I really went back and forth as to whether or not I wanted to do a post on Obama’s Berlin speech today, because frankly I don’t give a damn. If you’ve heard one Obama speech you’ve heard them all, and this one was no exception. He spouted a bunch of pap about how he wasn’t there as a politician (heh), proceeded to recite the history of Berlin to the German audience (I think they’ve already got that down pat jackass), and a bunch of crap about tearing down walls and unity and Hopeandchange. Overall there isn’t a single part of his speech that stands out as transcendent or even particularly noteworthy. Really, this is an effin’ boring speech. If McCain traveled to Germany, got tons of hype, and did a speech this boring people would be calling for his head on a stake.
He might claim otherwise, but he shows some pretty impressive financial acumen in assessing what went wrong with Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and proposes a good solution to the problem.
Fannie and Freddie are the poster children for a lack of transparency and accountability. Fannie Mae employees deliberately manipulated financial reports to trigger bonuses for senior executives. Freddie Mac manipulated its earnings by $5-billion. They’ve misled us about their accounting, and now they are endangering financial markets. More than two years ago, I said: “If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose.” Fannie and Freddie’s lobbyists succeeded; Congress failed to act. They’ve stayed in business, grown, and profited mightily by showering money on lobbyists and favors on the Washington establishment. Now the bill has come due.
What should be done? We are stuck with the reality that they have grown so large that we must support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the current rough spell. But if a dime of taxpayer money ends up being directly invested, the management and the board should immediately be replaced, multimillion dollar salaries should be cut, and bonuses and other compensation should be eliminated. They should cease all lobbying activities and drop all payments to outside lobbyists. And taxpayers should be first in line for any repayments.
Even with those terms, sticking Main Street Americans with Wall Street’s bill is a shame on Washington. If elected, I’ll continue my crusade for the right reform of the institutions: making them go away. I will get real regulation that limits their ability to borrow, shrinks their size until they are no longer a threat to our economy, and privatizes and eliminates their links to the government.
Not a bad idea there John, and as long as Freddie/Fannie are taking government money they really can’t say a hell of a lot about having more restrictions put on them. You should, like, go back to the Senate for a minute and float a bill to that effect. That will get you some of that free press publicity.
You’d think he already had that skill down, but he seems to have forgotten this year that in order to get press you have to go around making token appearances with popular icons.
As Sen. Barack Obama continues his whirlwind tour of Europe — he is now in Berlin — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has announced he will “step off the trail” tomorrow to meet with Tibetan exile and freedom fighter Dalai Lama.
He will meet the spiritual leader in Aspen, Colorado, a McCain aide told Politico Thursday morning. The Dalai Lama is presenting at a three-day Aspen Institute conference billed as “A Celebration of Tibetan Culture.”
Good call McCain. Get you some of that free publicity.
The last person on earth I would expect to ask Obama tough questions would be Katie Couric. Katie is trying to redeem herself as a respectable journalist on this Obama junket though, since she seems to be asking him some difficult questions and getting some rather interesting answers. Let us start with Couric’s question about Jerusalem.
Couric: You said not too long ago that Jerusalem should remain undivided. And then you backtracked on that statement. Does that play into the argument that some believe that someone more experienced would not have made that kind of mistake?
Obama:Well… if you look at what happened, there was no shift in policy or backtracking in policy. We just had phrased it poorly in the speech. That has happened and will happen to every politician. You’re not always gonna hit your mark in terms of how you phrase your policies. But my policy hasn’t changed, and it’s been very consistent. It’s the same policy that Bill Clinton has put forward, and that says that Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel, that we shouldn’t divide it by barbed wire, but that, ultimately that is … a final status issue that has to be resolved between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Actually, you did tell AIPAC that Jerusalem should remain undivided, but whatever. Let’s move on to Obama’s answers when Couric questions him about the surge.
Couric:But talking microcosmically, did the surge, the addition of 30,000 additional troops … help the situation in Iraq?
Obama: Katie, as … you’ve asked me three different times, and I have said repeatedly that there is no doubt that our troops helped to reduce violence. There’s no doubt.
Couric: But yet you’re saying … given what you know now, you still wouldn’t support it … so I’m just trying to understand this.
Obama: Because … it’s pretty straightforward. By us putting $10 billion to $12 billion a month, $200 billion, that’s money that could have gone into Afghanistan. Those additional troops could have gone into Afghanistan. That money also could have been used to shore up a declining economic situation in the United States. That money could have been applied to having a serious energy security plan so that we were reducing our demand on oil, which is helping to fund the insurgents in many countries. So those are all factors that would be taken into consideration in my decision– to deal with a specific tactic or strategy inside of Iraq.
