I was going to write a post about Palin’s “gaffe” over the Fannie and Freddie bailout, but I think Ed Morrissey explains it a lot better than I could.
The alleged “gaffe” is that Sarah Palin made the comment that Fannie and Freddie had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” The nutroots seized on this to point out that she’s unqualified to be vice preisdent because doesn’t even know that they are private corporations, not public. Really? Does anyone actually think that Sarah Palin doesn’t know that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are private corporations? You’ve got to be kidding me.
First, they operate as private companies, but they’re not. Both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have government backing for their operations — which puts taxpayers in the position of co-signer. They have never been a completely private enterprise. John McCain made this point two months ago when responding to the initial crisis that threatened to bankrupt the two lending giants, and said the time has come to eliminate both and allow the private sector to do their work, instead of these two quasi-governmental agencies.
Congress gave Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a huge blank check to bail out Fannie and Freddie, as Peter Viles notes, and now Paulson has committed to the bailout. That will in fact cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, as Palin said.
The real question is, if this disqualifies Palin from being VP, why isn’t Biden disqualified when he makes real mistakes?
You are right. This is no gaffe. Instead it shows a complete lack of understanding of the financial markets of the United States. If we allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fail “because they are too big and cost the government too much money,” we would allow the mortgage market in the U.S. to unravel. So when Ms. Palin made her comments about these two essential mortgage giants, are the American people and the press suppose to excuse her stupidity and lack of economic smarts. I thought we already did this twice in electing a ignorant President in 2000 and 2004. According to Ed Morrissey’s logic we should just accept that stupidity goes with the territory of being a politician. This is a great way for the United States correct all of the mistakes of the last eight years. Gee, I’m glad the Republican nominees continue to be stupid as ever on the economy. Thanks for the recession.
Okay Mark, let’s see how you take your own advice in deciding what “disqualifies” someone to run for office.
When the conflict between Russia and Georgia started, Obama said, “We should continue to push for a United Nations Security Council Resolution calling for an immediate end to the violence.” How would the UN Security Council call for an end to violence if Russia is the one acting violently AND has veto power? Doesn’t this prove that Barack Obama doesn’t even know how the UN Security Council works? Isn’t that a “lack” of diplomatic “smarts?”
Barack Obama said this: “But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling — if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You’d actually save just as much!” A generous estimation on the improvement in gas efficiency is 10%, which would save us roughly 330,000 barrels of oil per day. We import 8 million barrels of oil per day and drilling just on the OCS would eventually provide us with millions of barrels of oil a day. If Obama thinks that 330,000 barrels is equal to millions of barrels, is he qualified on economic issues to be president?
Obama said, in reference to Gitmo prisoners that the “principle of habeas corpus, that a state can’t just hold you for any reason without charging you and without giving you any kind of due process — that’s the essence of who we are. I mean, you remember during the Nuremberg trials, part of what made us different was even after these Nazis had performed atrocities that no one had ever seen before, we still gave them a day in court and that taught the entire world about who we are but also the basic principles of rule of law.” Does he know what habeas corpus is? Does he know anything about the Nuremberg trials? The Nuremberg trials were international military tribunals – not trials in federal courts granted by habeus corpus. If he doesn’t even know the difference between military tribunals and granting access to federal courts through habeus corpus, is he qualified to be commander in chief?
I’d love to see you spin your own argument out of this. But remember, every time you do that, you are comparing your PRESIDENTIAL pick with our VP pick.
Sorry, is the UN involved in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
Even though the UN *may* veto something, if it forces a veto by one of its members it still has an effect in the court of public opinion?
Seriously, if you want about something really serious, I’d be curious to know who she is a hockey mom too? Her eldest son is enroute to Iraq, I am guessing that Trig isn’t going to be playing hockey until he starts to crawl at least, I am guessing Bristol won’t be playing hockey for 9 months or so at the earliest. Do Willow and or Piper play hockey?
Maybe its just because I’m Canadian I can focus on the real important issues.
Thank you for clarifying. I guess the dummocrats don’t consider Freddie/Fannie’s failures a taxpayer problem. I guess they will sprinkle butt fairy dust all over Washington and you and I won’t have to pay for the Freddie/Fannie bailout. Then again, the demoncrats probably think this is you and I paying our “fair share”. Mark Martin should stick to racing cars, he knows nothing of economics. I am an MAI, SRA, RM, Commercial, Industrial and Residential appraiser. I guess you could say that Freddie/Fannie is the league I play in. Freddie/Fannie has almost $200 billion in notes that are at risk. They hold 6 trillion dollars worth of paper. These notes should fail and Freddie/Fannie should take it in the shorts, just like Enron. We’ve been holding down the puke long enough. Get it over with, we’ll feel better once it’s done. Investigate the officers, lock them up and let’s move on!
Where did I say that the UN has anything to do with Fannie or Freddie, Mark? I clearly said that I was talking about foreign policy, or did you have trouble reading where I wrote: “Doesn’t this prove that Barack Obama doesn’t even know how the UN Security Council works? Isn’t that a “lack” of diplomatic “smarts?””
If you would like to respond the actual points I made, I would love it. But if you’re just going to spout nonsense about how she “isn’t” a hockey mom and ignore the very valid points I made – then I’m going to ignore you while everyone laughs about how you can’t maintain a serious discussion about the issues.