Sen. Barack Obama
Republican Sen. John McCain
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John McCain has said that he doesn’t understand the economy as well as he should, and yesterday he proved it in the speech he gave about the housing crisis.\
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He said that the best way for us to address the fact that millions of Americans are losing their homes is to just sit back and watch it happen. In his entire speech, he offered not one policy, not one idea, not one bit of relief to the nearly 35,000 North Carolinians who were forced to foreclose on their dream over the last few months - not one. \
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We’ve been down this road before. It’s the road that George Bush has taken for the last eight years. It’s the idea that government has no role at all in solving the challenges facing working families - that all we can do is hand out tax breaks for the wealthiest few and let the chips fall where they may. And whether the rest of America is struggling with rising tuition or skyrocketing health care costs; plant closings or crumbling schools, the answer is always the same: “You’re on your own.”\
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Well we can’t afford another four years of Bush economics. If there’s one thing this crisis has taught us, it’s that we can’t have a thriving Wall Street and a crumbling Main street, because we’re all connected. Our economy has to be the rising tide that lifts all boats, and that’s why I’ll take immediate action as President to help struggling homeowners. We’ll help families and lenders rework existing subprime loans into affordable long-term fixed loans and create a foreclosure prevention fund to help keep Americans in their homes. We’ll provide a mortgage tax credit to give homeowners relief, we’re going to crack down on mortgage fraud and predatory lenders so that this doesn’t happen again. John McCain may call helping struggling homeowners pandering, but I don’t think the families in North Carolina who are losing their homes would see it that way. I think they expect their President to fight for them, and that’s what I intend to do when I am President of the United States of America.”
“Senator Obama’s blatant mischaracterizations aren’t the new politics he’s promised America, they’re the old attack and smear tactics that Americans are tired of.\
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“Barack Obama’s diagnosis for our housing market is clearly that Barack Obama knows best — raise taxes on hardworking Americans and give government a prescription to spend.\
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“John McCain has called for an immediate and balanced approach to provide transparency and accountability in an effort to help homeowners who are hurting, while Barack Obama has made a $10 billion election-year promise that is sure to raise taxes and handcuff an already struggling economy.”
Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have each said they would support the other should they lose the Democratic nomination themselves, but two new polls suggest their devotees don’t feel the same way.\
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A Gallup poll showed a staggering 28 percent of Clinton supporters would back Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the general election should the former first lady end her own bid.\
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“This suggests that some Clinton supporters are so strongly opposed to Obama (or so loyal to Clinton) that they would go so far as to vote for the “other” party’s candidate next November if Obama is the Democratic nominee,” Gallup wrote in its analysis. “The data suggest that the continuing and sometimes fractious Democratic nomination fight could have a negative impact for the Democratic Party in next November’s election.”\
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Among Obama supporters, 19 percent would vote for Mr. McCain should Mrs. Clinton be the nominee.
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— Christina Bellantoni, national political reporter, The Washington Times
