstances (?Romney or Leiberman,etc.) but I'm really enthused about the prospects of his administration since his appointment of Governor Palin.