As the financial crisis continues unabted, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are issuing daily statements and releasing videos on their solutions. They’re also tripping over themselves to issuse statements explaining why their rival’s approach to fixing the markets is wrong.
As the International Herald Tribune aptly put it, “The financial crisis has turned the race between John McCain and Barack Obama into an audition for who could best handle a national economic emergency.”
The current situation has turned the focus of the presidential campaign to the economy, an area Obama is quite skilled in handling, according to Bloomberg. Obama has been extremely vocal on blaming the situation on both McCain and President for the turmoil, calling for more regulation. McCain yesterday called for the ouster of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox, a former Republican congressman. He has also proposed creating a government oversight body that would help struggling financial institutions in an effort to keep them solvent.
Obama met with his board of economic advisors earlier today, but has instructed them to “refrain from presenting a more detailed blue-print of how an immediate plan might be structured until the Treasury and the Federal Reserve have had an opportunity to present their proposal.”
During a speech today on
the economy, McCain offered up few new details on how he would fix the economy, spending more time lashing out at Obama. “As Sen. Obama’s leader in Congress memorably put it the other day — and I quote — ‘no one knows what to do,’ ” McCain said in reference to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s response to a question on what new regulatory actions Congress can take to fix the economy. “Perhaps given that reaction, it shouldn’t surprise us that the Congressional leaders of this do-nothing Congress also said that they weren’t going to take action until after the election, claiming that it wasn’t their fault.”He later attempted to tie the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac implosion to Obama, stating that Obama “profited from this system of abuse and scandal.” What he didn’t mention, says the Caucus, was “that several of his campaign’s senior aides and advisers lobbied on behalf of the companies as well.”
But Obama could lose the upper hand because he “is the second-leading recipient of campaign contributions from the political action committees and employees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 1989 — $165,400 in all — according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks the financing of congressional and presidential campaigns. McCain’s total is $21,550, according to CRP.
McCain also renewed his call for tighter regulation of financial markets, reiterated his tax plan. He also called Securities and Exchange Commission Chris Cox a “good man” but reiterated his view that Cox should step down or be fired, saying there needed to be greater accountability in Washington.
Cox yesterday dismissed McCain’s call for his removal, basically saying that with all due respect, he and McCain “have sometimes disagreed, and this is one such occasion.” A spokesman for the Democratic candidate also brushed off McCain’s human resources proposal.