Sorry, but it isn't that simple

Interesting twist in the Obama campaign message today. The Candidate of Hope, the Candidate of Change, the one who pledged to bring "a new tone" to Washington ... Obama and Biden today on the campaign trail brought instead a familiar refrain.

Bush sucks. Vote for McCain, and you vote for Bush.

Hardly surprising given what the weekend foretold would occur on Wall Street today. The investment bank Lehman Brothers going belly-up, combined with Bank America's pennies-on-the-dollar buyout of Merrill Lynch, sent the DOW plunging by 500-plus points.

And of course this is all Bush's fault. Just more of the same. Housing/credit crisis? Bush's fault. The Libs scream it, the media carries it, and thus it is so. Right?

I wish just once the media would do its job. Other than to act as campaign manager for a Democrat, that is.

Not once have I heard anyone but conservative talkers such as Rush and Hannity and writers such as George Will and Mark Steyn mention the fact that all the bad paper that's acting as an anchor to these financial institutions is largely a product of years of political mismanagement.

Yes, political. Even private companies, especially in this industry, are regulated to death. Not by people who know the business, either. By politicians, some of whom have never worked a day in any area of the industry.

All that bad paper? Mandated. And who led the charge on all these bad loans? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which, whether the media wants to point it out or not, are basically government institutions.

The government set them up. They were not scrutinized. They were not subject to the same SEC regulations other major lenders were. And now they're completely government-run thanks to the housing market crash brought on by all their bad paper.

Nor will the media tell you who ran these organizations and who pocketed millions and then left the American taxpayers to cover for them ... because that's who's paying the tens of billions that it's going to cost just for those two institutions, while millions of Americans are watching investments go up in smoke from the fallout when other institutions, like Lehman Brothers, go bankrupt.

Here's two names you won't hear in the media: Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson.

Raines was White House budget director under Bill Clinton. Later, as president and CEO of Fannie Mae, he accepted what he called "early retirement" in 2004 while under investigation by the SEC for accounting irregularities that resulted in payments to him in excess of $50 million.

Those accounting practices began earlier under Johnson, one of Raines' predecessors as Fannie Mae's CEO and a longtime Democrat bigshot. Both later were also implicated as recipients of millions of dollars worth of subprime loans in the Countrywide Financial scandal.

And guess what both have been doing the past six months? Serving in various capacities on Obama's campaign team.

Why not? After all, I saw today a breakdown of political contributions that came from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 1989 to 2008. Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut who oversees along with fellow Democrat Barney Frank the banking committee, topped the list.

Incredibly, Obama is second on the list. And he's been in the U.S. Senate for LESS THAN THREE OF THOSE YEARS!

Still, it's not so incredible when you consider Obama's past dealings with convicted slum lord Tony Rezko and his multi-million dollar piece of property in Chicago he landed in a sweetheart deal.

We still haven't heard questions or seen the media digging into that relationship.

Remember Jack Abramoff? Remember the months upon months of media "investigations" and Senate "hearings" over his lobbying efforts and corrupt dealings with Republicans (and, in stories that were honest, Democrats, too)? That he traded expensive gifts for favors from politicians?

Where are the investigations and hearings over the gross mismanagement of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the tens of millions that trickled from the top all the way to Democrat offices in Washington, not to mention the enormous tax burden that now rests on our shoulders and the billions lost in investments by those same taxpayers?

Enron? That was a fraternity prank compared to this. But you won't hear about it, you won't see any Senate subcommittee dragging the guilty before the nation to explain their misdeeds before they're then shipped off to prison.

Why? Because there's only one explanation the media cares about. Two simple words.

Bush sucks.

(Imported from Sept. 15, 2008)