US 2008 Presidential Campaign Discussion Thread - Part 9

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Gosh, I don't know. But, my friend Lindsay's mom teaches German at my old high school, and the exchange students from Germany arrived yesterday, so I'm ready to negotiate with Angela Merkel if necessary.

Send greetings on my part. :wave:

^And in 51 words Palin says...absolutely nothing.

Even worse. It would be nice if that had been nothing.
 
Stupid:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? ... Instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: Ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions.

:lol:

So this economic bailout is really all about health care reform. Fascinating.

It's like she's been studying memory cards with important terms on one set and the corresponding issues on the other, but got them mixed up and doesn't know which one goes with which.

:lmao:
 
hope you get some sleep soon pfan :hug:

another friend said...

Had a blast last night contributing to Planned Parent in Honor of Sarah Palin, with the card going to the McCain Campaign HQ. Such a small price to play for such a great idea. It also relieves stress

:D
 
If Katie Couric is a serious journalist, than I'm the Queen of England. Come on, if Palin couldn't handle the Nerf-coated questions that Couric threw at her, imagine what she would've been like under Williams or Brokaw. If Tim Russert was around, she wouldn't stand a chance.
 
So this economic bailout is really all about health care reform. Fascinating.

It's like she's been studying memory cards with important terms on one set and the corresponding issues on the other, but got them mixed up and doesn't know which one goes with which.



Tim Kaine has likely used memory cards and has learned important terms. Obama once considered him for VP. are you saying that Tim Kaine is, likewise, unprepared to be VP like Sarah Plain? what does that tell you about Obama's judgment.
 
Exactly. How dare Princess Sarah be asked questions that require her to put words together that form coherent thoughts. She's only a woman! We're the weaker sex!:scream:




come on. how well do you think Abraham Lincoln would have done if he had to withstand the brutal interviewing of Katie Couric?

i think her ignorance is a breath of fresh air.
 
come on. don't you think that if there had been TV and Katie Couric around in 1860, Abraham Lincoln might have come across as a little bit underinformed as well?

i think her ignorance is a breath of fresh air.

Nope. He was a man.:wink:

Larry King was around in 1860. I wonder what he thought of Lincoln.
 
:lol:

So this economic bailout is really all about health care reform. Fascinating.

It's like she's been studying memory cards with important terms on one set and the corresponding issues on the other, but got them mixed up and doesn't know which one goes with which.

:lmao:

That's EXACTLY it! I had to read it over about five times to make sure I had it right. :huh:
 
.
Lawmakers Agree on Outline of Bailout

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
New York Times, September 25


WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators from both parties said Thursday that they had reached general agreement to move forward with the Bush administration’s proposed $700 billion rescue effort of the nation’s financial system. Emerging from a nearly three-hour meeting in the Capitol, Republicans and Democrats said they would continue working through the day to complete the legislative language and would begin final negotiations with the Treasury.

It was unclear if a final draft would be ready by 3:55 p.m. when Congressional leaders are scheduled to meet at the White House with President Bush and the two presidential candidates, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois.

But lawmakers in both parties said that few substantive differences and no major obstacles remained. They said the bill would authorize the full $700 billion requested by President Bush, but that Congress was intent on disbursing the money in installments...They also said that there would be limits on pay packages for executives whose firms seek assistance from the government and a mechanism for the government to be given an equity stake in some firms so that taxpayers have a chance to profit if the companies prosper in the months and years ahead.

“I now expect we will indeed have a plan that can pass the House, pass the Senate, be signed by the president, and bring a sense of certainty to this crisis that is still roiling in the markets,” said Robert Bennett, Republican of Utah. “That is our primary responsibility, and I think we our now prepared to meet it.”

On Wall Street, shares, which had opened higher, rose sharply on expectations of a rescue plan. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 235 points late in the trading day.

The meeting on Thursday morning, in an ornate conference room on the first floor of the Capitol, was convened by Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the banking committee, and Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. “We are giving the secretary authority that he will need in order to act and the funding that he will need,” Mr. Dodd said after the meeting, referring to the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr. “We also have dealt, I think effectively, with the issue of effective oversight, with homeownership preservation as well as with executive compensation. We now need to meet with the Treasury Department,” Mr. Dodd said, “and go over these principles which we have agreed on amongst ourselves and obviously go back to our respective caucuses and talk to them as well.”

The news from Congressional leaders that they were in the final stages of reaching a deal stole some of the drama from the meeting scheduled at the White House in the afternoon.

In a brief speech on the Senate floor, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said he expected to be in session on Saturday to cast its first procedural votes on the bailout plan, in which the government plans to buy distressed debt from financial firms and stave off what President Bush warned could be a widespread economic collapse.

But even as Congressional leaders, including Representative Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Financial Services Committee, said they had settled on the framework of an agreement, other House Republicans said there was ongoing opposition to the rescue package. Conservative Republicans, in particular, have said that such a huge government intervention violated their free-market principles. A group of Republicans, led by Representative Eric Cantor, a Republican leader in the House, were circulating an alternative plan that would rely on mortgage insurance, provided by the government, rather than taxpayer purchase of frozen mortgage assets. A senior Republican lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to undermine the party leadership, said there was a “violent reaction” among House Republicans to the Paulson plan. He said backers of the alternative, one of several that have been proposed, believe that they can force negotiators to accept it as part of a larger deal.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California had made clear that she did not want to approve the bailout plan without rank-and-file Republican support.
 
