October 10, 2008
Who is Barack Obama?
Behind the scenes with the Obamas:
Speaker info
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Obama on McCain on buying up bad mortgages
Here’s Obama’s response to McCain’s mortgage buy-back proposal:
Senator McCain and I had a chance to talk about this the other night in Nashville. Some of you may have seen it. In that debate, he offered what he said was a new idea to help deal with the financial crisis, and that was to have the government – meaning taxpayers – buy up bad mortgages in America.
Well, the idea wasn’t particularly new. The authority for the Secretary of Treasury to buy and renegotiate bad mortgages is part of the financial rescue plan we just passed. In fact, I proposed it myself because, if it’s properly done and limited in scope, such buybacks can be one tool to help innocent homeowners stay in their homes on terms they can afford.
But I also said at the time that this should not be a vehicle to reward banks and lending institutions that recklessly wrote bad loans. It should not be a bailout for the high-rolling real estate speculators who took those loans to make a quick buck.
We have to act to fix our broken economy and restore the credit markets. But taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to pick up the tab for the very folks who helped create this crisis.
And that’s the problem with Senator McCain’s risky idea. On Tuesday night, his campaign said that he would ask the banks to absorb some of the cost by selling the bad mortgages to the government at a discount. Then, by Wednesday morning, he’d changed his mind and was proposing to bail out banks and lenders with taxpayer money.
Senator McCain actually wants the government to pay the full face value of mortgages on the books, even though they’re not worth that much anymore. It’s a plan that would guarantee that American taxpayers lose by handing over $300 billion to underwrite the kind of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street that got us into this mess.
But it’s not just that the McCain bailout rewards irresponsible lenders, it’s that his bailout would make it more likely that those lenders keep up their bad behavior. Just yesterday, Countrywide, one of the nation’s largest lenders, reached an agreement to help homeowners refinance their mortgages. Under Senator McCain’s plan, lenders like Countrywide wouldn’t have any incentive to come forward and help homeowners – because they could just wait for the government to bail them out.
Now, this is just the latest in a series of shifting positions that Senator McCain has taken on this issue. His first response to this crisis in March was that homeowners shouldn’t get any help at all. Then, a few weeks ago, he put out a plan that basically ignored homeowners. And now, in the course of 12 hours, he’s ended up with a plan that punishes taxpayers, rewards banks, and won’t solve our housing crisis.
Well, I don’t think we can afford that kind of erratic and uncertain leadership in these uncertain times.
The whole thing will be up here in a few days, I assume.
Permanent links for legislative documents
Thanks to prompting from the ever-more-amazing Sunlight Foundation, the US Congress’ site will provide legislative documents with permanent URLs. That means you can link to them and have some confidence that the links will work tomorrow, which means discussion can more easily more forward. Unique IDs accrete meaning.
Categories: Uncategorized Tagged with: congress • democracy • everythingIsMiscellaneous • politics Date: October 10th, 2008 dw
October 9, 2008
Tech for Obama
If you love the Internet, you ought to vote for Obama.
Yes, I know I’ve shocked you with that opinion. You can find more shocks of this sort at Tech for Obama.
Let’s hold the election right now
It’s only going to continue to go downhill. McCain’s going to get more distracted and muddled. Palin‘s just going to get nastier and nastier.
From here to November, the McCain campaign’s got nothing left except personal attacks. It’s bad for our democracy. We know everything we need to know to make up our minds. Let’s just vote now.
October 8, 2008
That one
It must be puzzling to McCain supporters why Obamites have seized on McCain’s statement, ‘”You know who voted for it? You might never know! That one.” I’m not sure why it strikes me as particularly revelatory. But it does.
It was the epitome of finger-pointing, of course. But it also seemed to express McCain’s peevishness that his accusations aren’t sticking. “I’ve been telling you over and over that this guy is no good, but no one is listening. People keep attacking me, but he’s the one, not me.”
And, of course, we Obamacists heard it in the context of McCain’s unwillingness to look Obama in the eye. Last night, he couldn’t say his name. I can only assume that McCain is genuinely dismayed that someone with so little experience may deprive him of the narrative he’s been yearning to complete: POW to Senator who embodies the lessons he learned (love democracy, recognize who your real enemies are, treat everyone else with respect) to President. But fate has put an unworthy opponent across from him. In my unsupported view, McCain honestly thought that in choosing Palin, he was choosing the equivalent of Obama: Young, fresh, inexperienced, likable, glamorous. And McCain can’t stand it. He can’t look at the charming poser lest he himself fall under his spell, and he can’t even say his name. It’s not simple contempt for Obama. It’s fury that his narrative his been interrupted…and, one must conclude, contempt for the country of fools who prefer the celebrity pretender to the grizzled warrior, maverick, and man of honor.
Of course, I am 100% making this up.
October 2, 2008
Gaffe inflation
I’m in Berlin, so I’d have to get up at 3AM to watch the debate tonight, which I’m unlikely to do since tomorrow is a work day. But, I expect Palin will do better than expected, although not better than we’re expecting to expect her to do. And the media will seize on some stumbles by Biden so they can avoid the appearance of piling on Palin. In fact, we’re already seeing some gaffe inflation.
A gaffe used to be not just a mistake but one that really hurts a candidate’s standing. Biden’s thinking that FDR presided over the 1929 crash and that folks had TVs back then is a little bit of dumbness about history, but not a true gaffe because it doesn’t reveal a reason to give up your vote for him. McCain talking about the Iraq-Pakistan border is more of one, but since no one believes McCain is that ill-informed, we instead chalk it up to a mere momentary slip of the brain. No, a true gaffe is genuinely not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is or being able to name only a single Supreme Court case you disagree with.
But, because the media are afraid that they look like they’re going after Palin — AKA Doing Their Job — I expect any small error or misstep made by Biden tonight to be elevated to full gaffe level.
Too bad. It used to be a useful term. I hate to lose it just because the media want to appear balanced in an unbalanced contest.
September 30, 2008
September 29, 2008
Sarah Palin plays the age card
I’m a little confused by Sarah Palin’s joshing that she’s been listening to Biden’s speeches in the Senate since she was in second grade, especially with John “26 Years in the Senate” McCain standing right next to her.
What’s next, comb-over jokes?
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