It was good to see ACORN brought up in tonight's debate. My frequent attention of late to the topic has brought on Lefty critique (22 comments!) that the group has never actually been convicted of electioneering fraud. But we'll leave that dispute aside for the time being. Investigative reporter Stanley Kurtz points us to the deeper problems:On ACORN, I continue to be stunned by Obama’s denials of his extensive ties to this execrable group. The fact that ACORN came up at all is good. Most folks still don’t know what ACORN is, how bad it is, and how deeply it’s tied to the financial meltdown. John McCain needs to make sure the public learns about ACORN and Obama. Obama’s dissembling on his ties to ACORN shows that he recognizes … [Read more...]
Barack Obama and Democrats’ Role in Failing to Avert Financial Crisis
Writing at Bloomberg News, economic analyst Kevin Hassett unravels the story behind the recent financial meltdown (H/T Rossputin). An opportunity to avert the crisis came in 2005 with the introduction of legislation to provide a "world-class regulator" of government-sponsored mortgage loan institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan noted that failure to address the problem was "placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk.'" Here's the key passage from Hassett's article (though you should really read the whole thing - it's not terribly long):If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a blizzard of terrible mortgage … [Read more...]