Despite Claims Today He Warned of this Crisis, McCain in 2007 Said He Didn’t See This Crisis Coming

I think the McCain that campaigns locally is the straight talker, which is why this election is close. However, when he gets on the national stage he seems to contradict himself quite often. This type of strategy used to work better before the Internet and 24 hour news cycle.

“A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth. Now, as the Bush administration scrambles to prevent the collapse of the American International Group (AIG), the nation’s largest insurance company, and stabilize a tumultuous Wall Street, the Republican presidential nominee is scrambling to recast himself as a champion of regulation to end ‘reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed’ on Wall Street

Yea, but is anyone listening? No I do not think so. He knows it so he can say what he likes when he likes.
He is a liar and we like it.

Jake Tapper–
Shame on you, pointing this out is SEXIST.
Oh, wait it deals with McCain?
Don’t you know he was a POW for over 5 years?

Will ABC report this/
NO.

Amy, the New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Stick to the discussion at hand instead of using distractions…John McCain didn’t see it coming before he did.

The straight talk express had to be re-named its now “THE SNOW JOB EXPRESS”.

John McCain called the surge right.
John McCain called Frannie right.
2/2.
Obama? 0/2

With these government bailouts of our failing financial markets, that McCain HELPED create, unlike Obama, the KEATING FIVE is now fair game.
We SAW first hand how McCain deals with bailouts.

Wow, I thought the people of the United States were smart. I was completely wrong. Instead U.S. citizens decide they want to hate somebody (McCain), just because they want to. They will therefore listen to any guy (Tapper) who spins his stories in such a way as to purposely lead a peson to think badly of McCain. Then you people fall for it and think Tapper is such a wonderful person and you guys don’t do any research for yourself. A rat can do yes work. Can you guys at least do some research and come up with an original thought.

No Obama has not done anything to cause the current financial mess, but during the two years that he did attend his job, he did not try to do anything about it. McCain at least tried to do something about it and this is not a lie. Don’t call something a lie just because it reflects well on somebody that you don’t like. This reflects poorly on you. Also the current financial mess is based on policies that were put into practice during the mid to late 1990s when Clinton was in office and politicians don’t look at the consequences of their policies until there is a hugely negative effect, like the one we are in now.

Jim Johnson or Fraklin Raines probably saw it coming.

Don’t accept LIES from the GOP, McCain did NOTHING
McCain Embraces Regulation After Many Years of Opposition
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 17, 2008; Page A01
A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth.

Voting Record Matters:
I think you need to follow your own advice and google the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. This Act was not deregulated in 1999, it was placed into effect in 1999. Nice try to seem smart though.

Everybody who pays attention and doesn’t see being a Democrat or Republican as being a fan of a sports team knows that McCain has always been strongly anti-regulation/for deregulation. What he tried to do yesterday and what he’s trying to do now is to sweep his previous 26 years under the rug and get folks to believe he is a pro-regulation reformer.
Serious folks should wonder who McCain really is, he’s obviously willing to say or do anything to get elected – what will he do should he win? Does anybody really know what kind of President he would be? Would he be the maverick, would be be the politician who voted with Bush 90% of the time, will be be anti-regulation or pro-regulation?

Moronic story. McCain is on record in 2006 making a statement introducing a bill he co-sponsored to reform Freddie and Fannie:
McCain: Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.
The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.
For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.
I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 1 90, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.
I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.

Forgetful old fool. He has no business running for President. God help us if him and his ugly counterpart gets in.

Dear Senator McCain —
You admitted that you didn’t know anything about the economy. You chose Phil Gramm, the deregulation king, to be your economic policy adviser. Do you think we have reason to believe that you will be able to tell good economic advice from bad economic advice and make a sound judgment? After putting up with Bush, do you think our country can afford to have another ill-informed president?
Perhaps it is time now for you to really put country first by admitting the facts and telling everyone that you won’t be a good choice for fixing the economy.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was put into practice to overcome some of the short comings of the Glass-Steagal Act which was ratified in 1933 during the Great Depression. The Glass-Steagal Act was still in place in 1999 and had too many problems. That’s why the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was put into practice. The GLB Act also allowed commercial and investment banks to consolidate. The practices allowed by the GLB Act are not was it the problem with the financial world today. It is the corruption of CEOs in companies like Lehman Brothers that is the problem and the Glass-Steagal Act was doing nothing to stop that corruption.

