Obama clinches Election in Bail-Out Press Conference

Excellent surprise Obama presser. He looked good and said all the right things. Very presidential. I could not be more pleased. The DOW went up during the presser, probably because Obama was staking out a position accepting the bail-out in broad conceptual terms.

For obvious political reasons, Obama could not get specific until some sort of consensus emerged among congressional Dems. (You don't say, in the late stage of a campaign, the bill should be X, Y and Z unless you have a good reason to think it will be X, Y and Z. Otherwise you look weak and/or irrelevant.)

So I think we can say we know the general shape of the bill.

1) Accept the reality and emergency of the crisis
2) Populist stance on compensation (In $$$ it's a joke issue either way, but good politics.)
3) Replace Paulson's individual authority with a bipartisan board
4) Equity Stakes

Additional 'main street' stimulus that will follow a bail-out, not to be included in the emergency bill.

This was all always baked in the cake. This was pretty certain to be the Dem position as early as last Friday.

(The dictatorial authority and absence of oversight in the bill were clearly there to be bargained away. They knew Congress wasn't going to to pass it as is so there were some outrages built in to provide congress some 'victories' in negotiations.)


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As a political matter I would have added, "As we pursue aggressive stimulus that directly addresses mortgages, rather than merely mortgage backed securities I will be taking a serious look at Senator Clinton's proposal for a revitalization of Franklin Roosevelt's Homeowners' Loan Corporation." (Invoking FDR and a nod to the Clinton economic talisman would be good politics with Reagan Dems.)

I especially like #3.. no sense in doing things the same old bad way
with the same old bad people and expecting a different result.

If they want our money then we'll be in charge.. thank you very much.

but knowing when to speak and what is Ok to say diplomatically are so not important@!

big draws would have been:

"we're nuking Iran to avoid a second Holocaust!"
"We'll go to war with Russia because Georgia is a NATO member!"

See Palin et al for further good examples of how to Win an Election and Never Govern Except when Threatening War


and it's even better if you say these things as a candidate BEFORE the real president (POS in hiding) can say or do anything. Aggression is what the people are looking for...so give it to them! Diplomacy shmoacy-- No one cares. See Putins' soul from your kitchen table! I do!
yii ha!

(sarcasm)

And I am MOST proud of our elitist scholarly President. I want the smartest person in the room with the best judgment....OBAMA!

were genius strokes politically.

You never know... could happen.

:eyes:

(I'm trying to get caught up to the present day) and he was talking about the Homeowner's Loan Corporation and how well it worked after Bear Sterns fell apart!

Thom Hartmann for Treasury Secretary!!!!

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_09/014758.php

McCain was recently bragging on CNBC about how for many years: "I was chairman of the Commerce Committee that oversights every part of our economy."

So, the economic mess is his fault?

(Actually, as pointed out in the link, the Commerce Committee's primarily roles are to oversee the Coast Guard, maritime law and consumer protection. Taxes, government spending, banking, energy and finance are the jurisdiction of other committees.)

did Mr. and Mrs. America see it that way? Did they see it at all?

...unless it specifically addresses:

(1) the underlying causes of the current crisis, including wage and home price disparities, and deregulation that unfettered Wall Street greed;

(2) fundamental changes in U.S. monetary policy to prevent future ponzi schemes of this magnitude-- the current bailout plan seeks only to dodge the bullet, not to disarm the weapon;

(3) a plan for dealing with the REST of the credit crisis, which is most certainly still falling towards our heads-- this liquidity bailout *might* free up the market, but if it contains no long term solutions then it will inevitably fail anyway.

And of course the sorts of things we've already heard about, e.g. revoking the golden parachutes of executives, relief for homeowners facing foreclosure, etc.