Obama, McCain Seek Gain In Credit Crisis

Both Candidates Speak To President Bush, Call For Congress To Raise Federal Deposit Insurance Limit

(AP)  White House rivals John McCain and Barack Obama combined televised attack ads with statesmanlike appeals for bipartisanship on Tuesday as they vied for political gain in the shadow of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Both men spoke privately with President Bush about the collapse of the financial industry, then publicly made clear their differences with him, McCain more gently than his Democratic rival.

The Republican, campaigning in Iowa, pointedly told reporters there were steps the administration could still take "with the stroke of the pen to help alleviate the crisis gripping our economy. I urge them to do so."

McCain mentioned using a federal stabilization fund to back uninsured money market accounts. The Treasury Department is already using the fund to guarantee money market mutual funds, which were the only uninsured money market accounts. Treasury announced that program Sept. 19 after the failure of Lehman Bros. produced a surge of withdrawals from such funds.

The GOP candidate also suggested wielding authority to purchase $1 trillion in mortgages. A housing bill Bush signed July 30 included $300 billion in new loan authority for the government to back cheaper mortgages for troubled homeowners. The failed bailout bill would have added another $700 billion in authority to deal with troubled housing investments.

In addition, first Obama and then McCain said Congress should lift the current federal deposit insurance limit of $100,000 to $250,000.

Obama's campaign released a new commercial critical of the administration and his campaign rival at the same time. "The old trickle-down theory has failed us," the Illinois senator said in the ad. "We can't afford four more years like the last eight."

The intense maneuvering came one day after the House defeated a bipartisan bailout bill and the stock market responded with its largest one-day drop in history.

Those events, after 10 days of political and market uncertainty, underscored the importance of the economic debacle in a campaign with five weeks to run. Without a solution, the issue has the potential to become even more combustible in the next several days when millions of retirees and workers receive quarterly statements showing sharp drops in their personal investment accounts.

Obama has been gaining in numerous national and swing-state polls in recent days, while McCain has appeared to struggle since he announced a brief suspension in his campaign appearances to help solve the crisis.

He announced the pause a week ago, saying he would fly to Washington and stay there until a solution was found. Three days later, he reversed course and flew to Mississippi for a last Friday's long-scheduled campaign debate.

He sidestepped one interviewer during the day who asked whether he would suspend his campaign once again. "I'll do whatever is necessary and whatever my Republican colleagues and the administration and others ask me to do," McCain replied.

Aides said a return to Washington was likely in the next day or two, and McCain's travel plans were being made less than a day in advance as he awaited developments in the Capitol.

Obama campaigned in Nevada.

The day began with both presidential rivals emphasizing the need for bipartisanship and offering suggestions for easing the crisis.

"At this moment, when the jobs, retirement savings, and economic security of all Americans hang in the balance, it is imperative that all of us - Democrats and Republicans alike - come together to meet this crisis," Obama said in a written statement issued more than an hour before Bush appeared on television to urge lawmakers to work together.

He said Congress should raise the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation limit to $250,000 as part of the economic rescue package to "boost small businesses, make our banking system more secure, and help restore public confidence in our financial system."

He said he would contact leaders of Congress "to offer this idea and urge them to act without delay to pass a rescue plan."

McCain spoke at a campaign round-table a few hours later.

"I call on everyone in Washington to come together in a bipartisan way to address this crisis. I know that many of the solutions to this problem may be unpopular, but the dire consequences of inaction will be far more damaging to the economic security of American families and the fault will be all ours," he said.

At the same time, a less high-minded skirmish broke out.

McCain's commercial quoted the Washington Post as saying he had "pushed for stronger regulation" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two disgraced institutions that dominate the devastated mortgage industry, "while Mr. Obama was notably silent."

The commercial continues: "But, Democrats blocked the reforms. Loans soared. Then, the bubble burst. And, taxpayers are on the hook for billions."

The Republican National Committee unveiled an even tougher commercial that it said would air in the battleground states of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

"Wall Street squanders our money and Washington is forced to bail them out with - you guessed it - our money.

"Can it get any worse? Under Barack Obama's plan, the government would spend a trillion dollars more, even after the bailout. A trillion dollars. Who pays? You do." (Watch the new ads here.)

[david1737]

"Those who don''t learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

In the late 1980''s Republicans deregulated the Savings and Loan Industry.

Fact:

McCain was Charles Keating''s business partner and one of the "Keating 5."

(Google S&L scandal Bush family/keating 5/McCain)

Bottom line McCain supported deregulation until Monday before last.

McCain quotes:

"The fundamentals of our economy remain strong"

"I don''t know how the economy works"

[stormeyone]

DOWN WITH MCWHITEY!
OBAMA 08!


