US 2008 Presidential Campaign Discussion Thread - Part 9

[U2Fan101]

There are 100 Senators

and the Senate is pretty evenly devided


It will take bi-partisan support to get anything done.

something must be done.

Senators and Congressmen (435) need to be able to line up behind their nominee, one of these two will be President and they each have to step up take a position and lead

Obama make like to just vote present and then go where ever this ends up.


He needs to prove he capable or working across the isle find a solution.

If he is a true leader he should roll up his sleves and show the American people he capable of leadership and not just reading a TelePrompTer and saying "now is the time the oceans have stopped rising, etc."

Very nice. I love what he has to say, but it's getting tiresome. As I said, he talks to the people like I talk to a chick at a bar - he says what we want to hear, like I say what the girl wants to hear.

 

[ntalwar]

Yea, but I would hope that if someone is 'interviewing' for a promotion, they would want to be part of an issue that they could in fact be stuck with while they are President. I would think that they would do everything in their power to try to get the bill their way now before the possibility of having to deal with it while they are President.

The bill is still in committee, and neither Obama or McCain are on the banking committee. They have already provided their opinions on what any bill should or should not have, and can communicate with their offices via phone or video conference. They would be a "fifth wheel" at this point in DC. McCain is going to DC to rally around the President, and apparently he has Bush's speechwriter involved - note the reference to 9/11 in his postponement speech.

 

[Diemen]

Yet Obama should be concerned since he is more likely to inherit this problem.

There is no evidence that Obama is not concerned about this problem. He has been speaking at length on the economy and was and has been more on target with the state of the economy than McCain has been so far. It's a logical mis-step to link the desire to postpone the debates to the level of concern with the issue.

 

[U2Fan101]

The bill is still in committee, and neither Obama or McCain are on the banking committee. They have already provided their opinions on what any bill should or should not have, and can communicate with their offices via phone or video conference. They would be a "fifth wheel" at this point in DC. McCain is going to DC to rally around the President, and apparently he has Bush's speechwriter involved - note the reference to 9/11 in his postponement speech.

Yes, they would be a 'fifth wheel'. You are correct in that. But, I would I'm glad to see McCain wants to be present for something he could potentially inherit. I would want to be there.

As for McCain rallying around the President, is this fact or just speculation because he's a Republican and made the reference to 9/11?

 

[Diemen]

Yes, they would be a 'fifth wheel'. You are correct in that. But, I would I'm glad to see McCain wants to be present for something he could potentially inherit. I would want to be there.

So is it more of an image thing, then? Wanting to see your (potential) president there in the mix? I can understand that. But again, in this multimedia age it's not really necessary to be physically present in order to fully understand what he's going to be inheriting.

 

[U2Fan101]

So is it more of an image thing, then? Wanting to see your (potential) president there in the mix? I can understand that. But again, in this multimedia age it's not really necessary to be physically present in order to fully understand what he's going to be inheriting.

Perhaps it's an image thing. I think we can only speculate as to the true nature of McCain's intentions of being present. It's highly possible this is a dirty political move. It's highly possible it's an image thing. It's highly possible that he genuinely does see this as an more important issue than campaigning right now since it's his job.

I don't think we'll know for sure until we see what kind of impact, if any, he had on being present.

 

[deep]

McCain and Obama do have records that go back to when 2005 when Obama was in the Senate

The record shows that McCain saw the problem coming and tried to get Congress to act. In 2005, both McCain and Obama served together in the Senate. Did Obama attempt to pass this reform, sign on as a co-sponsor, or even speak out in its favor?

John McCain " Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation."

In this speech, McCain managed to predict the entire collapse that has forced the government to eat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with Bear Stearns and AIG. He hammers the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this year. McCain also noted the power of their lobbying efforts to forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and weeks.

It never made it out of committee. Chris Dodd, then the ranking member of the Banking Committee and now its chair, was in the middle of receiving preferential loan treatment from Countrywide Mortgage, one of the companies gaming the system in the credit crisis. Meanwhile, Barack Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lobbyists McCain mentions in this speech, making him the #2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie money.