Couric: And I really don’t mean to belabor this, Senator, because I’m really, I’m trying … to figure out your position. Do you think the level of security in Iraq …
Obama: Yes.
Couric … would exist today without the surge?
Obama: Katie, I have no idea what would have happened had we applied my approach,which was to put more pressure on the Iraqis to arrive at a political reconciliation. So this is all hypotheticals. What I can say is that there’s no doubt that our U.S. troops have contributed to a reduction of violence in Iraq. I said that– not just today, not just yesterday, but I’ve said that– previously. What that doesn’t change is that we’ve got to have a different strategic approach if we’re going to make America as safe as possible.
Answer fail. Pure and simple. Even Katie couldn’t sit there and take that pap. She also asked McCain the same question via satellite, here’s the video of both Obama’s and McCain’s answers.
OK, so it’s from the National Enquirer, which actually has a pretty good track record of reporting things that are later found to be true (Brangelina, anyone?). Apparently Edwards has something on the side.
The married ex-senator from North Carolina - whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer — met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 - and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn’t leave until early the next morning.
Rielle had driven to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara with a male friend for the rendezvous with Edwards. The former senator attended a press event Monday afternoon with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the topic of how to combat homelessness.
Two Americas indeed.
PS - All kidding aside, if this is true Edwards should be ashamed of himself. I have no illusions about politicians, but I do have a soft spot for those suffering through cancer. This is the last thing his wife needs to be dealing with right now, and while I don’t agree with much that Elizabeth Edwards has to say if this is true my heart goes out to her.
UPDATE - Mickey Kaus wonders why the MSM isn’t running with this (and he has a theory too!), and the Hot Air crew chime in on whether or not we should be discussing this at all in light of the way the Right blogosphere ripped the NYT for their thinly-sourced McCain-Iseman story. I say it’s news, and news gets reported.
We know his resume is pretty thin, now he’s resorted to making crap up to make himself sound like he has more experience than he has.
Responding to an Israeli reporter’s question Wednesday on his commitment to protect the Jewish state, Barack Obama pointed to a bill “we passed” in the U.S. Senate Banking Committee that tightens sanctions and authorizes divestment from Iran. “My committee,” he called it.
Except that he isn’t a member of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
“Just this past week, we passed out of the out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee - which is my committee - a bill to call for divestment from Iran as way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon,” Obama said at a press conference in Sderot, Israel.
Man, you know it ain’t good when CNN is calling him out on this. However, I do believe this is the first appearance of the Royal We out of Obama.
Financial experts have spent months tracing the roots of the housing market implosion that sent the global economy into chaos. President Bush has his own explanation: Wall Street got drunk.
“There’s no question about it. Wall Street got drunk,” Bush told supporters at a Republican fundraiser in Houston Friday. “It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is, how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?”
I’m totally getting where W is coming from. Nobody with a hangover should try to work anything fancier than a child-proof bottle of Alieve. Fortunately for me my constitution is a bit stronger than Wall Street’s though, my hangovers typically don’t start until I’ve sobered up. Apparently W’s experiences were a little different from mine.
The McCain campaign denies being jealous of the media attention that Senator Obama’s overseas trip is receiving. But, this evening they took a light hearted jab at the media frenzy by handing out a small token to their traveling press corps.
After boarding the bus from the airport here, the McCain campaign handed out to the press corps a fake credential with a picture of the Statue of Liberty surrounded by fireworks on the front identifying the McCain Press Corps as the “JV Squad” and underneath “Left Behind to Report in America.”
On the back is a Frenchman in a beret with a Borat-like moustache pouring a glass of wine superimposed in front of the Eiffel Tower. The same caption from the front is loosely translated into French: “L’equipe junior” “Laisse’ en arriere pour faire un rapport en Amerique.”
This is the McCain I like. We need to see more of this McCain.
The three day event called ‘Rally for the Republic’ will officially launch Paul’s new political action group: the ‘Campaign for Liberty.’ When planning for the event began earlier this year, it was originally scheduled to take place at the University of Minnesota, but due to a “strong initial response,” it was moved to The Target in Minneapolis, which can house up to 18,000 people.
Good for them.
PS - Why is it I get the feeling this is going to get more press coverage than the actual RNC convention?
John McCain is set to meet with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal Wednesday, a move that is certain to increase speculation the Arizona senator is seriously considering the 37-year-old Republican for his running mate.
News of the meeting, first reported by the Washington Post, comes amid reports the McCain campaign has mulled the possibility of naming the vice presidential candidate later this week in an effort to steal the media spotlight from Barack Obama’s trip overseas. Sources close to the Republican presidential candidate have indicated that scenario is one of several possibilities that have been recently discussed.
Jindal’s name has been batted around the VP hat since day one, and here it is once again. Hmmmm……
