Political Punch

"Why should republicans get rewarded for screwing up America from Iraq to this financial mess?"

This financial mess is the Repubicans’ fault because the Democrats’ responsibility isn’t talked about. According to a 9/11/03 NY Times article, “New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,” Pres. Bush pushed for more oversight of FM/FM back at that time:

“The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.”

And:

“‘These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ‘The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.’” (The Boston Herald has two articles today on Barney Frank’s responsibility for the crisis, and quote him as saying, “in 2003, nobody that I knew of foresaw the crisis of subprime lending, and that is what caused this problem.”).

The article reports that the proposal was opposed by Democrats.

There are plenty of other Dem connections as well to FM/FM, such as the top campaign donation recipients being prominent Dems (according to the Hartford Courant’s “Crumbling Financial Giants Gave Generously To Dodd” - Sens. Dodd, Obama and Kerry; Kerry’s GOP opponent has called on him to return the funds) and other Dems making a ton of money off of FM/FM while the the books were being cooked (such as former Clinton officials Franklin D. Raines and Jamie Gorelick - see the informative Slate article, “Fannie Mae and the Vast Bipartisan Conspiracy” that seems to name dozens of Dems and Repubs linked to Fannie Mae).

McCain was also behind efforts in 2005 to reform FM/FM, the “Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005."

Now Dems are taking the “democratic capitalist” position on executive compensation for those who will lead these troubled entities, giving the same arguments about having to compensate to get good people, etc.

Underneath it all, though, the Dems seem to have their hearts set on communism (see Saul Alinsky, whose proteges Obama worked for). Castro is not only not different from the president of France or the P.M. of England, but a hero. All the atrocities of communism seem to mean nothing to them. A California bill, SB 1322, sought to repeal a law against the positive teaching of communism in schools - “teaching communism with the intent to indoctrinate or to inculcate in the mind of any pupil a preference for communism." However, Schwarzenegger just vetoed it, saying: “Many Californians have fled Communist regimes, immigrated to the United States and sought freedom in our nation because of the human rights abuses perpetuated in other parts of the world," Schwarzenegger said in his veto message. "It is important particularly for those people that California maintains the protections of current law.” We’re ignoring China’s communism and have forgotten the cold war. I just read the story a North Korean political prisoner, “Eyes of the Tailless Animals.” It puts in perspective what communism is like. You have the same human greed and corruption, but but a permanent greedy and corrupt class at the top controls every aspect of people’s lives without any accountability at all, as they’re just “protecting” the people from greedy and corrupt capitalism, imprisoning them for their own good and forcing their opinions on them.

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Democrats have been campaigning for Obama on this crisis loudly all along and the voting-for-Obama members of the mainstream media has been all too glad to help them out. You would have never have known from the media coverage on McCain which was all negative, but last Thursday after McCain's bold moves, he drew even with Obama in the Gallup poll (I'm sure the media knew that, though). If anything, McCain and the Republicans haven't defended themselves enough during this crisis. The media has talked about Republican attempts to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the Bush administration. The NY Times article from 9/11/03, “New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.” The measure was opposed by Democrats. McCain co-sponsored the “Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005," and then sternly warned about the dangers of not doing something about FM/FM in 2006, as Mr. Tapper acknowledged in a post awhile back.

I wonder, if both sides believe bipartisanship and not blame is needed right now, but one side keeps attacking for the sake of the election anyway, would it be okay for the other side to defend itself if the shoe was on the other foot and it was the horrible Republicans attacking first and the noble Democrats just defending themselves?

Not only is McCain out of touch but....anybody here that advocates voting for McCain who is a member of the republican party the same party that has screwed up and ruined our great nation is either a paid blogger, delusional or stupid. I could add more but you get the picture.
Why should republicans get rewarded for screwing up America from Iraq to this financial mess? Isn't that like rewarding CEOs with huge bonuses even when they screw up the company. Sure let's reward the people that screwed things up. Who's stupid enought to do that? A fool, idiot, moron, masochist, lobbyist?

The extreme rightwingers are out tonight blowing their horns on Palin's VP qualifications! Palin cannot even speak English fluently, she cannot tell when to use "is" or "are", "has" or have", etc. She seems to have problems completing sentences and really does not make too much sense. Yeah, she is gotta be good for ya extreme rightwingers....she was "exorcised" by her Pentacostal preacher to remove the "witch" in her. She is under investigation for abuse of power, she had to return tainted money AFTER it was brought to the forefront. She fires good people and hires her highschool friends who are not qualified for the government jobs. Her husband belonged to, and she supported, an outfit in Alaska that wants to secede from the United States, an outfit that CONDEMNS AMERICA!! ANY SANE PERSON WOULD CALL THIS "ANTI-AMERICAN"!! Palin and her dude have NO business being anywhere near the White House!! The Republicans, Bush, and McCain have all but destroyed our country, perhaps McCain specifically picked Palin to help him complete the job. Then The United States of America would become "The Lower 49 States of Alaska". Isn't Sarah part Russian?? That right there should tell you something. Would Sarah then convert the entire country to Russian rules?? McCain, the Repubs, and Sarah Palin are NOT to be trusted!! Haven't we had enough of lies and BS in the last almost eight years?? What are you?? Suckers for punishment??

A citizen Vice President what a refreshing idea. Since all foreign decisions are on the latest news coming from a country and experts in the law and relations are going to be presented at briefings, what is the point of knowing the mistakes of the last few presidencies.

