Well purchasing the real estate bonds would make things even worse and would do little to help anyone keep their homes, if that is the true intention behind the bailout.
Color me cynical, but since our feral government is all but out of the control of the proles anyway, call it a power grab to take over the financial institutions to control the markets. /tinfoil
Still in all, gotta wonder how far the subprime loans and securities backed by those loans would have gotten if Fanny/Freddy hadn't gotten into the game. With most of the regulators looking the other way, there may not have been much difference, except in the timing. Whatta mess!