This is starting to get ridiculous (starting?). Barack Obama has done a good job in recent days of staying on message and delivering talking points about how it is the "shared economic philosophy" of President Bush and John McCain that is responsible for the current crisis.
Except that he doesn't ever provide a single specific example.
And the reason? There are none. The truth is that as far back as 2003, President Bush tried to pass reform legislation that would have eased the threat posed by Fannie & Freddy. I can't pin this one on Barack Obama, as he was not yet in Congress in 2003, but it is an easy thing to blame Democrats generally and the Congressional Black Caucus specifically for stonewalling changes and reforms that could have eased, if not headed off altogether, the problems we now face.
John McCain wanted to change things in 2006. He met the same resistance President Bush did 2 years earlier, but by this time Barack Obama was part of the stonewalling problem and receiving large amounts of campaign donations from both institutions. I repeat what I wrote yesterday: in less than 4 years, Barack Obama has become the #2 recipient of campaign donations from Fannie & Freddy.
As it turns out, each and every one of the distressed financial institutions has been donating to Barack Obama in far greater amounts than John McCain.
The lesson here is not that we need Barack Obama to solve the problem he helped create or that we need more regulation. We need to eliminate the market-distorting legislation and regulations that encouraged Fannie & Freddy to make such bad loans. This, more than a lack of oversight or regulation, caused the current financial crisis.
Like I learned in high school leadership from Mr. Tobery, when you point the finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointed back at yourself.
If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.
