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The Obama Nation
It’s Morning Again in America
In the midst of a banking crisis and Wall Street meltdown, it is crucial to bring the United States back to our land of pride and promise.
This reminds me of the famous Ronald Reagan commercials from 1984 with the opening line “It’s morning again in America.”
We are now in a moment where we need optimism and reform, rather than the blame games and attack ads that are flowing from the Barack Obama campaign.
It’s an interesting juxtaposition if you look at John McCain’s comments compared with those of Barack Obama yesterday.
“There has been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street. People are frightened by these events. Our economy I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times. I promise you, we will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street.” - John McCain, 9/15/08
Obama was quick to issue an attack ad (what’s new?) about how he thinks John McCain is out of touch. But what are the fundamentals of our economy?
According to Stuart Varney of the Fox Business Network, the fundamentals of the economy are the basics: unemployment, job creation, and inflation.
Since we don’t exist in a bubble, it’s important to look at these items in the prism of the global economy.
Currently, unemployment is at 6.1%, which is a 5 year high, but much better than our European competitors.
We’ve lost about a half million or more new jobs this year, which is a negative, but again it is much better than our European and Japanese competitors.
And inflation is currently at 5.4%, which can be attributed largely to the cost of energy. As we diversify our energy plan and rely less on foreign energy, the rate will retreat.
Yes, the economy is struggling, and it’s not easy to be optimistic when we see gas prices as high as they are, and housing in a tailspin.
But we need to positive vision and plan to fix the mess. That’s what will fix the economy, not more attack ads that offer venom without solutions.
John McCain is talking about cleaning up Wall Street, and expanding our domestic energy programs.
Obama is reading from his TelePrompter that McCain is “out of touch.”
Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic offers an assessment of the state of the financial system in our country.
Who is Responsible for the Foreclosure Mess?
We continually hear how the rise in foreclosures is the fault of President Bush and his administration, but that’s the version from the mainstream media.
The reality is that this real estate implosion dates back nearly a decade to the Clinton years, according to the New York Post.
Each of the political parties shares responsibility for the troubles at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-sponsored organizations that needed to be bailed out this weekend by - who else? - the taxpayers.
The latest housing bubble started back in the Clinton administration, when Washington suddenly got the brilliant notion that all Americans should be able to buy houses.
No, let me change that.
Our elected officials concluded that everyone deserved to own a house regardless of whether they could actually afford one.
Democrats would have you believe that every ill in the U.S. rests squarely on the Republicans, when they are hugely responsible for this mess, too.
The real trouble began in 1999 when Franklin Delano Raines, former budget director for Bill Clinton, took over as chairman of Fannie.
Only Raines knows why he pushed so hard to expand the number of mortgages and the size of those loans that Fannie could hold.
But at the end of the Clinton administration and into the Bush presidency, Fannie Mae and its sister organization, Freddie Mac, ended up owning trillions of dollars of mortgages.
So, we can either play the blame game, as Obama has favored, or admit it’s a bi-partisan screw-up and go about fixing it.
Another mess born in the Clinton days (like the Clinton Recession) that Democrats pretend magically appeared when Bush took office.
Sorry Obama, the Economy is Rebounding
The U.S. economy is moving towards a rebound, according to Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr.
“We are still working through housing and capital markets issues, and expect to be doing so for some time,” he said in remarks at a Washington Post conference. “We also expect to see a faster pace of economic growth before the end of the year.”
Great news for the country, but bad news for Barack.
Isn’t it sad that his campaign flourishes on negative economic stories and setbacks in the U.S. war efforts?
You’d think the country was falling apart at the seams. But do you know how many households were in some stage of foreclosure during April 2008? Two percent!
Sorry Obama. Hopefully your victories are more in line with the American people moving forward.
