Monday, October 06, 2008

Maybe McCain does want to win: He finally attacks Obama on Fannie/Freddie By Michelle Malkin

Source: http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/06/maybe-mccain-does-want-to-win-he-finally-attacks-obama-on-fanniefreddie/

October 6, 2008 02:13 PM

Last week, the McCain campaign said it would be too complicated and politically incorrect to blast Obama for his Fannie/Freddie complicity.


They didn’t want to go there.


Looks like common sense mugged the Maverick.


Better late, than never — via Ed Morrissey, here’s McCain’s prepared text for an event later today:



Our current economic crisis is a good case in point. What was his actual record in the years before the great economic crisis of our lifetimes?


This crisis started in our housing market in the form of subprime loans that were pushed on people who could not afford them. Bad mortgages were being backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it was only a matter of time before a contagion of unsustainable debt began to spread. This corruption was encouraged by Democrats in Congress, and abetted by Senator Obama.


Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed. But the truth is I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place.


Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in. As recently as September of last year he said that subprime loans had been, quote, “a good idea.” Well, Senator Obama, that “good idea” has now plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.


To hear him talk now, you’d think he’d always opposed the dangerous practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did. He was surely familiar with the people who were creating this problem. The executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have advised him, and he has taken their money for his campaign. He has received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other senator in history, with the exception of the chairman of the committee overseeing them.


Did he ever talk to the executives at Fannie and Freddie about these reckless loans? Did he ever discuss with them the stronger oversight I proposed? If Senator Obama is such a champion of financial regulation, why didn’t he support these regulations that could have prevented this crisis in the first place? He won’t tell you, but you deserve an answer.


Don’t go wobbly now, McCain.


Don’t stop.


Take your own advice: Stand up and fight.


Pass it on:


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