“About 20 minutes into tonight’s debate, Governor Sarah Palin demonstrated bipartisan appeal in endorsing Senator Biden’s call for bankruptcy protections for primary residences. When Senator Biden called for bankruptcy shelter and suggested that Governor Palin likely opposed those protections, Gwen Ifill asked, “Governor Palin, is that so?” The Governor responded, “That is not so.”

Both Senators Biden and Obama have supported the “Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act”, which would close the loophole in current federal bankruptcy law that prevents primary residences from have their mortgages restructured by federal bankruptcy judges. Currently, second homes, seventh homes, and yachts are eligible for such restructuring, but not primary residences that are being lost at a record pace in the current foreclosure crisis.

ACORN welcomes Governor Palin’s endorsement of this important provision, and hopes that this high-profile endorsement will encourage Senator McCain to change his mind and support this necessary change to assist America’s struggling homeowners.

This set up the real punchline in this story, which perfectly encapsulates not only how ignorant, but how tightly controlled by McCain operatives Palin is and will be as Vice President:

“Sarah was just being Sarah,” ACORN’s Charles Jackson told ABC News. “It’s clear from the transcript that she supported the provision that Senator Biden brought up. We’ll see if McCain’s handlers will allow her to continue to hold that position tomorrow.”

Without a doubt, your well intentioned support for Barak Obama does not seem to recall some of the key members of the Obama campaign and their role in the demise of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Let’s see if you have heard of any of these people

Franklin Raines – Left his role as President and CEO of Freddie Mac when he admitted to accounting “irregularities” Although he resigned suddenly, son’t worry. he was well taken care of. He had a parachute worth $240 Million to help him land. The court made him return $50 Million so he only netted $190 Million. What does he do now? Franklin Raines serves as the Chief Economic Adviser for the Obama campaign.

Tim Howard – He is the former CFO of Fannie Mae. He got caught cooking the books to make certain that Fannie Mae always showed positive earnings. According to the OIG, he failed to provide oversight. I am worried about Mr. Howard. He only received $20 million to land on his feet. He is filling his time today serving the Barak Obama campaign as an economic adviser.

Jim Johnson was another Fannie Mae Executive and Lehman Brothers principal. He got caught too!He was faulted with mismanagement and failure to provide proper oversight of Fannie Mae. He also lied about compensation the year he received $20 million in salary. Don’t worry about Jimmy. He had $28 million to help him land on his feet. His schedule has slowed down lately. He chaired the Barak Obama Vice-President Search Committee.

Obama will have good experience with the mess on Wall Street. He hired three of the main reasons for it.

“Obama’s bill would increase funding for federal law enforcement programs,…” I’ll just take this example from the post you had today. This is only a small example; however, I’m also hearing reports that Obama happens to have the most liberal voting record in Congress.

So, there are some facts. I guess I do have some idea, but in the end I suppose it still boils down to me thinking what I like —- and what I like is someone I really feel I can trust. McCain has clearly been winning my trust lately.

Finally, I would imagine I’m like most in the desire to see stabilization in the democracy in Iraq, and see our troops come home. But, I in no way see the war in Iraq as failed and pointless as you claim Obama does.

So it’s clear that you have no idea what Obama actually believes or has proposed as policy. The article is clearly news to you. Yet for some reason, you’ve chosen McCain and despise Obama (even when you agree with him, you apparently have to find a reason for him to “scare” you). On what information did you make your decision?

All one gets from McCain is truthiness. All one gets from Palin is hollow platitudes, the junk food of politics. And all one gets from you are unsupported “Obama’s scary” and “McCain’s the answer” nonsense. You can think what you like, but until you can actually support it with facts, let’s not pretend that it’s real or reasoned, okay?

I don’t know, brother, Obama is starting to scare me. When you get past his smooth rhetoric, I keep hearing about funding this and that, starting federal programs for this and that…. Yet, once you get by the McCain = Bush perception and start really listening, McCain truly seems to about honest reform in the true interst of the people.

(from the Chicago Tribune, February 15, 2006)

“Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) proposed a sweeping set of federal reforms Tuesday to combat mortgage fraud, ratcheting up enforcement and creating a national database of brokers who have been disciplined.

“Obama’s bill would increase funding for federal law enforcement programs, create new criminal penalties for mortgage professionals found guilty of fraud and require industry insiders to report suspicious activity.

“Mortgage fraud is “robbing thousands of Americans of their dream of homeownership, and costing the mortgage industry hundreds of millions of dollars each year,” Obama said. “Congress needs to come to the table and do its part.”

“Obama and the bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), said they were moved to act by a recent Tribune series on mortgage fraud, in which swindlers use high-tech identity theft and face-to-face scams to wrest control of homes, then secure hefty bank loans that go unpaid.

“Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and state lawmakers introduced their own reforms in Springfield following the series. During the last five years, FBI reports of mortgage fraud have soared across the U.S.

“A Tribune analysis of some 500 Chicago-area cases showed the scams disproportionately affect low-income neighborhoods, where they leave abandoned homes and displaced families. Drug-dealing gangs have adopted the white-collar crime, the paper found, even as lending companies found themselves enmeshed in fraud schemes.

“Obama’s bill would authorize $10 million more for anti-mortgage fraud programs in the Departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development.

“It also would require the FBI to update bankers on fraudulent activity in a formal, systematic way. Today, real estate attorneys, companies and trade groups rely on several industry Web sites that use news articles and government press releases to disseminate fraud reports from across the country.

“And the bill would establish a national database of mortgage professionals who have been sanctioned by state or federal regulatory agencies.”

