E. J. Dionne: The Photo McCain Wanted

[babylonsister]

The Photo McCain Wanted
By E. J. Dionne

snip//

If you doubt that McCain's moves were about rescuing his candidacy rather than our economy, consider how his proposal to suspend the presidential campaign came about.

McCain had just gotten off a phone call with Obama on Wednesday in which they discussed a joint statement of principles and McCain broached the idea of suspending the campaign. Obama said he'd think about it, but McCain didn't give him time. To Obama's surprise, McCain appeared on television shortly after the conversation to announce his unilateral pause in campaigning and a call for postponing Friday's debate. This is bipartisanship?

As for getting the presidential candidates to Thursday's White House meeting, Bush's lieutenants had been in discussions with McCain's people during the day on Wednesday. Obama didn't get his invitation from the president until around 7:30 p.m., just an hour and a half before Bush's speech. This was an active intervention by Bush on behalf of McCain to box Obama into the photo op. Again, was this bipartisan?

The simple truth is that Washington is petrified about this crisis and will pass something. There are dark fears floating through the city that foreign investors, particularly the Chinese, might begin to pull their billions out of our system.

Scarier than the bad mortgages are those unregulated credit default swaps that the financier George Soros has been warning about. There are $45 trillion of those esoteric instruments sloshing around the global financial system. They were invented as a hedge against defaults on debts, but even the financial smart guys don't fully understand their impact or how to price their real value.

Fear is a terrible motivator for careful legislating, but it's a heck of a way to bring about a lot of bipartisanship. McCain jumped into this game in the fourth quarter. Many of the players on the field, caked in mud and exhausted but determined as they approach the goal line, wonder why this new would-be quarterback has suddenly appeared in their midst.

more...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/09/mccain_plays_politics_with_cri.html

[Stuart G]

1. 45 trillion...now...is that a lot of money??????????

let's see:

45,000,000,000,000....is that right???

[babylonsister]

3. Yes, that's a helluva lot of money. Funny Paulson et al. aren't talking

about that, isn't it.

[WCGreen]

7. That's four times our national debt...

[Submariner]

2. McNuts can use this photo if it helps. He needn't fly all the way to D.C.

I have a hard drive full of photo op stuff I can send him.

[Stuart G]

4. Certainly Palin cannot figure out how much that is...

and what affect that will have on the world's economy.....but I am sure Mc Idiot is on top of this..just ask MR. Brooks of the NY Times..
Today he says that all is ok with Mr Mc Cain..

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/opinion/26brooks.html?hp

Mr. Brooks a fine fellow...used to watch him on the TV..
.. ..don't anymore...

[babylonsister]

5. Brooks is such a partisan hack; this article provides more proof of that. nt

[liberal N proud]

6. McCain would lose a country to win an election

[Stuart G]

8. That one line.......45 trillion clarifies some ideas for me...

I think that these bundled mortgages somehow got intertwined in the trading of futures instruments of some kind..on the world market..
It is the world market that cannot identify what is real and what is worthless that is at stake. I do understand that with these bundled financial instruments, it is almost impossible to verify their worth. The bundling purposely hid which are ok and which are worthless.
So that someone paying on a home, on time, all the time, and worth $500,000, in a good neighborhood, is bundled with someone in default..So many of these bundles were sold across the world, that no one knows what is what...

Or..which transactions contains 10 percent of these bundles....or 50 percent of these bundles

I am guessing but...

I think that is what this is about..

[IndyOp]

9. Very good. Thank you. (n/t)