^Is there any info. out yet on that clause that would give Paulson free reign to do whatever he wants without being reviewed by law enforcement or government? If so, I'm still very uncomfortable with this plan.
 
Sounds like it.
Reuters, Sep. 25

Schumer said a key feature of the lawmakers' agreement was the establishment of tougher oversight of the Treasury Department than had been proposed by the Bush administration. "The Treasury secretary no longer has unlimited power," he said. "There's two independent boards, one to gather all information that has congressional representatives on it, the other with power to undo what the Treasury Secretary has done."
(Neither McCain nor Obama were present at the negotiations that produced the agreement in principle.)
 
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thank goodness. it's clear that McCain’s substantive input was so vitally necessary that he had to cancel his campaign.

i guess he needed time to read Paulson's plan, which he hadn't done as of two days ago.

Well, 3 pages is a LOT of reading.
 
I blame Letterman. He was doing his little television show when he should have been taking McCain to the airport.
 
I don't know if any of you have seen this. But here Jack Cafferty is asking if the financial crisis has changed anybody's mind on who they're voting for:

Cafferty File: Tell Jack how you really feel Blog Archive - Has the financial crisis changed your mind on who to vote for? ? - Blogs from CNN.com

Look at the comments section. I cannot see one person saying they're supporting McCain/Palin. Granted, the subject is economy and Dems have a stronger hold there? And CNN is mostly frequented by liberals I guess (that's what I infer from results to quick polls and such) but still.... not one person speaking up for Republicans! I'm dumbfounded as to how countrywide polls so far are still close. Is it that Republican supporters just don't speak up much? :huh: Reading thru that comments section, it looks like it will be a landslide victory for Obama but opinion polls paint a totally different picture.
 
If Katie Couric is a serious journalist, than I'm the Queen of England. Come on, if Palin couldn't handle the Nerf-coated questions that Couric threw at her, imagine what she would've been like under Williams or Brokaw. If Tim Russert was around, she wouldn't stand a chance.



here, here to that... candy coated questions and she gaffed.. Tim would of chewed her up and spit her out if were still here.. :depressed: I really miss that guy! I can't wait for this supposed debate cuz she is not gonna do well and I am going to enjoy every minute of it.:D
 
:doh:

McCain Stops at Senate en Route to White House

Updated 4:19 p.m.
By Michael D. Shear and Lori Montgomery

Sen. John McCain returned to Washington on Thursday after declaring that he has suspended his campaign, but he appeared largely detached from the flurry of negotiations on a $700 billion economic rescue package that appeared to be headed to a successful conclusion.

McCain's "Straight Talk Air" landed at National Airport just after noon, and McCain's motorcade sped toward the Senate. But by then, senior Democrats and Republicans were already announcing that a deal in principle had been reached.

That news appeared to be somewhat premature as House Republican leader John Boehner told his members that "no deal" had yet been reached. McCain arrived at 3:40 p.m. at the White House, where he and his rival, Sen. Barack Obama, were scheduled to meet with President Bush and congressional leaders at 4 p.m.

The leading Democratic negotiator on the Bush administration's $700 bailout plan accused John McCain of undermining the proposal and prodding House Republicans to lay out a wholly different approach that is opposed by the White House.

"This is the presidential campaign of John McCain undermining what Hank Paulson tells us is essential for the country," said Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. "This is McCain at the last minute getting House Republicans to undermine the Paulson approach."

Republican leadership aides reacted incredulously to Frank's broadside, saying there was no way McCain's chief economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, could undermine a deal with House Republicans that has never had rank-and-file support.

Holtz-Eakin met this morning with Boehner, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), but the GOP leaders did virtually all of the talking, and what they told him was how little support the $700 billion package had with their rank-and-file. When McCain emerged from the back door of Boehner's office in the Capitol, both Holtz-Eakin and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a key McCain ally, said they knew very little about the deal.

GOP aides familiar with the alternative proposal said that it had been in a draft stage for several days, with one adviser saying the lawmakers wanted to unveil it yesterday, but that McCain's entree into the deliberations actually made them wait a day.

The White House meeting was in part the result of McCain's stunning pronouncement Wednesday that he would stop campaigning to return to Washington, where he had urged Bush to convene a summit to address the crisis.

But for most of the afternoon, McCain has not visibly been part of the action on the issue. He was not present when House and Senate negotiators emerged from a two-hour meeting to declare success. That announcement was made by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Robert F. Bennett (Utah) and Frank.

McCain, by contrast, spent some time in his office with several Republican colleagues, briefly stopped at Boehner's office, then left for lunch at the Capitol's Mansfield Room before returning to his office in the Russell Senate Office Building.

Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.) said he had spoken to McCain yesterday, had breakfast with two McCain advisers this morning and spoke to McCain again immediately after today's meeting. But, Bachus said, "John's not trying to call the shots for the House caucus, I can tell you that. He's just opposed to the plan in its present form."

Frank reacted angrily to Bachus's statements, insisting that lawmakers were well on their way toward an agreement they could put to a vote, and that this afternoon's meeting at the White House was largely irrelevent.

"We'll be glad to go and tell them there really isn't that much of a deadlock to break," Frank said. "But I'm always glad to go to the White House."
 
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