“Sounds like he predicted the issue to me.”
By cosponsoring a bill?
Obama authored a bill on this and submitted it again last year(after submitting it in 2006). Check out the STOP FRAUD act

The current financial crisis is more complicated than we know now. McCain saying he does not know the whole extent of this mess is being honest (and really tells you has does have a grasp of what is happening). Obama is not a master on this subject either, but he would like you to believe that he is.
The corruption is bigger than the Feds have realized… there are many more players yet to be identified. This is not over by a long shot.
McCain stating that he does not know much about the economy is a sign of wisdom. Wise people know their limitations. There is now way that McCain’s background would make him a economics wonk, but realize that he actually does have a better grasp of the subject than the media or Obama report.
Calling for a nonpartisan commission to inquire as to how this was allowed to happen and to safeguard it from happening again is also a smart thing to do. It is time to clean up the greedy, corrupt leadership in Washington and US corporate offices.

McCain the Deregulator becomes McCain the Regulator overnight! We don’t even need to get into the Keating 5 to show what a miraculously transformative moment this is.
1999 – McCain supported Gramm-Leach-Bliely Act which removed walls between banking, investment and insurance companies that had been in place since the Great Depression. This bill is a large part of the reason we’re in the mess we’re in.
2007 – McCain says that he regretted voting for Sarbanes-Oxley which he’d supported after the Enron collapse. Business executives thought it was just too too much.
March, 2008 – McCain told the Wall St. Journal, “I’m always for less regulation. I’d like to see a lot of the unnecessary government regulations eliminated.”
It is become more and more impossible to believe anything that comes out of this man’s mouth.

When capitalism breaks, it fixes itself and gets better. When Socialism breaks, you become Cuba.
McCain is a Capitalist; Obama a Socialist!
You decide!!

John McCain is a tired old man.

Jake, you’ve been one of the less biased members of the MSM calling out lies on both sides, so why are you going along with the media silence on McCain’s Fannie Mae speech in 2005 and Obama’s undermining of foreign policy in Iraq? Are the media so in the tank that Sarah’s tanning bed and stupid gotcha word games are more important than real issues like Obama violating the Logan Act?

Hang, read my post…at least as early as May 2006. SB 190.

Jake,
You’re better than this. As someone stated earlier, McCain sponsored a bill (Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190)in 2005 and gave a very prophetic speech outlining exactly what was going down with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
This was going to be a bill to place reforms in place to sop it. The bill was not even voted out of committee due to among others, Chris Dodd. Just read the man’s speech from the floor and come back and tell us he didn’t forsee the problem. This 2005 bill is what McCain was referencing in his speech a few days when he said he did see the issues.

can we put up some kind of ticker or pool
how many times this guy and his gal pals (Fiorina and Palin) lie?
Per day , or per week and maybe even a spread on the amount of outrageous bologne they do for the entire campaign.
somebody oughta set up a “lie clock” in Times Square…and just keep track of how many times republicans are lying…
see if they can top the last 8 years in one campaign.

McCain more lies and confusion or more confusion and lies. Either way…

How can anyone say McCain is lying. Just look up Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190 and see his comments about it. You are proven wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt!
He wasn’t lying, he saw it coming. A fact is a fact! Anyone trying to dispute this must never have heard of Google.

He’s a bafoon. Who in their right mind would vote for this guy for anything???
Obama’s the same: both just showmen auditioning for a part. And each one of them will lie, cheat and steal to get it.
If I can’t write in Ron Paul I’ll vote a third party. ANYBODY else other than these guys.

ok – abc – now you really are showing your colors with all the mccain stories.. am i supposed to take u guys seriously?
gibson’s interview started it and since then BIAS, BIAS – just rename your politics divison – OBAMAnews

McCain simply can not tell the truth.I guess that is why Sarah was a good pick for him….

