[Rodm]

Barak, Don't look behind you, something gaining on you!

[xDGx]

Don't overlook Gorelick!!!

[counterpunch]

McCain’s campaign needs to get out in front on a few things.
It’s really sad that they haven’t already, really, as they have squandered precious time and are allowing perceptions about McCain to sink in and harden. It looks like McCain’s campaign is reacting politically on 0bama’s turf. This is the wrong thing to do. Instead, McCain should be playing experience up again. But not ‘experience’ in general, but rather his specific legislative experience.

McCain sponsored a bill in 2005 to reform Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, so why is he playing defense to 0bama on this issue? What was 0bama doing in 2005? I doubt he even knew what Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac were back then. McCain needs to be presenting himself as a knowledgeable and experienced manager who has seen these problems coming for a long time, because he is, and he has. Why his reaction has been what it has been makes no sense at all. It’s not reinforcing confidence in him as a leader who can be turned to in troubled times. If McCain frames the situation in easy to understand terms, and makes the case for his own expertise in dealing with these issues — something 0bama simply cannot match — then McCain wins this argument. But so far, 0bama is clearly winning it, and that’s a damn shame. Instead of turning to populism and pandering, McCain should be turning to experience and knowledge.

McCain talks about making pork barrelers ‘famous’. Well, right now he should be making Franklin Raines famous. Very famous. And Robert Rubin. Both of these men are responsible for the banking crisis, and both men are 0bama advisers. McCain needs to lead a charge against them.

McCain needs to be placing the blame squarely on Rubin and the Clinton administration for repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, instead of blaming Bush. Simply blaming Bush won’t help. In fact it hurts McCain. Because no matter how much McCain distances himself from Bush, he is still going to be more closely tied to Bush than 0bama is. To the extent that Bush’s policies are blamed, it harms McCain and only McCain.

The correct way for him to distance himself from Bush is as a manager. He should blame not Bush policies, as that only sticks to himself, but Bush’s management style, priorities, and sweeping neglect. If he wants to distance himself from Bush, it should be as a serious manager who is more interested in solving problems than playing politics and scoring points. It’s not Bush’s overall philosophies that are unpopular. It is the way he implemented them — or didn’t.

McCain should paint a picture of how he would govern day to day as a manager behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office that differs from both Bush and 0bama. It’s called Leadership. McCain has a huge Leadership advantage over 0bama, so he ought to be exploiting it right now.

McCain should also be calling for more than a commission to look into the problems on Wall Street. He should be calling for a special prosecutor to investigate these 0bama advisers. Right now, Nancy Pelosi is putting together a team of all of the Democrats in congress who are responsible for the meltdown to place the blame on Bush. McCain should not be part of their chorus. He should be offering an alternate view. He should be placing the blame on the guys Nancy has appointed to cover up their mess.

Also McCain should be highlighting 0bama’s recent comments about McCain’s ‘outrage’ at Wall Street, where 0bama says that cutting taxes is an odd way to ‘punish’ them. McCain needs to put these words into perspective. 0bama is saying that investors — those Americans who own stocks — should be PUNISHED, and the way to do that is raise their taxes. That view speaks volumes about 0bama. McCain needs to point that out.

[avacado]

"Barney Frank The House Financial Services Committee chairman and Democratic congressman from Massachusetts has long been a proponent of both Fannie and Freddie, assuring the public that their mission to encourage home ownership outweighed the distortive risks they brought to the market, and that the federal government was not, in fact, on the hook for their liabilities. In fact, it seems clear now that Frank had no idea of just how poor a grasp Fannie and Freddie had on their lines of business."

Democrats' fault!

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCAIL SERVICES

Chairman Barney Frank represents Massachusetts' Fourth
Congressional District. The other Democratic members of the 
Committee are:

Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, PA
Rep. Maxine Waters, CA
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, NY
Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, IL
Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez, NY
Rep. Melvin L. Watt, NC
Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, NY
Rep. Brad Sherman, CA
Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, NY
Rep. Dennis Moore, KS
Rep. Michael E. Capuano, MA
Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, TX
Rep. William Lacy Clay, MO
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, NY
Rep. Joe Baca, CA
Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, MA
Rep. Brad Miller, NC
Rep. David Scott, GA
Rep. Al Green, TX
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, MO
Rep. Melissa L. Bean, IL
Rep. Gwen Moore, WI
Rep. Lincoln Davis, TN
Rep. Paul W. Hodes, NH
Rep. Keith Ellison, MN
Rep. Ron Klein, FL
Rep. Tim Mahoney, FL
Rep. Charles Wilson, OH
Rep. Ed Perlmutter, CO
Rep. Christopher S. Murphy, CT
Rep. Joe Donnelly, IN
Rep. Bill Foster, IL
Rep. Andre Carson, IN
Rep. Jackie Speier, CA
Rep. Don Cazayoux, LA
Rep. Travis Childers, MS

[Skooz]

B-U-M-P everyone’s accusing me

[twister881]

Obamessiah, Superstar

Ho-Bama Hey-Bama Bama Bama Ho
Bama Hey Bama Ho Bama
Hey Bar-ry, Bar-ry you're a fool by me
Bama Ho Bama Hey Superstar!

Biden:
Tell the Americans to be quiet
We anticipate a riot
This common crowd
Is much too loud
Tell the mob who sing your song
That they are fools and they are wrong
They are a curse
They should disperse

Crowd:
Ho-Bama Hey-Bama Bama Bama Ho
Bama Hey Bama Ho Bama
Hey Bar-ry, Bar-ry you're a crook by me
Bama Ho Bama Hey Superstar!

Obama:
Why waste your breath moaning at the crowd?
Nothing can be done to stop the shouting
If ev'ry tongue was still the noise would still continue
The rocks and stones themselves would start to sing:

Crowd, with Obama:
Ho-Bama Hey-Bama Bama Bama Ho
Bama Hey Bama Ho Bama
Hey Bar-ry, Bar-ry you're a commie lib by me
Bama Ho Bama Hey Superstar!

[Trailerpark Badass]

mark for later

[Wuli]

Some of us are trying to collect links to all the “FannieGate” posts at:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2083158/posts?page=1

[vpintheak]

Talking to our accountant at work who is a staunch conservative today. He placed the blame foe Fanny and Freddy failing almost solely on the Government. They forced them to loan to people who shouldn’t have received loans, and the rest of the industry followed to try to get a piece. When they failed, it was because of forced government rules and regulations.

[TruthWillWin]

All told, Raines pulled in some $90 million between 1998 and 2003, the majority from bonuses. And when OFHEO began to ask uncomfortable questions, Raines actively lobbied Congress to cut its funding. In April, Raines agreed to disburse $24 million for his role in the accounting "errors."

Raines (did I mention he is an Obama financial advisor?) should be in jail along with Ken Lay. Where is the public and media outrage over his activities.