Hotline After Dark -- Are You Strong Enough To Be Our Man?
Last night's TV was dominated by the financial crisis on Wall Street, with a lot of talk focusing on John McCain saying "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
Washington Examiner's Sammon: "On a day when the DOW drops 500 points, it's probably not smart to get caught saying the economy is fundamentally sound. Granted, he had caveats. ... [But] this doesn't help. McCain is best when he's talking about national security or Sarah Palin. When we're talking about the economy, that's not a good day for him. His challenge is to pivot and say, 'OK, the economy is not that great. What would you rather have, a tax hike cut or tax cut in a weak economy?' That's how he can win" ("Special Report," FNC, 9/15).
McCain Victory chair Carly Fiorina: "If you play the whole thing, instead of just the sound bite that the [Barack] Obama campaign wants you to hear, he also said the economy is in crisis, he talked about the fact that this is a unprecedented occurrence on Wall Street and that Americans are worried about staying in their homes and keeping their jobs and paying for their food and fuel. ... What he meant was that the fundamentals of what the American workers produce. American workers remain the most productive in the world, the most innovative in the world, the most entrepreneurial in the world. This is not the fault of the foundation of our economy, which is American workers and American families. It is the fault of Wall Street's combination of lack of transparency and greed; it is the fault of regulators who didn't do their job in Washington. ... And it is the ... the fault as well of Congress who let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac get totally out of control" ("Race for the WH," MSNBC, 9/15).
GOP strategist Ed Rollins: "Neither of these candidates has a clue about, A, what's going on in the country or how to get us out of it. ... They both put out economic plans that were sort of the litmus test of the Democrats and the litmus test of the Republicans. We are in a very serious crisis and unless they address it, whoever if I was running either one of the campaigns which I'm not, I would get the best economic minds and say let's analyze the problem and then try to find some solutions to move forward" ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," CNN, 9/15).
After the jump, Obama on the economy, Troopergate heats up and Meghan McCain braves "LKL."
(KATHERINE LEHR)
Bloomberg's Cook caught up with Obama last night about the situation.
Obama: "It's a very serious situation. We don't yet know how it's going to play out this week. But here's what we know. One of the most storied firms on Wall Street is now gone. The fact that Merrill was purchased by Bank of America I think was very helpful because there's no doubt that there might have been a move in the direction of Merrill going under as well. But we still have problems with AIG out there, we still have problems with WAMU. I think that there is enormous amount of uncertainty. ... It really indicates the degree to which over the last eight years we have not put in place the kind of regulatory frameworks, the transparency and accountability that could have prevented this problem in the first place."
Obama, asked if it would be reasonable for the gov't to do more to help Lehman Brothers: "I don't want to play Monday morning quarterback because I think that there are a lot of factors involved here. The market had a long time to absorb the problems at Lehman's in a way that it didn't have in Bear Stearns, and the idea that taxpayers can continue to be on the hook for firm after firm after firm I think is a real problem. Whether it's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or some of the investment banks, at some level what you had is a situation in which investors and management at these firms were taking extraordinary risks with enormous upside when the market was good, but you can't have a situation where you expect the taxpayer to foot the bill when times are bad. And I think that Secretary Paulson understood that at some point the market it going to have to solve some of these problems."
Obama, asked where he differs from McCain on this issue: "Well, I think one of the big differences is the fact that John McCain has embraced the philosophy and the economic policies of George Bush that are almost identical to what got us into this problem in the first place. I mean, I think it's easy for John at this point to suggest that somehow the regulators were asleep at the switch. The question I have is, where was he pressuring the Bush administration, the president of his own party, whose economic policies he now entirely supports? And that's the problem" (Bloomberg TV, 9/15).
MAN ON FIRE
The McCain camp announced that Palin would not talk to investigators looking into her firing of ex-AK Public Safety Commis. Walt Monegan.
Monegan was asked about the development on the "Rachel Maddow Show."
MSNBC's Maddow: "Governor Palin told [ABC's] Charlie Gibson ... that neither she nor her husband ever pressured you to hire or fire anybody. Is that the truth?"
Monegan: "No, not entirely. The part about did she or anybody of her staff say fire him, quote-unquote, that never occurred. No one ever said 'fire him.' They said things like this man should not be a trooper, this man shouldn't represent the troopers. Those kinds of things, which are inferring that, to fire him."
More Monegan: "The very first time I even heard trooper Wooten's name was through her husband, Todd, who wanted to tell me what kind of character that was working for me, and how he had filed a complaint and had documents and pictures. ... That was in January of '07. It continued right up until ... February of this year. So, it was continual. ... Initially, it was the governor and her husband, but then it became other commissioners and not only did they call me, but they called other members of my staff."
