OneNewsNow
by Marcia Segelstein
How did we get into this financial mess in the first place? Well, to a large degree, it’s because lenders gave mortgages to borrowers who were unqualified, who shouldn’t have been given loans in the first place. Why did they do that?
Here’s the start of an article in the ‘Chicago Sun-Times’ from April 1995: “You’ve got only a couple thousand bucks in the bank. Your job pays you dog-food wages. Your credit history has been bent, stapled, and mutilated. You declared bankruptcy in 1989. Don’t despire: You can still buy a house.” That article then suggested that people wanting to buy homes who fit this profile go see a group called ACORN.
Obama at the time had his hands on the purse strings of two organizations. He was a director of the Woods Fund, and he was Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC). He gave money from both organizations to ACORN, and also provided training for ACORN workers.
According to Stanley Kurtz of National Review Online, “ACORN succeeded in drawing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the very policies that led to the current disaster.” ACORN put pressure on banks by threatening them with accusations of racism if they didn’t give loans to minorities, even if they were completely unqualified.
Starting in 1987, ACORN began pressuring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lower their standards for assuming mortage debt. And eventually they succeeded. By 1995, then President Clinton touted the fact that home-ownership in America was at an all-time high. According to Kurtz, ACORN representatives were guests of honor at this ceremony. (Note to McCain campaign: can you dig up that footage??)
But as Kurtz goes on: “At both the local and national levels, then, ACORN served as the critical catalyst, levering pressure created by the Community Reinvestment Act and pull with Democratic politicians to force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a pattern of high-risk loans. Up to now, conventional wisdom on the financial meltdown has relegated ACORN and the CRA to bit parts…In fact, however, ACORN is at the base of the whole mess…And Barack Obama cut his teeth as an organizer and politician backing up ACORN’s economic madness every step of the way.”
The McCain campaign needs to go after Obama’s support of ACORN and its direct role in the current financial meltdown.
They could start by reading the entire Kurtz NRO piece here. Then maybe they should put Sarah Palin on the case.
Debate Format Just Drew Out Talking Points
October 8, 2008The questions picked were horrible. Who told McCain he should articulate a plan of buying up mortgages the way he did? I simply think he didn’t explain it very well. As for Obama, he kept trying to say McCain wants to give tax cuts to the rich, when in fact McCain simply wants to leave all the current rates alone which was annoying for Obama to spin it the way he kept doing. The question on Israel was interesting, McCain said he would do whatever it took to protect Israel, while Obama’s answer was wishy washy – classic Obama. The debate as a whole was a dud. It was not a real town hall, the questions were like interview questions, too narrow, and the time management discussions took forever. What about guns, immigration, the Supreme Court, etc? The same old questions were asked. We needed questions that could draw fireworks, emotion, and allow the candidates to distinguish themselves as candidates and individuals. The Rick Warren questions from two months ago were way more interesting. Americans did not learn anything tonight.
Positives for McCain:
- I did like McCain calling Obama: “that one” [voted for the energy bill with all the Xmas ornaments]
-McCain did a pretty solid job on domestic issues, although nothing really stood out b/c of the questions.
- Obama finally admitted, although impliedly, that small business owners making over 250K will have to pay more taxes.
- McCain calling out Obama for not answering how much his fine to small business owners not buying into the health care plan will be.
Krauthammer’s insight was interesting:
He found the debate very interesting. He felt McCain, against all expectations, won the first hour on domestic. However, he felt McCain made some unforced errors on foreign affairs, walking into a discussion on when we should go to war, citing missteps in Somalia and Bosnia, leaving the door open for Obama to walk in regarding the Iraq war. Overall, he felt it was a pass/fail test for Obama and he passed.
This was not the game changer – the questions were horrible.
- AP
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