Are some of you logically challenged? In 2005, on the Senate Floor, McCain warned us all about this:
“I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.”
So obviously, he is not lying. He saw this coming a while ago …. but it was Democrats who stood in the way!
Look it up! That’s what Google’s for! Look up “McCain’s Fannie Mae speech in 2005″ and you’ll soon be certain McCain wasn’t lying!!
Case closed!!!

D’Obama
yet Mccain didn’t regulate the financials or other banks…
and then hired the guy that fought for this…as you all like to say
the speech was just that …. a speech…
nothing more.

McCain=IDIOT! Obama is a fool… Just can’t you wait til November!!! Oh joy! Oh joy!

The second largest recipient of political contributions from lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was Barack Obama—-the very firms that the government just had to bail out?!
So here we have Senator Obama taking all this money from Fannie and Freddie, and what did they get in return? Maybe a smile for the money and a snooze and or “40 winks” from Obama to continue their reckless lending policies—or Obama lacks judgment and never guessed that the lending practices were happening. Perhaps none of his advisors told him about this severe problem going on???????

Again, there is good regulation and bad regulation. Regulation that keeps companies from entering into risky practices with nothing to back the company up if the venture fails is a good thing. Regulation that creates too much red tape and does not allow businesses to grow or perform legitimate transactions easily is bad. There also needs to be limits on regulations because, old regulations do not leave the books for decades, even when they are out of date, the danger is no longer applicable, and it keeps companies from doing business which will help the economy.

Phil Gramm’s bill was not good deregulation. Regardless of whether or not parts of the Glass-Steagal Act were outdated. Now McCain puts the blame on the greedy CEOs, but the taxpayers are left holding the bill. This is about judgment.
Headline from the Washington Post today, “McCain Embraces Regulation After Many Years of Opposition”.

S. 109.
Interesting. Why didn’t McCain co-sponsor the same the Bill when it was re-introduced again by Chuck Hagel as S. 1100 on April 12, 2007?
I guess he was too busy campaigning to be that opportunistic. Surely the problem with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hadn’t resolved itself by then.
It seems to me that Chuck Hagel is the one with forsight here, not McCain.

richardcranium1,
Your post is a masterpiece. But unfortunately you have a lot of people who are ignoring the FACTS you’re kicking & will vote for McCain simply because he’s GOP & he’s not black. That’s all that matters to them. This election is definitely going to show all of these people who actually believe that the color of your skin doesn’t matter anymore is just like McCain saying our economy is strong, absolute bs!! Our country is in complete shambles. Major corporations are crumbling right before our eyes & why, because the party that’s in power right now allowed it to happen so that a handful of rich people could get richer at the expense of all the rest of us. And you have a large contingent of Americans who would rather continue down this course before they would vote for a black man. You have people who would rather pay $5-6 dollars a gallon for gas before they’d vote for a black man. You have people who would rather continue to see our young women & men die in a war than to vote for a black man. How much evidence does one need to see that John McCain wants no parts of the issues that face our country. He’s far more occupied with finding ways to divert our attention away from the issues, hence Sarah Palin. Sorry, you’re going to put someone way finer than Sarah Palin in front of me to make me forget about high gas prices, a crumbling housing market, an unjustified war, exorbitant college expenses,& the fact that he sold out his first wife something awful. Sarah Palin can’t make me forget all that for a second. She ain’t that fine. And now you have a lot of white people talking about “I’d vote for Colin Powell” Yeah, right. That’s easy to say since he’s not on the ballot. We are the most hypocritical society in the world, no wonder all the other countries are laughing at us. Not voting for Obama has nothing to do with him being elitist, nothing to do with being inexperienced, nothing to do with him being Muslim. This has everything to do with him being BLACK, plain & simple.

What experience in economy has Mr. America community organizer? Maybe he was given lessons by Reszko. How much money did he receive from Fannie Mae?

“why don’t you write an article about Obama got $185,000 in 3 years from Fannie/Freddie” Because Obama only got $118K over the entire course of his political career (this is his 12th year in public office) from employees at Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. That could be a reason. …. Posted by: Ryan C | Sep 17, 2008 1:25:14 PM
Well ha ha like even Fannie Mae is stupid enough or somehow prescient enough to give to the One when he’s a state senator which he was 3 1/2 years ago!!!???

