The number one issue on the minds of Americans, today, is the financial meltdown affecting everything from mortgage foreclosures to 401k depletion.
It appears this issue could be the one that determines the outcome of the upcoming presidential election. The McCain campaign is, apparently, losing ground based on his link as a Republican to the current Administration. It turns out, however, that the Republicans and the Bush Administration have been, both, sounding the alarm and attempting to correct the situation since 2001.
The Democrats, however, have been undermining these efforts by covering up, killing legislation and discrediting anyone who sounded a warning.If you check the records,
it was the Clinton Administration that initiated a program to sell "subprime mortgages" to low income families. Since that time Democrats have pressured lending institutions to sell these risky loans. It has been the Republicans that have been warning of the impending crisis and requesting regulation and oversight. The Democrats discredited and smeared every official who came forward and used their majority in the Congress to defeat any bill that threatened the ongoing risky subprime lending practices (
see attached video).
Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, sounded the alarm in speeches and congressional hearings, but was ignored. The Republicans drafted bills to oversee and regulate these dangerous practices by lending institutions. Voting went down party lines, and the bills were defeated by the Democratic majority in Congress. One of these bills was championed by Senator John McCain. For the record, Senator Barack Obama was silent with regard to this impending crisis. It is noteworthy that Barack Obama is the second largest recipient of campaign funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. One has to wonder how contributions of Fannie and Freddie to Democrats contributed to their actions. Heather Nauert, political analyst, stated the following on 16 September:
The top three U.S. Senators getting big Fannie and Freddie political bucks were democrats and number two is Senator Barack Obama. Now, remember, he has only been in the Senate four years but still managed to grab the number two spot ahead of John Kerry, decades in the senate, and Chris Dodd who is chairman of the senate banking committee. Fannie and Freddie have been creations of the congressional democrats and the Clinton white house, designed to make mortgages available to more people, and as it turned out, some people who couldn't afford them. Fannie and Freddie have also been places for big Washington democrats to go to work in the semi-private sector and pocket millions. The Clinton administration's white house budget director Franklin Raines ran Fannie and collected 50 million dollars. Jamie Gurilli, Clinton Justice Department Official, worked for Fannie and took home 26 million dollars. Big Democrat Jim Johnson, recently on Obama's VP search committee has hauled in millions from his Fannie Mae C.E.O. job. Now remember, Obama's ads and stump speeches attack McCain and republican policies for the current financial turmoil. It is demonstrably not Republican policy and worse, it appears the man attacking McCain, Senator Obama, was at the head of the line when the piggies lined up at the Fannie and Freddie trough for campaign bucks. Senator Barack Obama, number two on the Fannie/Freddie list of favored politicians after just four short years in the senate.
Greedy executives in the financial sector enacted a policy of encouragement and execution of risky loans to enhance windfall short term profits and bonuses for themselves without concern for the long term health and viability of the institutions for which they had the obligation to safeguard. And, finally, the American people are responsible. We have developed a culture of living far beyond our means and overextending our credit. All of these players came together to cause the most serious financial crisis of our lifetime.
So which political party is responsible for the crisis we, now, face? In my opinion it is the Democrats. While, both, the Republicans and the Bush Administration have been warning of the gathering clouds and attempting to correct the situation before it became a crisis, the Democrats have been, not only, silent on the issue, but they have discredited anyone bringing attention to the issue and killed any legislation that would have fixed the problem (
see attached video).
That said, it is difficult to understand is why this financial crisis has hurt the McCain campaign. In my opinion there are two reasons.
First, people generally hold the current president responsible for the economic health of the country, and Senator McCain, as a Republican, has been judged "guilty by association". The American people don't understand that
it takes years for economic and fiscal policies to take effect. Remember, it was the Clinton administration that initiated this policy of making mortgages available to low income families and encouraging banks to sell mortgages to high risk clients. In addition,
the Bush Administration HAS been sounding the alarm and, along with Republicans in the Congress, attempting to correct the problem. So the premise that the current Administration caused this crisis is, very simply, false.
The second reason this crisis has hurt the McCain campaign is, simply,
that they have not gotten the word out to the American people. It is my long held belief that politicians do not give the American people credit for being as smart as they are. Again and again, I have seen them avoid taking complex issues to the people in favor of oversimplification or ignoring them altogether. That, I believe, is what the McCain campaign has done here. And that is why Senator Obama gets away with blaming John McCain and the Bush Administration for this crisis: because the American people are uninformed, and Obama knows it.
If Senator McCain were to talk to the American people explaining the issues I have reviewed here, he would turn around the momentum of this presidential race.The last thing the American people need or want is a smear campaign in the last month before the election. They need FACTS to help them decide which presidential candidate and party HAVE A HISTORY of supporting the issues that matter to them.
You can't elect a president based on the promises made during a campaign. Those promises are made precisely to sway your vote. They are RARELY kept. The only method we have to intelligently choose which candidate and party are likely to support the things that are important to us is to
LOOK AT WHAT THEY HAVE DONE IN THE PAST. Since this financial crisis is the number one issue on the minds of Americans, then reviewing how both candidates and their parties handled this issue is critical to their choice before they go to the polls in November.
[Click on the link, below, to view compelling video of actual congressional testimony showing Republicans and Bush Administration officials warning of the developing crisis and the Democrats undermining, discrediting and smearing them.
This video is a must see!]
Democratic Coverup of Freddie and Fannie
What did Senator Obama really do during his recent trip to Iraq? Why does he refuse to acknowledge the success of the surge? Does the senator really care if we win or lose in Iraq? A recent article by Pete Hegseth of the VETS FOR FREEDOM website paints a disturbing picture of Senator Barack Obama's manipulation of the war in Iraq as a tool for his political gain. Check out the article by clicking the link below. Then you decide.
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