Posted by
Priscilla Vanilla on Friday, October 03, 2008 4:23:09 PM
If anyone saw the O'Reilly Factor last night, then you know how Bill exploded in anger and frustration at the lisping, feckless Barney Frank as he tried to cover his big behind and that of his fellow Democrats in defending Fannie and Freddie lending institutions. While I welcomed O'Reilly's passionate attack, I think he let loose out of frustration more than anything else. He was saying what so many conservatives are longing to hear John McCain say, even once. For some unkown reason, that Charles Krauthammer called "mystifying", he refuses to point the finger of blame in Obama's direction on Fannie and Freddie. Doesn't the public have the right to know what kind of profit Obama took from these institution, and why they became so mired in the financial mess through their lending practices?
In case anyone still doesn't know, Fannie and Freddie had their lending criteria liberally loosened in 2004, allowing them to qualify low-income home buyers who had no money to put down towards their purchase, and not require credit ratings to be a factor in determining who receives a loan. Consequently, when interests rates when up, and these people couldn't afford their house payments, and they couldn't sell their homes which had now deflated in value (and which many had borrowed against) they went into foreclosure. So what exactly worries McCain about this? Does he not want to seem hard-hearted in regards to poor and minority borrowers by saying, in effect, they shouldn't have been given loans and that the Dems overstepped some boundaries by pushing legislation through? Does McCain feel that ailienating these people will lose him votes, even though they are not his base, and not likely to vote for him? Perhaps he doesn't want to blame Democrats, or sound like a harsh critic because...what? He likes them? He's good pals with them, it's part of his bi-partisan spirit? Obama is getting a complete pass on his involvement in this mess because McCain doesn't want to ruffle feathers in the Dem party or their constituents.
Message to John McCain: The way you win a presidential campaign is not by just telling voters what YOU can do for them, or have done in the past. And by the way, your past bi-partisan legislation means little right now. It's won by telling voters what the other candidate did wrong in the past, or is doing wrong right now.