“What experience in economy has Mr. America community organizer?”
Carly Fiorina is supposedly a saavy business woman.
She ran HP into the ground costing tens of thousands of jobs and walked away with a golden parachute with tens of millions of dollars.
That the kind of biz experience McCain counts on, f the little guy, I got mine.

Ryan,
Thanks for the clarification, I guess McCain was more prescient than I thought.

Real Clear Politics electoral map update:
Obama 286
McCain 252
with no toss up states

Senator “Honor” can try to revise history and himself daily, but it won’t work. Bush 44!
The sequel is always worse than the original.

Obama violated the Logan Act during his visit in Iraq.
Time for the MSM to report the truth.

There he goes again (Jake that is). Yes, McCain was talking about the need to make changes with structure and oversightof Freddie/Fannie. Yes, he was surprised at the dimension/impact that the subprime collapse had on US and global basis.
One “crisis” is specific to two institutions, the other “crisis” is something of an unprecedented phenomenon integrated and exacerbated by other issues.
Inconsistent? – not at all.

Hello this is MY thread!
Obama campaign pays me .25 cents per post.

I can’t stand it when people list how many years a person has in office as something they have done or accomplished.
You can spend 100 years in office and not accomplish anything. Also, before its mentioned that anyone (Obama) signed over 100 bills: that does not equal accomplishment. You can sign thousands of bills. That does mean you worked on the research or drafting of that bill.
Plus I don’t care where you got your schooling if you haven’t done anything with it. Please don’t write the typical response to this statement. It does not impress me.
As for the guy who finished 5th from the bottom and the gal who went to more than 2 schools. Well, one is a war hero who has fought to stop this financial crisis, (See: Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190) which was presented in 2005. The other has actually accomplished starting the construction of a natural gas pipeline from AK to the lower 48. NO ONE else could do this in the past 30 YEARS.
Again, for those people who just don’t get it. I want someone who will see a problem or opportunity even if it is years away and work towards either solving or accomplishing that goal. McCain and Palin have done that. Obama definitely has not and nobody seems to be talking about Biden because he truly is “more of the same.”

John McCain’s neck must hurt from constantly swiveling his head around. What I really want to know is why is he lying so much? He used to be a good guy, wasn’t he? Is his real record so bad that he can’t run on it? Is his memory so bad that he no longer remembers what he believes? It’s so bizarre. (are we sure his cancer hasn’t gone to his brain? I know that sounds mean, but I’m really worried about him. He needs to see a doctor.)

dems – do you even understand what kind of grades or the the amount of test you have to take to get into the naval academy or west point! conections or family has nothing to do with that decision who’s accepted! he operated a jet fighter plane, can you do that! i rather take a naval acacdemy grad any day before a liberal taught ivy league grad. by the way, you libs talk high about president clinton, where did he go to college at, hhmmm! not the ivy league, and i think other than moral’s, he’s way smarter than obama and the naval and west point academy goes search for smart for future strong and smart candidate’s!

With the financial sector in turmoil today, the media and the politicians have started throwing around blame with the same recklessness as lenders threw around credit to create the problem. Politically, the pertinent question is this: Which candidate foresaw the credit crisis and tried to do something about it? As it turns out, John McCain did — and partnered with three other Senate Republicans to reform the government’s involvement in lending three years ago, after an attempt by the Bush administration died in Congress two years earlier. McCain spoke forcefully on May 25, 2006, on behalf of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005

“do you even understand what kind of grades or the the amount of test you have to take to get into the naval academy or west point! connections or family has nothing to do with that decision who’s accepted”
His father was a 4 star admiral.
His grandfather was a 4 star admiral.
He ended up in the literal bottom 5 of his class of nearly 900.
He was an obvious legacy admission.
Even McCain talks about being a screw up following in his father & grandfather;s footsteps because that was the family job (like being a cop or fireman) and it was his POW that really transformed.

There’s nothing controversial about McCain getting in on legacy.
Why you would deny that is strange.
I also think its funny that you talk about leadership displayed by a “rebel” who racked up so many demerits that he finished in the bottom of his class.