(from the Financial Times of London, August 29, 2007. By Barack Obama)
[Hey! That's more than a year ago and this says almost the opposite of what MK and TC have said. Hmmm. Just another case of the facts having a liberal bias]

“The implosion of the subprime lending industry is more than a temporary blip in our economic progress. It is a cancer that, given today’s integrated financial markets, threatens to spread with devastating impact to housing and to our economy as a whole, unless we act to contain it.

“It is also a parable about how an excess of lobbying and influence can defeat common sense rules ofthe road, placing both consumers and our nation’s economic well-beingat risk.

“This all started as a good idea – helping people buy homes who previously could not afford to. But over time, lenders began pushing low-income buyers into homes they could not possibly afford, abusing the system by lowering their lending standards, making loans that required no money down and offering low, teaser interest rates that explode after the initial grace period. Some borrowers were also lying to get mortgages or engaging in irresponsible speculation.

“Nearly everyone – from lenders to investors to borrowers – fooled themselves into thinking that what they were doing was low risk when it in fact involved a lot of risk.

“But we also know that Washington played a role. At a time when non-bank lenders were offering new kinds of mortgage, the federal government should have made sure it was all being done on the level. Instead, our government failed to provide the regulatory scrutiny that could have preventedthis crisis.

“There is a reason why this has happened. Over the past several years, while predatory lenders were driving low-income families into financial ruin, 10 of the country’s largest mortgage lenders were spending more than $185m (£92m) lobbying Washington to let them get away with it. So if we really want to make sure this never happens again, we need to end the lobbyist-driven politics that made it possible.

“Today, as we weigh our options on how best to resolve this crisis, many argue that bailing out the borrowers and investors will just encourage them to engage in more of the same irresponsible practices.

“But I think we also have to recognise what will happen if we reward the mortgage industry’s lobbying: they will keep using the same kinds of deceptive practices to make a quick buck, no matter what the consequences to home buyers and their communities. Rather than correct what they are doing wrong, these companies will knowthat if things go badly, they can always lobby Washington to let them offthe hook.

“The real victims in this crisis are the millions of borrowers who followed the rules, whose only crime was taking out mortgages that lenders told them they could afford. Normally, these borrowers could avoid foreclosure by refinancing their mortgages or selling their homes. The problem today is that they cannot refinance because no one will lend to them, and they cannot sell because the housing market has fallen. With some arguing that the effects of the worst subprime loans will not be felt until 2008 and 2009, this may be just the beginning.

“We need to help struggling borrowers to weather this storm. One way to protect innocent homeowners – at least until this crisis passes – is to establish a fund to help people refinance or sell to avoid foreclosure. We can partially pay for this fund by imposing penalties on lenders that acted irresponsibly or committed fraud.

“But we have to do more than just deal with the present crisis. If we do not address the root of these problems, it is just a matter of time before we will be dealing with them again.

“The rules currently governing mortgages were written in the 20th century to make borrowing easier to understand for borrowers. We need to update these rules for the 21st century and enact the regulatory and disclosure laws that the mortgage industry has been lobbying against.

“That is why I have proposed a Home Score system that would create a simplified, standardised metric for home mortgages – rather like the annual percentage rate (APR), the effective interest rate a borrower ends up paying on a loan – allowing prospective homebuyers easily to compare variousmortgage products so they can find out whether they can afford to make the payments.

“I have also introduced a bill in the US Senate called the Stop Fraud Act that would treat those who commit mortgage fraud as the criminalsthey are.

“Owning a home represents a big part of the American dream and all Americans – no matter what their income level – should have the power to reach for that dream. But that is not going to happen until we stop the unlicensed, unregulated, fly-by-night mortgage brokers who are hoodwinking low-income borrowers into taking on loans they cannot afford.

“If we are serious about stopping this crisis and preventing much larger turmoil in US housing markets, Washington needs to stop acting like an industry advocate and start acting like a public advocate.”

As for Fannie and Freddie, I’d love to see any “actual proof” of your story. There is actual proof of a few things: McCain had the courage to look them in the eye and say, “Yes, I’ll deregulate that for you and let you do whatever you want.” He also had the courage to say, “Yes, you can buy my campaign manager, and you can also staff my campaign with your lobbyists and pay them millions of dollars for access to me.” (I can send multiple, credible links to both stories if you’d like). Now that’s maverick.

I do love your fiction about his defiant (yet powerless) attempt to stand up to Fannie and Freddie, though. It’s a great story. It’s almost as good as the one about the guy who’s been in the senate since 1983, a member of the “Keating 5″ who voted with Bush more than 90% being the one who will bring us “change.”

The sad thing is that the McCain you’re describing once seemed to exist. But he hasn’t been around since 2002 or so. The new one would sell you anything to get elected: hire Rove, pander with Palin, wobble precariously on any issue (how many responses to the bailout has this man had?). Really, he needs a new slogan:

John McCain: slightly less than 10% maverick!

It was Congress to which I was referring (”This non-intellectual would rather see Congress composed of individuals who were not allowed to run again and again.”).

That sounds exactly like the Republicans trying to distance Bush/Cheney from Halliburton! Same excuse, different names.

Thanks to all for the Fannie and Freddie contribution talk. That is the very reason I am switching my vote to McCain. Many have lined their contribution chests with Fannie and Freddie money, but McCain had the courage to look them in the eye a few of years ago and demand they change their business practices. And at a time that he knew full well the campaign for Republican nomination would be heating up and he needed every dollar. But realizing the looming crisis, he demanded change. Unfortunately, it fell on deaf ears, and now we pay the ultimate price.

Democrat or Republican, we all see the need for some things to change. In a period of hearing all the political jargon, I’m relieved to see actual proof that one of the candidates put his political future at risk in order to serve the people’s interest. Maybe a much needed maverick after all.