 

[U2Fan101]

McCain and Obama do have records that go back to when 2005 when Obama was in the Senate

The record shows that McCain saw the problem coming and tried to get Congress to act. In 2005, both McCain and Obama served together in the Senate. Did Obama attempt to pass this reform, sign on as a co-sponsor, or even speak out in its favor?



In this speech, McCain managed to predict the entire collapse that has forced the government to eat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with Bear Stearns and AIG. He hammers the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this year. McCain also noted the power of their lobbying efforts to forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and weeks.

It never made it out of committee. Chris Dodd, then the ranking member of the Banking Committee and now its chair, was in the middle of receiving preferential loan treatment from Countrywide Mortgage, one of the companies gaming the system in the credit crisis. Meanwhile, Barack Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lobbyists McCain mentions in this speech, making him the #2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie money.

If this is all true, I did not know this. This is definitely a very interesting find and gives me more to think about.

 

[deep]

So is it more of an image thing, then?

The majority of these Senators and Congressmen will be there next January.

Both of the candidates claim they are capable of working across the isle and bringing change.

This bail out will be the biggest thing in the U S financial history the next President will be dealing with this his whole four year term.

The fact that Obama is aloof on it is amazing. He cleared his schedule for three days to practice for the debate while our fanacial markets are collapsing.

His lack of interest and uninvolvement is just one more example of how he reminds me of W.

 

[Diemen]

There are also reports that McCain's campaign manager's lobbying firm took contributions from failing Freddie Mac as recently as last month.

 

[Diemen]

His lack of interest and uninvolvement is just one more example of how he reminds me of W.

But you're not bothered by McCain's impulsiveness and impracticality in demanding a solution to this by tomorrow?

 

[ntalwar]

But still, no one has answered my question.

What if this was reversed and Obama was the one who rushed over and asked McCain to postpone the debate to solve this crisis....what would the Obama lovers think? I'm still waiting on an answer.

Obama can multitask. White House meeting Thursday, debate Friday:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush is set to host White House rivals John McCain and Barack Obama, as well as top lawmakers, for unprecedented economic crisis talks on Thursday, a spokesman has said.

The news came as the US president, at pains to convince wary lawmakers to adopt his administration's 700-billion-dollar Wall Street rescue plan, took his case to the US public in a prime-time televised speech.

Bush, who telephoned Obama around 7:30 pm (1130 GMT), hopes "to work on driving toward a bipartisan and timely solution on the financial rescue package," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.

...

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has said he would attend a White House meeting on the financial crisis, and stressed his view that the first 2008 US presidential debate should go ahead as scheduled Friday.

"A few moments ago, President (George W.) Bush called Senator Obama and asked him to attend a meeting in Washington tomorrow, which he agreed to do," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Wednesday.

 

[deep]

If this is all true, I did not know this. This is definitely a very interesting find and gives me more to think about.

expect to see 100 times plus the one time he said, "I don't get the economy"
( an honest statement, who does? so many variables )

that is the only truth, many will let enter their consciousness

 

[Vincent Vega]

Edit - I fucked this up. I haven't learned the fine art of multi-quoting yet.

You start a quote without the / in the tag, but end it with it.
[ Quote]Text[ / Quote] (of course, without the spaces)

 

[deep]

Obama can multitask. White House meeting Thursday, debate Friday:

yeah, but voting present is no longer an option

 

[deep]

You start a quote without the / in the tag, but end it with it.
[ Quote]Text[ / Quote] (of course, without the spaces)

or

click on this

at the bottom right of any of the multiple replies you wish to include


when you finally hit the reply

button

all quotes are in the reply box

 

[Vincent Vega]

or

click on this

at the bottom right of any of the multiple replies you wish to include


when you finally hit the reply

button

all quotes are in the reply box

He only quoted one post and split it into segments as diemen has done before, so this option doesn't work.
However, in the advanced form there is this button

to wrap quote tags around sentences.

 

[ntalwar]

He hammers the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this year.

From wikipedia (Keating Five):

McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981,[11] and McCain was the closest socially to Keating of the five senators.[25] Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona.[22] Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.[26] In addition, McCain's wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard Keating's jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.[7][27]

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

YouTube - David Letterman Reacts to John McCain Suspending Campaign

 

[yolland]

In this speech, McCain managed to predict the entire collapse that has forced the government to eat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with Bear Stearns and AIG. He hammers the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this year. McCain also noted the power of their lobbying efforts to forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and weeks.

