The Morning Meeting: Obama’s Housing Fix…A New Madoff?…California Crisis…U.S. Afghanistan ‘Surge’…Bush V. Cheney Continues

In a few hours in Mesa, Arizona, President Obama will say the following: "I’m here today to talk about a crisis unlike any we’ve ever known…"

How often will the new President have to go to the rhetorical well to describe a crisis, and prescribe fix? Yesterday it was the dormant economy and the hemorrhaging carmakers; today it is the home foreclosure (and near-foreclosure) crisis. Mr. Obama chooses Arizona because it has become a kind of ground zero for the mess. The nightmare for so many homeowners is not complicated: as the President will say, "You can’t afford to leave, and you can’t afford to stay."

The Obama plan aims to help families who’ve played by the rules but wound up "underwater" — meaning they owe more than the home is actually worth; it will also provide incentive for mortgage holders to modify loans, to make it easier for people to make payments and avoid default. "I also want to be very clear about what this plan will not do," Obama will say. "It will not rescue the unscrupulous or irresponsible."

Well — speaking of the "unscrupulous or irresponsible" — next up is the story of Texas mogul Allen Stanford, who not long ago said that "it’s nice being a billionaire" and is now a fugitive, charged with an $8 billion fraud. It’s alleged Stanford sold CDs through his Antiguan bank and offered "improbable, if not impossible" returns on their investments. We may have a Madoff Round Two on our hands.

Other news: Our Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz will file on what the 17,000 new American troops for Afghanistan will be asked to do; the Census Bureau is one of the few places that’s hiring — and they are overrun with applicants; Roland Burris faces an ethics investigation in the Senate; Michelle Obama talks to children about black history month; and we await the findings of a major Ice Age fossil discovery near the La Brea Tar Pits in California.

Stay tuned…