A former Naval Academy midshipman who was imprisoned alongside John McCain is the narrator of a new television ad that bashes the Republican candidate by saying being a prisoner of war is not a good prerequisite for being president
He is right to be a ex POW qualified you like a great American BUT IS NOT WHAT MAKE YOU A PRESIDENT

ryan c – it was never about legacy, in the military from start to finish, you have to prove yourself. why do you think he moved on to politics when he could not make it to admiral. it is harder to get promoted in the military than in politics because they look at the whole picture, which is the problem with liberal’s. the military even said McCain had the knowlegde and mental ability to be an admiral but not physicaly which is still an requirement at that age. his father was retired at that time, still with pull in the navy, so why did he not become a admiral, get your liberal facts straight. his father was not going to pave his son’s path for him, he had to earn it, which is what McCain’s grandfather said and did to McCain’s father! only because of the torture that caused the physical damage
done to him, he was rejected for promotion. you seriously don’t have your fact’s right and no heart of understanding which is a common place problem with you liberal’s. you people are the wizard of oz all over again!

The Republicans were in control in 2005 when the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act didn’t make it past introduction in 2005.
In 2007, when the bill was reintroduced, flip-flop McCain was nowhere to be found as a co-sponsor.
McLiar has flip-flopped and fibbed too much to know where he really stands on anything unless it means waging a war.

Timmaaaa,
So your logic is that because McCain;s dad did not make him admiral that means his father did nothing to assist his son?
The Navy gave a guy who finished at the bottom of his class a slot in the pilot program.
When he came home from the Hanoi Hilton, they saddled him with one of the worst outfits they had stateside.
What changed?
Losing Vietnam.
The rw likes to recount the Rambo myth of lefties spitting on returning vets.
But the truth is many people felt that the soldiers had lost Vietnam. That they had brought dishonor to our country.
After his stint as commander, he became a liasion which is basically career dead end.

Cripes, McCain has no grip on the truth at all. He’s still repeating the “Alaska supplies 20% of our energy” lie, for crying out loud. Can anyone seriously imagine this bumbling, lying fool as president?
Worse, who here can imagine Palin taking charge of the economy? My last parking citation would make a better “Ticket for America”!

ryan c – his dad never had the power to make him admiral! the military serves the country, not politician’s. if he used gov employee’s to further his career in the military their would be a record of past coruption, none, only honor! and what do you mean assist? that’s what liberal’s do, assist! welfare, unemployment, etc… that’s what liberal’s do, say the help the people but only put them on a gov support system they never get off. that’s how they get their votes! at least after 5yrs of torture McCain got back on his feet by self determination without the help of his father other than moral support! that’s a true father and a portrait of the true American way and spirt!

“if he used gov employee’s to further his career in the military their would be a record of past coruption”
Keating Five ring any bells?
Or his “honorable” actions reagrding his 1st wife?

REMEMBER? It’s the ECONOMY stupid

Mr. Tapper, it is a shame your article was not fact checked, otherwise you would have discovered the 2005 bill Senator McCain introduced in order to control Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, or the 2002 bill Senator McCain co-sponsored with House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt to create the Corporate Subsidy Reform Commission, or read Senator McCain’s comments to Keene Sentinel closely and see they were in reference to the S&L crisis, not Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Senator McCain was way out in front on warning about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and, unlike Senator Obama, did not receive campaign contributions from them.

The issue is not whether he was able to forecast the intensity of the collapse…no one did. The question is whether he had the foresight to propose increased regulation. He did. Obama, Pelosi and Frank did not. Spin it how you like; those are the facts.

Pile it on, Jake – McCain is still the best choice. I would take anyone over BHO – even Cynthia what’s-her-name! NOBAMA – ever!

“The question is whether he had the foresight to propose increased regulation. He did. Obama, Pelosi and Frank did not”
John,
McCain did not propose the legislation. He cosponsored it.
Obama authored the STOP Fraud Act in 2006 and again intro’d it in 2007.
Nothing came of either bill by either candidate.

ryan c – keating 5, investigated, no charges! affair with another woman while married, i don’t need to get into personal marital matter, thats to judgemental especially when his ex had an affair too. happen’s alot with military families!

