Obama Pins Wall Street Chaos on McBush

CHICAGO — Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Monday the upheaval on Wall Street was "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression" and blamed it on policies that he said Republican rival John McCain supports.

"This country can't afford another four years of this failed philosophy," Obama said after the shock-wave announcements that financial giant Lehman Brothers was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while titan Merrill Lynch was being bought by Bank of America for about $50 billion.

Obama's statement, issued as he prepared to fly to Colorado to begin a swing through contested Western states, was intended to serve two purposes: to link McCain with the unpopular presidency of George W. Bush and to express sympathy with the anxiety of most Americans who say the economy is issue No. 1 in the election.

"The challenges facing our financial system today are more evidence that too many folks in Washington and on Wall Street weren't minding the store," Obama said in a statement. "Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression."

"I certainly don't fault Sen. McCain for these problems," Obama said, "but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to."


read: http://www.wral.com/news/political/story/3546353/

It's not just his "economic philosophy" because he's a U.S. Senator! His "philosophy" equates to legislation (or lack thereof) & that means he's directly responsible for this failure along with Bush & the rest of that horrid party. Can't help feeling a little glad that shrub is pres during this.

and will continue to

Hey, why not blame McCain? Sometimes, Obama is just too much of a gentleman.

He clearly is targeting McCain for the Bush economic policies he supports.

This was just an initial response to the news. I wouldn't expect Obama to place all of the blame for Wall Street on McCain in this statement. I do expect he will be more specific in his blame in subsequent remarks.

...that has led to this mess is Phil Gramm. And Phill Gramm is McCain's chief economic advisor -- and would have a key leadership role in McCain's administration.

This needs to be shouted from the rooftops and it needs to be stated loud and clear by Obama and everyone in his campaign.

Please, please Obama, do not waste another breath couching your remarks with "I don't blame McCain..." lead-ins. Don't do it! It is weak! We need short and sharp declarative sentences that state the truth simply and cleanly: John McCain is taking his economic advice from one of the chief architects of the current debacle.

Biden in Michigan Monday: http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/09/biden_slams_mccain_palin_in_mi.html


"John McCain recently said: "the issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should." Then he proved it by the advisors he chose to surround him - advisors who have further cocooned him from the reality facing the rest of us. People like Phil Gramm. The man who wrote John McCain's economic plan actually said, repeatedly, that we're not going through an economic recession. Phil Gramm says it's just a mental recession. That we're a nation of whiners.

Tell that to my friend who flew jets for the Navy and then went to work for a commercial airline for over 20 years - only to see his pension wiped out while his CEO got a golden parachute. Don't tell me that he is a whiner.

Don't tell me that the woman I met in Missouri who worked for the Chrysler plant for 13 years making minivans and lost her job when production moved to Canada is a whiner.

Don't tell me that an engineer who sees his job go overseas because his company has been given a tax break to leave instead of one to stay is a whiner.

Don't tell me that these people, people who are our nation's heart and soul - deserve to be treated as economic scapegoats.

These people worked hard, they did everything right, and they're willing to work hard again. But instead of their government supporting them, their government walked away from them. Nobody stood up for them.

Barack and I will.

...for sure.

But I want it stated loud and clear: Phil Gramm was the CHIEF ARCHITECT of the economic policies that have created this debacle. He was there for Enron, before they crashed and burned -- and it was his policies that gave them cover to rob people blind, including their own employees.

Time to get out there and fight. Don't give us policy lectures. Use language like "robbed people blind" -- there's a place and a time for the touching stories, but right now we need sound bites.

It really makes no sense to spend time blaming the candidates for what the media won't cover.

...I'm not trying to be difficult, nor to slam Obama or Biden or the campaign. I want them to win. And I know they do not have to resort to the underhanded lying tactics that the Republics use time and again -- and that McCain is using now, unfortunately to great effect.

I do see that they're taking the gloves off. And believe me I'm happy to see it! I'm only trying to encourage them to get out some short, sharp sound bites. That's what is needed to get those all-important quotes in the press and over the airwaves. Yes, we're fighting an uphill battle as far as media coverage is concerned. Yes, McCain's message is amplified automatically while Obama's is drowned out if at all possible. Still and all, that's the landscape we have to work with.

Now just today Obama came up with a real zinger, stating that "if you think all those lobbyists are working in McCain's campaign for the benefit of you and me, I've got a bridge in Alaska to sell you." Now that is my idea of a great, catchy sound bite. It is, of course, true, which makes it all the better.

Anyway -- I am not in any way trying to start trouble, nor assuming that I am smarter than the campaign. But here we are on a discussion board for political junkies, and I will call it as I see it. As I see it, the Obama campaign has been a little too gentlemanly and a lot too long-winded. Not only do they need to get down and dirty for the home stretch, they need to get off those zingers. That is what people latch onto, like it or not.