Barack Wrote a Letter . . .

At the October 7 Presidential debate, John McCain said that Barack Obama had encouraged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make risky loans, and that Mr. Obama was the second largest recipient of campaign cash from the government mortgage giants.

APMr. Obama replied that he "never promoted Fannie Mae" and that "two years ago I said that we've got a subprime lending crisis that has to be dealt with." And that's not all. "I wrote to Secretary Paulson, I wrote to Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and told them this is something we have to deal with, and nobody did anything about it," said the Illinois Senator.

Some may find it hard to believe that Mr. Obama had nothing to show for this herculean effort to shake up Washington.

This is the latest fad among Beltway liberals who spent years encouraging noneconomic mortgage loans. They now proudly announce that at critical moments they issued a press release, or wrote someone, suggesting that somebody do something. Since soured mortgage loans are a root cause of this panic, and since Democrats did so much to encourage mortgage lending, the most politically useful of these archived warnings are the ones blaming something other than housing.

But derivatives are the irresistible story now, because they offer the opportunity to shift the blame from bad housing policy, and they suggest that a lack of financial regulation was the problem. While lauding Mr. Markey, the media also cast Brooksley Born, Bill Clinton's Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as the ultimate heroine in this drama. Like Horatio at the bridge, she tried to regulate the derivatives market over the objections of such dummies as Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, SEC chief Arthur Levitt, and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

WASHINGTON TIMES.com: "EX-SUBPRIME BANK EXECUTIVES FINANCES OBAMA Customers who lost savings note he slams housing crisis" by Jerry Seper (October 29, 2008)

WSJ.com - Opinion: "BARACK WROTE A LETTER..." (October 29, 2008)

CNS NEWS.com: "OBAMA SEES SUPREME COURT JUSTICES AS CHAMPIONS OF THE WEAK OVER THE STRONG" by Matthew Cover (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "In both speeches, the Illinois Democrat chastised the nominees not for their positions on specific constitutional issues or matters of law but for what he perceived as too often siding with the strong instead of the weak. He chargied Roberts, for example, with being dismissive of claims of racial and gender discrimination and criticized Alito for making a habit out of siding with government and corporations against plaintiffs and workers.") (October 29, 2008)

THREATSWATCH.org - blog: "ENTERING A NEW ERA" by Jay Fraser (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "However, to consider that the War on Terrorism and its battles are over simply because the United States has not had to withstand another direct attack on our soil would be naive.") (October 28, 2008, 6:19 pm)

NEWSMAX.com: "EXPECT FEWER LIBERTIES IF OBAMA WINS" by David Limbaugh (COMMENTARY SNIPPET: "I am sincerely worried that if Obama wins, the checks and balances incorporated into our Constitution may not be enough to prevent a radical and irreversible diminution of our individual liberties because a confluence of factors has emerged to create a climate conducive to fundamental change. These are the factors:") (October 28, 2008, 8:40 am)

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com (FOX NEWS): "THOSE MARXIST COLLEGE YEARS" by Bill Sammon (October 29, 2008)

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com: "PALESTINIANS CAMPAIGNING FOR OBAMA" by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook (October 29, 2008)

JIHAD WATCH.org (GLOBE AND MAIL.co.uk): "GAZA STUDENTS CALL U.S. VOTERS, ASKING THEM TO SUPPORT OBAMA" (October 27, 2008)

DANIEL PIPES.org (HUDSON INSTITUTE): "PLO ACKNOWLEDGES: STILL AT WAR WITH ISRAEL" by Daniel Pipes (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Yasir Arafat may have shaken Yitzhak Rabin's hand in 1993 and signed solemn declarations about ending the war to eliminate Israel, but late last month, in a New York City courtroom, the Palestine Liberation Organization formally confirmed that it still sees terrorism against Israelis as legitimate acts of war.") (October 28, 2008)

FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS.org: "BARACK OBAMA'S ANTI-ISRAEL ALLIANCES" by Rachel Neuwirth (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Rashid Khalidi was the director of the PLO's press agency WAFA from 1976 to 1982, at a time when the PLO was conducting a massacre of 37 Israeli civilians in a bus on Israel's coastal road, the brutal murder of a four-year-old Israeli girl in Nahariya, and numerous other terrorist killings of Israeli civilians. The PLO was also waging a brutal war against the Lebanese Christian community during this period, and carried out numerous massacres of Lebanese Christians; the worst of these was the killing of about 500 people in the village of Damour.") (October 24, 2008)

Elections.FOX NEWS.com: "LA TIMES REFUSES TO RELEASE TAPE OF OBAMA PRAISING CONTROVERSIAL ACTIVIST Video of farewell party for alleged PLO worker shows Obama toasting 'friend and dinner companion' with questionable past." (October 28, 2008)

AMERICAN THINKER.com - blog: "THE SAID-KHALIDI-OBAMA CONNECTION" by Ed Lasky (October 22, 2008)

stepping back in time...CAMPUS-WATCH.org - Campus Watch Research: "COLUMBIA U. RELEASE EDWARD SAID CHAIR DONORS: NAMES ARAB GOVERNMENT" (March 19, 2004)

stepping back in time...CAMPUS-WATCH.org (FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com): "SECRETS, DONORS AND THE EDWARD SAID CHAIR" by Jonathan Calt Harris (November 19, 2003)

stepping back in time...MARTIN KRAMER'S SANDBOX - blog: "RASHID REDUX" (Posted Janurary 29, 2003)

[Post no. 2] - ARCHIVES - Topic: BIDEN & OBAMA (aka B & O) (October 28, 2008 -- Click Here TO VIEW MY ARCHIVED LINKS.)

JEFF HEAD.com - Videos: "THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH - Obama In His & His Supporters Own Words"

From article: “If Barack Obama wants to write any more letters, he should urge his colleagues in Washington to focus on the causes of this crisis, not the effects. Unlike Senators, Presidents are expected to solve problems, not merely write about them.”

The bottom line...

Yeah, I was disappointed that McCaind didn’t jump on that “letter” comment during the debate. Anyone who has spent any time in the real world knows that merely writing a letter means squat. If you really care and want action, you’ve got to follow-up and pound the pavement. Sadly, there are probably many who heard Barack’s answer and think: wow—what leadership and foresight! These people confuse leadership with a weak & deceptive ploy to CYA—guess it worked though.

According to http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/03/obamas-year-old-letter-to-bern.php
“His letter was written the week AFTER Hillary proposed a plan” in a Subprime Lending speech to provide more lower rate mortages to prevent more forclosures.

Obama didnt even offer any plans, he just wanted a summit to “facilitate a serious conversation” to fight foreclosures. In my opinion there is no mention of stopping the subprime loans which is primarily what caused this crisis and which the Democratics have pushed for more and more of since 1977.

Obama voting PRESENT as per usual.

Bingo—I think, in general, that is the story of his life. I say, in general, because it must take a lot of grit, staminia, and determination to run for President. I think only 1 in 10,000 people could stand up under the pressure and make it to the end without losing their sanity or being totally exhausted. Even if you are annointed “The One”, its a very good vetting process. The process will quickly expose and spit out anyone who doesn’t really want to work for the job (e.g., Fred Thompson).

I do not know. The earliest I’ve been able to find it was by FReeper Diogenesis posted here on 10/6/08

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2098975/posts?page=32#32

Still trying to track it back

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