No doubt that earlier statement re: need for more deregulation uttered by John McCain is his real point of view. He must thinks we are all too dumb to realize he and his buddies are the very ones who entered us into the era of Unfettered Greed. This guy is clueless and a greater illustration that they are clueless could not be more perfect than this meltdown after he and his buddies push extreme deregulation. Welcome to the recession everyone, courtesy of this administration that pushed deregulation beyond acceptable boundaries.

Ron Paul warned of this disaster 5 YEARS ago. McSane doesn’t know his arse from his elbow…he’s going to talk like he knows anything about Economics. He couldn’t even answer an economic question from Ron Paul during a primary debate.
What an ASS? Vote McBama…we’re McScrewed.
VOTE 3rd Party. Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr ANYONE but McBama.

And if Tapper googled a little harder he would see that McCain’s not making a “claim” — he really did anticpate the problems with GSEs and see them as a systemic financial problem. He even sponsored legislation to deal with it:
”
I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole. ”
This legislation was stonewalled by Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and Nancy Pelosi all on the dole from Fannie and Freddie.

robotworld – you really are from outerspace, mckinney and the other’s, lol! McCain could’nt answer because everybody else plus McCain could’nt understand that futuristic space language coming from ron paul. he was just another ross perot, crazy! lol!

McCain said last year he didn’t “know” the situation would get “completely out of hand.”
That’s different from not warning of credit industry problems and actually offering legislation to prevent a crisis, as he did in 2005.
Did Obama offer legislation to restrain and correct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

Obviously, McCain did anticipate the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crisis. His remarks about the “FEDERAL HOUSING ENTERPRISE REGULATORY REFORM ACT OF 2005″ demonstrate that conclusively.
Equally obviously, the subprime mortgage crisis that he didn’t anticipate extends well beyond the FMs.
There is no contradiction here.

Congressman Ron Paul
U.S. House of Representatives
July 16, 2002
Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Free Housing Market Enhancement Act. This legislation restores a free market in housing by repealing special privileges for housing-related government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). These entities are the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie), and the National Home Loan Bank Board (HLBB). According to the Congressional Budget Office, the housing-related GSEs received $13.6 billion worth of indirect federal subsidies in fiscal year 2000 alone.
One of the major government privileges granted these GSEs is a line of credit to the United States Treasury. According to some estimates, the line of credit may be worth over $2 billion. This explicit promise by the Treasury to bail out these GSEs in times of economic difficulty helps them attract investors who are willing to settle for lower yields than they would demand in the absence of the subsidy. Thus, the line of credit distorts the allocation of capital. More importantly, the line of credit is a promise on behalf of the government to engage in a massive unconstitutional and immoral income transfer from working Americans to holders of GSE debt.
The Free Housing Market Enhancement Act also repeals the explicit grant of legal authority given to the Federal Reserve to purchase the debt of housing-related GSEs. GSEs are the only institutions besides the United States Treasury granted explicit statutory authority to monetize their debt through the Federal Reserve. This provision gives the GSEs a source of liquidity unavailable to their competitors.
Ironically, by transferring the risk of a widespread mortgage default, the government increases the likelihood of a painful crash in the housing market. This is because the special privileges of Fannie, Freddie, and HLBB have distorted the housing market by allowing them to attract capital they could not attract under pure market conditions. As a result, capital is diverted from its most productive use into housing. This reduces the efficacy of the entire market and thus reduces the standard of living of all Americans.
However, despite the long-term damage to the economy inflicted by the government’s interference in the housing market, the government’s policies of diverting capital to other uses creates a short-term boom in housing. Like all artificially-created bubbles, the boom in housing prices cannot last forever. When housing prices fall, homeowners will experience difficulty as their equity is wiped out. Furthermore, the holders of the mortgage debt will also have a loss. These losses will be greater than they would have otherwise been had government policy not actively encouraged over-investment in housing.
Perhaps the Federal Reserve can stave off the day of reckoning by purchasing GSE debt and pumping liquidity into the housing market, but this cannot hold off the inevitable drop in the housing market forever. In fact, postponing the necessary but painful market corrections will only deepen the inevitable fall. The more people invested in the market, the greater the effects across the economy when the bubble bursts.
No less an authority than Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has expressed concern that government subsidies provided to the GSEs make investors underestimate the risk of investing in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to act to remove taxpayer support from the housing GSEs before the bubble bursts and taxpayers are once again forced to bail out investors misled by foolish government interference in the market. I therefore hope my colleagues will stand up for American taxpayers and investors by cosponsoring the Free Housing Market Enhancement Act.

