Thursday, September 25, 2008

Dodd, Banking Committee Chair: "a lot of us have been working for 5 straight days around the clock and I haven't heard a word from John McCain."

John McCain - Stunt Man

Obama did the right thing -- showed leadership. At 8:30 AM, Obama reached out to his rival to propose they come up with a bipartisan statement. By making this effort, Obama gave up the opportunity to show just how much better he and his team are responding to this issue, how much more the public blames the GOP for this mess, and instead prioritized finding a solution that would work.

McCain received that offer. And he sat on it. For six hours. What happened in those 6 hours? A call to the White House perhaps? Finally, at 2:30 PM, McCain accepted the offer. It seems that, during those six long hours when McCain was mulling Obama's proposal, McCain was inventing a way to turn this into yet another political gimmick. Twenty minutes after accepting Obama's proposal, McCain pulled this stunt of calling for a suspension of the campaign and postponement of the debate.

Who is gullible enough to actually believe John McCain will be going to DC to "work across the aisle to strike a deal that will save the economy?" You know, McCain - the guy who said 10 days ago - "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." Maybe the same people who thank Bush for a wonderful presidency? Maybe the same people who think "drill baby drill" will help our gas prices?

Chris Dodd is the chair of the Senate Banking Committee. He OWNS this issue. Dodd says:

"I'm beginning to think this is more about a rescue plan for John McCain than a rescue plan for the economy...Candidly, a lot of us have been working for 5 straight days around the clock and I haven't heard a word from John McCain."

Maybe you smart people can tell me what exactly McCain is going to do in Washington besides a photo op with Bush? He doesn't sit on any of the relevant committees, the committees are already deep in negotiations for days, pretty much finished with their work. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

What are others saying?

Survey USA:
Immediately after John McCain’s announcement 3 pm ET today, Wednesday 09/24/08, that he was suspending his campaign and seeking to postpone Friday’s schedule presidential debate, SurveyUSA interviewed 1,000 adults nationwide. Key findings:

A majority of Americans say the debate should be held. Just 10% say the debate should be postponed.
WashPost: A Transparent Ploy

Salon: Stunt Man
The only way to understand it is politically: In a presidential campaign, the surest sign that a candidate is playing politics on an issue is when he claims not to be playing politics on an issue... It's hard to believe that McCain's actions would pass his own laugh test.
Boston Globe: McCain's Debate Stunt
altering the debate schedule would hardly serve voters. If anything, debates are most valuable at times of national crisis, because voters need to hear candidates highlight their policy differences.

That's what Obama said.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah we need more talking rather than action. Wake-up America! talk is cheap! show me some action! Maybe Obama will do more than talk about generalities in the debate ("We need change"). I still don't know what this means. any liberal elistists out there that can help me? you guys are just soooooo smart. Not sure what I should be doing without you telling me what I should be doing since you know what's best for me! btw, I bought a house that I could not afford with a loan I could not aford to repay. Granted the loan terms where not as good as those given to Chris Dodd (D-CT and Banking Committee chair) but could someone help me deal with the consequences of my irresponsible behavior?

Anonymous said...

anonymous:

Are you serious, you bought a house you can't afford? Well, you know that your party, the GOP, will be happy to call you a taxi once they throw your shit on the lawn.

It is so noble of the reptilicans in the house to start looking out for the American people after they allowed this to happen during the six fucking YEARS that they ran the country.

democommie

Anonymous said...

could you please point to how the repubs cause this problem? I'd appreciate some facts.... this started with the Clinton Adm. ("low-income people and minorities need to own homes" - who cares if they can't afford them)and regulations proposed by the Bush Adm. in 2003 were block by? ... yeah, you guessed it, the dems! Once again, give me some facts to support your position. good luck.

William said...

Hey, review your history. It was McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm who in 1999, pushed through a historic banking deregulation bill that decimated Depression-era firewalls between commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies, and securities firms—setting off a wave of merger mania. This was done by the Republican controlled Congress.

On December 15, 2000, an especially tense time in Washington, only two days earlier, the Supreme Court had issued its decision on Bush v. Gore. President Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress were locked in a budget showdown. It was the perfect moment for Gramm to game the system. As Congress and the White House were hurriedly hammering out a $384-billion omnibus spending bill, Gramm slipped in a 262-page measure called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. Written with the help of financial industry lobbyists and cosponsored by Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the chairman of the agriculture committee, the measure had been considered dead—even by Gramm. Few lawmakers had either the opportunity or inclination to read the version of the bill Gramm inserted. "Nobody in either chamber had any knowledge of what was going on or what was in it," says a congressional aide familiar with the bill's history.

The act, he declared, would ensure that neither the sec nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (cftc) got into the business of regulating newfangled financial products called swaps—and would thus "protect financial institutions from overregulation" and "position our financial services industries to be world leaders into the new century."

THIS IS THE CAUSE OF THE PRESENT US ECONOMIC SITUATION. Get it?