USA policies are not respected and everyone agrees most decisions of the past about war were flawed. Then Palin brings into the next presidency an innocent citizens views and not the MSM carpetbaggers paid for thoughts or the bought and paid for Washington politicals. What is not to like about the Govenor Palin? Maybe if she runs the 50 states well, Obama will tell her how to get the other 7 states to like her?
Cheers, rfm

Who cares about Couric? Still, no one. Palin is doing just fine, and this election is hugely funny {even as the nation's future is at risk from a Leftist educated no-nothing who threatens to team up with Pelosi/Reid/Wrangel/Wexler/Dudd/Schmucker/ana Barney's frank}

Katie Couric and others are knowingly distorting what Palin said when they have the transcript of the interview. The media, who are supposed to be guardians of the truth, should set the record straight rather than running with this distortion for all its worth.

Leonard Peltier,

You wrote:

"She was asked to elaborate on her foreign policy experience. In response, she discussed Alaskas proximity to Russia."

No, that isn't the case. That's clear from the transcript on the ABC site:

GIBSON: Let me ask you about some specific national security situations.

PALIN: Sure.

GIBSON: Let's start, because we are near Russia, let's start with Russia and Georgia.

The administration has said we've got to maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia. Do you believe the United States should try to restore Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia and Abkhazia?

PALIN: First off, we're going to continue good relations with Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain's running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep...

GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.

PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there. I think it was unfortunate. That manifestation that we saw with that invasion of Georgia shows us some steps backwards that Russia has recently taken away from the race toward a more democratic nation with democratic ideals.That's why we have to keep an eye on Russia.

And, Charlie, you're in Alaska. We have that very narrow maritime border between the United States, and the 49th state, Alaska, and Russia. They are our next door neighbors.We need to have a good relationship with them. They're very, very important to us and they are our next door neighbor.

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they're doing in Georgia?

PALIN: Well, I'm giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it's in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

(I also have another post a little further down with more on this subject).

Obama still only has 58% of Hillary Democrats onboard, same as June. That is about 7 million that won't vote for Obama. Only about 30% of Democrats voted in the primaries. If the trend holds that is about 21 million Democrats that won't vote for Obama. He can't even get the Democrats.

That's the Obama way, send out your brownshirts.

leonardo:

Wolverine? Congrats on Wisconsin. Shocking weekend in the top ten. The Tide rolled over Georgia. WHOOP!!

"One more thing, Truman was a Democrat, so what is your point?"

Truman was a haberdasher first, and considered for the ticket only because FDR thought him incapable of being a power player. No one thought him capable of stepping in and FDR knew he was himself, unlikely to make it.

He did it anyway.

You know what you know but you know, you never know, you know? Life's a long song.

McCain says he is a reformer because the records showed. Yes, the RECORDS showed. To win the election, he has changed his position to align with Bush. For example, tax cut. I wonder how he reforms the country when the majority of his aids are Bush's people. As for Palin, she may be fine as a state governor, but absolutely has NO CLUES or SKILLS to run our country.

Denise,

The Dems introduced sub-prime loans in 1999, which was bad, and signed off on Phil Gramms economic agenda.

The Repubs introduced leveraging and the derivative market in 2003 through intensive, relentless deregulation.

If you think the Dems are primarily responsible for the problem then you are not as objective about the situation as you would like us to think.

I agree about the 2 party system. The only real solution is a parliamentary government, and we know how likely that is.

Democrats are the ones that sold out our SSI.Democrats are the ones that REFUSED to recognize the problems with FannieMae and FreddieMac. Democrats are the ones who sold out main street for wall street. If you want the truth check out the voting records. There are bad apples in both groups, just fewer in the current Republican ticket. What we need to do is eliminate the electoral colledge in order to allow for third and even fourth party viability. As things stand at the moment I will be voting for the lesser of two evils. The Republicans! Oh, by the way this republican is well educated.

Obama is the one who said you can't change Washington by simply changing the chairs people sit in. Then he puts a 36-year Washington insider on his ticket.

Now we have a true outsider added to a ticket who is closer to the lives of real Americans than any of the other three on the tickets.

Someone who can represent real people without Washington connections or favors owed to anyone. Paired with a maverick who has the best chance of bringing real change to the way Washington works than anyone else we've seen from either party.

The Democrats are using the scare tactic that McCain will suddenly drop dead and Palin will have to take over. Not likely with all we know about how closely Presidents are monitored by their physicians. But it's the only chance they have of defeating the Republicans.

Bill Clinton said don't let yourself be influenced because someone is trying to scare you. Smart man, Clinton.

Dave:

"A reasonable person has to ask: what are they hiding?"

Haven't you heard, McCain and Palin are Republican; they have to be hiding something. Obama doesn't have savory friends, doesn't lie and his minister...

"Vote for the party the media hates."

New Republican slogan should be:

"Vote for the party that the media hates."

The Republican ticket!
John McCain (We bomb everything)
Sarah Palin (I see Russia from my house)
His aged and ambitious
She is young and motivated.
For him is the last chance to be President
For her the last chance to be his cheerleader.
Their story SPIN, LIES and LIPSTICK

The news here is that someone, ANYONE, was able to get through the multiple layers of McCain campaign aides insulating Palin from everyone but hardcore supporters.

A reasonable person has to ask: what are they hiding?

Emm,

She was asked to elaborate on her foreign policy experience. In response, she discussed Alaskas proximity to Russia.

It's possible that she was answering a different question than the one posed.
How does that make me more confident in her grasp of international relations?

Joe Biden was chosen for VP, for his honesty free spirit and his experience!
He’s supposed to make a point when is needed. Sarah Plain was chosen for the position after only one meeting .The decisive factor was only the women’s vote and the prerequisite to be the John McCain cheerleader. She makes only scripted interviews and has very thin Resume. Sarah Plain VP? Thanks but not thanks!