since McCains major experience in finacial collapes came as a defemdant and participant in the Keating 5 scandals-who more experienced than he to recognise greed and corruption. Yes mr McCain has more experience than obama in this area-that of a DEFENDANT

Mikhah: not a shovel of dirt has been lifted-nor will it be until the federal government puts up backing and tax incentives for the oil companies to build them-government backed and financed-more corporate welfare-republicans scream free trade and market forces dictate and then bail out every failed business-republicans couldn’t sucessfully run a zoo.

>>Baxter Greene | Sep 18, 2008 12:42:45 AM:
Thank you for your excellent post; it was informative, lucid…. and you’re right!. There will be NO investigation of Senator O’s complicity.
(They will, however, continue their search for “nits” on Sarah Palin!)

The new code word, McCain’s 7 lobbyists but we’ll never hear about Penny Pritzker, or Jim Johnson, I can guarantee that.

Also if you right wingers want to blame Clinton for signing Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the Republicans wanted it so bad, they overrode his veto on it.
Basically every Democrat in the Senate voted against it, while basically every Republican voted for it.
Here’s what a prominent economist had to say about it:
Economist Robert Kuttner (among others) has criticized the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act as contributing to the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis.[7] Economists Robert Ekelund and Mark Thornton have made similar criticisms, arguing that while “in a world regulated by a gold standard, 100% reserve banking, and no FDIC deposit insurance” the Financial Services Modernization Act would have made “perfect sense” as a legitimate act of deregulation, under the present fiat monetary system it “amounts to corporate welfare for financial institutions and a moral hazard that will make taxpayers pay dearly”.

I hope Obama & Biden can pull through in November!
Dan

Obama: Didn’t see it as a problem
McCain: Tried to protect us but gave up and joined the greed crowd.
Ron Paul: Has been trying to fix the problem since 2002. Sadly, all his “doom and gloom” fell on deaf ears.

The election campaign should stay on track. Major issues like the global financial crisis or credit crunch, fuel crisis, housing crisis, peace crisis ,climate change,pollution, human rights issues etc etc should not be sideshowed to a Glitz and Glamour “American Idol” Spoof Showpiece debating about who said what about vanilla and chocolate icecream!!!
Too much money spent on pointless adverts may give voters pause about the sense of judgement of Hollywood Showmanship.
With the countdown 0f 46 days left , next week will see the polls shifting either way as voters change allegiance,
The voters confidence will settle in the last 30 days of the campaign and the stronger candidate with clear vision and sound judgement based on single mindedness will decide the electorate vote . Errol Smythe
9/19/2008 1:44:17 PM

Mr. Tapper,
McCain certainly DID warn about Fannie-Freddie, and also co-sponsored the Fair Housing Act of 2005 to implement reform of Fannie-Freddie. Democrats killed that bill. I find it rather astonishing that you are questioning McCain’s honesty on this matter, when Obama, who is one of the leading beneficiaries of Fannie-Freddie campaign contributions, also CLAIMS he warned of Fannie-Freddie problems two years ago. I can find ZERO evidence for Obama’s claim, and Obama’s party explicitly opposed reform of those institutions. Obama has been the ultimate party line voter. If he did get out of lockstep with his own party on this issue, it would be maybe the only time he has done so.

This is the quote from John Mcain during his Senate speech so he did warn about problems with Fannie May and Freddie Mac you can spin it all you want to in this article this is proof and he is on video saying it.
For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I think Tapper is fudging on this. The “update” admitting the proof of McCain’s claim is not a minor detail; it changes the reader’s conclusions. And why is it so mysterious that a person might see the general potential for a crisis associated with runaway loans yet not prognosticate the specifics, including the scope, of the crisis that has now befallen us (and which the wizards in Washington and at the Fed are frantically fueling with even more uncontrolled credit expansion)? McCain has many faults but his lack of omniscience is, I am afraid, quite universal.