It never made it out of committee. Chris Dodd, then the ranking member of the Banking Committee and now its chair, was in the middle of receiving preferential loan treatment from Countrywide Mortgage, one of the companies gaming the system in the credit crisis. Meanwhile, Barack Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lobbyists McCain mentions in this speech, making him the #2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie money.

PolitiFact Truth-O-Meter - McCain's 'warning' on Fannie & Freddie

CNN Political Ticker - Fact Check: Did Obama ‘profit’ from Fannie and Freddie?

Obama's Fannie Mae 'Connection' - Washington Post Fact Checker

And on Jim Johnson, from FactCheck.org:

Oh, and that part about Fannie Mae’s CEO being on Obama’s VP committee? Sort of. On June 4, Obama announced that Caroline Kennedy, Eric Holder and Jim Johnson would head his VP search committee. Kennedy, of course, is the daughter of JFK. Holder was Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general. Johnson remained on Obama’s committee for just a week. He resigned on June 11, amid allegations that Johnson received preferential treatment from Countrywide Financial Corp.

But Johnson wasn’t the current CEO of Fannie Mae, as you might think from listening to McCain. He left nine years ago, in 1999.

Also, you too should cite your sources when cutting and pasting.

 

[Irvine511]

And yet the Obama Tsunami reference again. Which everyone has said is pointless.

it's also why there's a single individual on my Ignore List.

 

[anitram]

YouTube - David Letterman Reacts to John McCain Suspending Campaign

This is the greatest thing that I have maybe ever seen from Dave.

 

[Irvine511]

i wonder, what's Mittens up to these days? isn't he out of work?

 

[anitram]

i wonder, what's Mittens up to these days? isn't he out of work?

I swear I had that same thought earlier today.

 

[diamond]

i wonder, what's Mittens up to these days? isn't he out of work?

the man has large bank.


i suppose his busy w philanthropic, chartitable work, church service and helping a few hair stylists w modeling shows to get more free hair product.



<>

 

[Irvine511]

the man has large bank.


i suppose his busy w philanthropic, chartitable work, church service and helping a few hair stylists w modeling shows to get more free hair product.



<>

i would love to see Tagg up there with Track and Trigg.

 

[namkcuR]

i wonder, what's Mittens up to these days? isn't he out of work?

Um...who is Mittens?

 

[Irvine511]

Um...who is Mittens?

 

[Irvine511]

^ my apologies if that photo frightens any non-Mormon children or causes anitram to cry herself to sleep tonight.

speaking of sleep ...

 

[Irvine511]

some historical perspective:

Today is September 24. On this day in 1864, Abraham Lincoln presided over a country at war with itself and a party split to its roots over the question of how to plan for the nation’s reconstruction—to such an extent that on this day, Lincoln reluctantly accepted the resignation of Montgomery Blair, his Postmaster General and a valued advisor, owing to disputes over plans for Reconstruction.

Yet the campaign for the presidency was “now being prosecuted with the utmost vigor,” as one could read in the New York Times.

On this day in 1932, with the nation mired in the Great Depression, you could read Will Rogers in the New York Times saying “This is a year that will bring out lots of votes, for the voter has nothing to do but vote; his 1932 employment consists entirely of voting.” Managing the economic crisis was assuredly a full time job.

Yet Herbert Hoover prepared to give a large speech in Iowa and Franklin Roosevelt had just given what became a famous address to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.

On this day in 1944, the US prepared one of the most ambitious postwar occupations in history for Germany, while American forces in the Pacific prepared an assault on the Philippines on the way to Japan.

Yet President Roosevelt had just officially launched his campaign for a fourth term, while Thomas Dewey took his turn speaking in San Francisco, challenging Roosevelt’s supremacy.

All these examples suggest the contest for the presidency has been an indispensable part of American democracy, enduring even in the greatest of crises. But somehow, on this day in 2008, John McCain announced the suspension of his campaign for the presidency and asked for an extension in preparing for this week’s presidential debate.