Monegan, on Palin saying she dismissed him not because of any resistance to this effort to get trooper Wooten fired, but because of job performance issues: "I'm really disappointed because ... I truly did not know why I was terminated. I mean, the very first night it happened, I walked away scratching my head. But since then, watching how she jumped from one topic to another, it narrowed it down in mind exactly why I was terminated."
Monegan, on the McCain camp saying that Palin will not speak to investigators: "Well, I'm disappointed on two areas here. First ... initially she did say that she was going to cooperate. ... But the other part, probably more fundamental, is that she campaigned and she was ... Alaska's hope for an open and transparent government. And now, it's been thwarted" (MSNBC, 9/15).
Meanwhile, Palin's husband, Todd Palin, went "On the Record."
FNC's Van Susteren: "I don't know what to call you. ... I tend to be respectful, but even Mr. First Dude sounds a little funny."
T. Palin: "A lot of the folks in Alaska like First Dude, but Todd's fine. And my real close buddies have all kinds of names for me, so you really can't rub me the wrong way."
T. Palin, on his wife being picked as VP: "It wasn't a huge surprise. You know, I'm just glad that they tapped into her. And I think Americans are seeing what she's about. And so to me, it's just not a big shock. I knew that she was destined for higher positions, maybe not as soon, but that's just the way she is" (FNC, 9/15).
POP PRINCESS
And Meghan McCain sat down with CNN's Larry King. Some highlights:
M. McCain, on interning at NBC's "SNL": "I was there for the Ashley Simpson lip synching incident. It was fantastic."
M. McCain, on Palin: "First of all, she's really chill. She's really nice, really friendly. She's really up on pop culture, which I always respect."
King: "Do you have a boyfriend?"
M. McCain: "No."
King: "That's not funny. You're a beautiful girl" ("LKL," 9/15).
Mc Cain is acting again in the country's interest by trying to allay peopl'es fears about the econmomy.
nce again Obama and Democrats are trying to play politics by fanning people's fears at the expense of the country. They will do anything to be elected!! Its the same thing they did with IRAQ and why they can not be trusted to lead!!!!
Mc Cain is acting again in the country's interest by trying to allay peopl'es fears about the econmomy.
nce again Obama and Democrats are trying to play politics by fanning people's fears at the expense of the country. They will do anything to be elected!! Its the same thing they did with IRAQ and why they can not be trusted to lead!!!!
Mc Cain is acting again in the country's interest by trying to allay peopl'es fears about the econmomy.
nce again Obama and Democrats are trying to play politics by fanning people's fears at the expense of the country. They will do anything to be elected!! Its the same thing they did with IRAQ and why they can not be trusted to lead!!!!
Gary, It is NOT in the interests of the US to have a presidential candidate telling us to keep our heads in the sand. Been there and done that for 7 years. This is only ONE (of MANY) of the reasons the GOP cannot be trusted to lead. But, nice try with the spin.
I concur, nice try with the spin by Gary. So just try for a moment to forget that this is a presidential election year, and concentrate on what is ACTUALLY happening in this country and has been for the past 7 years. Now tell me, exactly when do you get scared, when unemployment reaches 8%?, when the next 500,000 or so people lose their jobs and homes? I don't know about you but I don't need either candidate to tell me when to get scared, I'm already there. I just want someone to at least acknowledge the problem with our economy, because only when you acknowledge that there is a problem can you try to fix it. HINT: McCain has NOT acknowledged that there is a problem with our economy. Most wealthy folks will not be impacted until the last possible second, and maybe, just maybe that's a long way off.
I concur, nice try with the spin by Gary. So just try for a moment to forget that this is a presidential election year, and concentrate on what is ACTUALLY happening in this country and has been for the past 7 years. Now tell me, exactly when do you get scared, when unemployment reaches 8%?, when the next 500,000 or so people lose their jobs and homes? I don't know about you but I don't need either candidate to tell me when to get scared, I'm already there. I just want someone to at least acknowledge the problem with our economy, because only when you acknowledge that there is a problem can you try to fix it. HINT: McCain has NOT acknowledged that there is a problem with our economy. Most wealthy folks will not be impacted until the last possible second, and maybe, just maybe that's a long way off.
I concur, nice try with the spin by Gary. So just try for a moment to forget that this is a presidential election year, and concentrate on what is ACTUALLY happening in this country and has been for the past 7 years. Now tell me, exactly when do you get scared, when unemployment reaches 8%?, when the next 500,000 or so people lose their jobs and homes? I don't know about you but I don't need either candidate to tell me when to get scared, I'm already there. I just want someone to at least acknowledge the problem with our economy, because only when you acknowledge that there is a problem can you try to fix it. HINT: McCain has NOT acknowledged that there is a problem with our economy. Most wealthy folks will not be impacted until the last possible second, and maybe, just maybe that's a long way off.