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Posted by unfitsarah at 10:27 AM : Oct 01, 2008

Yeah, and Obama''''s good friends at ACORN are under indictment as we speak for commiting voter registration fraud!

Like Obama''''s krap doesn''''t just flat stink!

And while I''m at it, down with your racist KRAP!

[stormeyone]

How many of you agree with me.....Voting fraud is about as un-American an act as anyone calling themselves an America can commit??

If you are American enough to agree, then why would you even consider voting for this 50%-MCWHITEY FLDS MORMON PEDEPHILE, whos only real world job has been working for $6.00 an hour for THE KEATING 5, teaching other folks just like him how to commit voters fraud?? MCWHITEY ISN''''T FIT TO SHINE PRESIDENT OBAMA''''S SHOES!



DOWN WITH MCWHITEY!
OBAMA 08!


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Posted by unfitsarah at 10:27 AM : Oct 01, 2008

Yeah, and Obama''s good friends at ACORN are under indictment as we speak for commiting voter registration fraud!

Like Obama''s krap doesn''t just flat stink!

[bemorefunny]

Brought to you by the benevolent, not-for-profit Exxon/Mobile. Finding new ways to profit, in the billions, while America''s youth perish toward a goal that is misunderstood.

[bemorefunny]

It''s inacceptable:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/business/worldbusiness/01global.html?ref=worldbusiness

I take personal accountability.

[bacaangel]

We need strict regulation and oversight in this country. Banks/companies that are Regulated are not experiencing any econimic crisis, just the investment banks/companies which are not regulated or de-regulated and have no oversight! "One of the regulations meant to keep insiders from driving down the prices of their own company%u2019s stock so that they could sell short at will to make a quick million whenever they felt like it was called the %u201Cuptick rule%u201D. The %u201Cuptick rule%u201D is another one of the FDR Era regulations which the Heritage Foundations was talking about when they said that they wanted to roll this country back to the days of Herbert Hoover. They succeeded. The Bush administration got rid of this safeguard last year---with predictable results. The uptick rule is fairly simple. "

(And by the way, Sec. Paulson has a nickname only the insiders know of -- Hanky Panky Paulson!)

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/uptick...

[minnick8-2009]

then why would you even consider voting for this 50%-MCWHITEY FLDS MORMON PEDEPHILE, whos only real world job has been working for $6.00 an hour for THE KEATING 5 . . .

Posted by unfitsarah

The reason that I wouldn''t even consider voting for Obama is because he is the most liberal, socialistic, candidate to ever run for President of the United States. Give him a chance and he''ll re-try the Marxist, Communist, experiment rigiht here in America. In addition to that, as if it wasn''t enough, I absolutely do not support the Democratic Party Platform and I wouldn''t support it even if the candidate were 100 percent white instead of 50 percent white.

[minnick8-2009]

Both McCain and Obama have made a bundle of money off the mortgage loan fraud with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Even though lending institutions dangled the bait of interest only loans making it appear as if people who couldn''t afford a house too much for their income, the people didn''t need to take the bait.

I didn''t take the bait. Now I''m sorry I didn''t take the bait. It doesn''t take a financial genius to figure out that at some point, the house is going to have to be paid off because the house ownership isn''t a gift. Now I''m sorry I didn''t take the bait. I could be refinancing a fixed mortgage at a lower interest through a federal housing project. Is it too late? Can I still get a 250,000 house financed by the tax payers?

The lenders made money by selling these worthless loans in packages to overseas investors. I hope there is a special place in h e l l for all the greedy, dishonest, CEO''s, lenders, and politicians. H E L L is going to have to have a lot of room.

[toby2957]

And so... it begins. The fall of the neocon regime. Bush and his cronies are on his way out, and it is beginning to look like people are wising up on McSame.

Endless war.
Boundless corruption.
A wrecked economy.
Constant lies.
A weakening of our world standing.


That''s all it took. That''s all it took for enough American partisans to pull their heads out of their backsides long enough to understand that they were in trouble with Bush and the Neocons.

Maybe now we can get a few things done.

[bob4usa]

If congress really wants to solve the financial crisis they need to do Ten things:

1. Restore the Glass-Steagall Act.
This act separated investment and commercial banking activities, which prohibited comingling of funds between banks, Wall-Street Stocks and Commodities.

2. Eliminate Derivatives.

3. Eliminate Hedge Funds.

4. Restore bank regulations or make new bank regulations.

5. Restore Wall-Street regulations and make new regulations for Wall-Street.

6. Eliminate Supply%u2013Side Economics or Trickle Down Economics.

7. Adopt and use Nash Equilibrium Economics.

8. Eliminate Free Trade.

9. Restore and create Fair Trade.

10. DO NOT Give Wall-Street and Banks 700 Billion dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!