I concur, nice try with the spin by Gary. So just try for a moment to forget that this is a presidential election year, and concentrate on what is ACTUALLY happening in this country and has been for the past 7 years. Now tell me, exactly when do you get scared, when unemployment reaches 8%?, when the next 500,000 or so people lose their jobs and homes? I don't know about you but I don't need either candidate to tell me when to get scared, I'm already there. I just want someone to at least acknowledge the problem with our economy, because only when you acknowledge that there is a problem can you try to fix it. HINT: McCain has NOT acknowledged that there is a problem with our economy. Most wealthy folks will not be impacted until the last possible second, and maybe, just maybe that's a long way off.
I concur, nice try with the spin by Gary. So just try for a moment to forget that this is a presidential election year, and concentrate on what is ACTUALLY happening in this country and has been for the past 7 years. Now tell me, exactly when do you get scared, when unemployment reaches 8%?, when the next 500,000 or so people lose their jobs and homes? I don't know about you but I don't need either candidate to tell me when to get scared, I'm already there. I just want someone to at least acknowledge the problem with our economy, because only when you acknowledge that there is a problem can you try to fix it. HINT: McCain has NOT acknowledged that there is a problem with our economy. Most wealthy folks will not be impacted until the last possible second, and maybe, just maybe that's a long way off.
Obama didn't miss a step blameing McCain on the economy.
Next..............It will be McCains fault for global warming
Obama didn't miss a step blameing McCain on the economy.
Next..............It will be McCains fault for global warming
Brenda, BushCo backed out of the Kyoto accords--so yeah, the Repubs, including McCain, bear a lot of blame for global warming. Not so much for causing it, but for not doing anything about it when this nation had the chance to lead.
You're onto something, Brenda--the Repubs bear a lot of blame for just about every major problem facing this country. Are you going to fall for their carnival-barker routine again, or are you going to vote in your nation's best interest?
Obama keeps crying about how bad the economy is,
but if Americans are hurting so bad, how come they
were able to send Obama 66 million dollars last month?
... And, tonight Obama is asking Americans to give him
$28,500.00 each for the Obama/Streisand fund
raiser dinner. Two faced Obama has no credibility.
No Wright, no Farrakhan, no Pfleger, no Rezko,
no Ayers, no mean Michelle, and, NOBAMA !!!
It is always easy to blame somebody. I would think Obama has to come up with solutions instead of pointing fingers.
Obama: if you want to win this:
get to the issues and the solutions.
don't waste your time over Mc Same and the lipstick woman.
Obama: if you want to win this:
get to the issues and the solutions.
don't waste your time over Mc Same and the lipstick woman.
Obama: if you want to win this:
get to the issues and the solutions.
don't waste your time over Mc Same and the lipstick woman.
McCain keeps saying that Obama will raise taxes. What he leaves out is that he, McCain, will not really give people earning $250,000 or less much of a break. And these are the people that are surrounding him in these rallies. I can tell by looking at these people that they are not rich. This is the truth that the Obama campaign must tell people. People who do not watch Obama on television because he is black, don't know this. When Obama speaks on the stump, he should tell them that McCain will give them less of a break on taxes than, he, McCain will rich people, who are the people really McCain represents. And Obama must be specific. Even if he has to show a chalk board in plain English with these facts on it. All those attack ads that don't deal with taxes are a waste of money.
McCain keeps saying that Obama will raise taxes. What he leaves out is that he, McCain, will not really give people earning $250,000 or less much of a break. And these are the people that are surrounding him in these rallies. I can tell by looking at these people that they are not rich. This is the truth that the Obama campaign must tell people. People who do not watch Obama on television because he is black, don't know this. When Obama speaks on the stump, he should tell them that McCain will give them less of a break on taxes than, he, McCain will rich people, who are the people really McCain represents. And Obama must be specific. Even if he has to show a chalk board in plain English with these facts on it. All those attack ads that don't deal with taxes are a waste of money.
It was the republicans free market capitalism, get government out of the picture, no regulation that got us to where we are today. Phil Grahmm pushed through the deregulation bill without any discussion early in the bush administration and McCain has been supporting this policy. Well then after the banking and mortgage companies made off with billions of dollars and now are going bankrupt, we the taxpayers get to pay. This is called corporate socialism and no one benefits except those at the top again. Get real people, the republicans sell this line of bull, working people buy it and they end up in the dumpster, transferring more wealth to the upper 10 percent in this country. It is criminal.