Huffing HuffPo desperate for a GOP gaffe
How desperate is the Huffington Post to point to an Obama/Biden-like rhetorical gaffe by Sarah Palin?
This desperate: (Hat tip: HA Headlines)
Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.
Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” The companies, as McClatchy reported, “aren’t taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization.”
Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.
“You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country’s mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn’t speak well for her, I’d say.”
The only ones without a clue here are the HuffPo’s Obama water-carriers.
As I wrote four years ago about the Fannie/Freddie racket:
Clothed in politically correct fashions (”Catch the dream,” beckons Freddie Mac’s program to boost minority home ownership; a “leader in diversity,” brags a Fannie Mae press release), these public-private hybrids are two dangerous pigs feeding at the federal trough. Congress created Fannie Mae (nickname for the Federal National Mortgage Association) in 1938 to bolster home ownership during the Depression. Three decades later, it was partially privatized, but retained a host of government benefits. In 1970, Congress spawned Freddie Mac (nickname for the Federal Home Mortgage Corp.) to provide a lending competitor to Fannie Mae. Both entities expand the pool of money for home purchasers by snapping up loans that lenders make to homebuyers, and then converting those loans into relatively safe mortgage-backed securities that are attractive to investors.
So, what’s wrong with this picture?
As Fred Smith, president of the Washington, D.C-based Competitive Enterprise Institute, has noted, these financial beasts are a textbook example of “profit-side capitalism and loss-side socialism.” When things go right for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, they keep the profits. But when things go wrong, taxpayers — not just private shareholders, managers, and employees — will be on the hook.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae each receive $2.25 billion lines of credit with the U.S. Treasury. These special pipelines give the institutions an implied federal guarantee available to no other private sector competitors in the mortgage market. That protection makes them immune to the costs normally associated with riskier and riskier behavior. Moreover, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not required to pay state and local income taxes. In addition, the standard for how much money the government requires them to keep on hand in case homebuyers default on their mortgages is lower for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae than for fully private banks and thrifts. The two corporations receive an estimated $10 billion a year in hidden taxpayer subsidies.Political appointees to the companies’ boards pocket millions in stock options to bolster support on Capitol Hill. Clinton-appointed board members at Fannie Mae include Marc Rich lawyer Jack Quinn and Janet Reno’s lieutenant at the Justice Department, Jamie Gorelick. At the helm of Fannie Mae is another Clinton appointee, Franklin Raines, who was paid more than $4 million and had almost $6 million in unexercised stock options in his first year at the helm. Cheerleaders in both major political parties have opposed privatizing Fannie and Freddie.
Now, we are on the verge of bailing out these behemoths to the tune of $200 billion in taxpayer backing — while potentially forking over untold millions in severance packages to Democrat cronies.
That makes Palin in tune with reality — and her critics flailing once again.
Meantime, King of All Gaffes Obama has problems against with rewriting history:
O-Busted: Selective Service Requirement Did Not Exist When Obama Says He Registered
And the Biden Gaffe Clock keeps on ticking.
***
Peter Viles of the excellent L.A. Land real estate/biz blog: There is no gaffe here.
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Trackbacks
- Hot Air » Blog Archive » Video: Hemmer sandbags Beckel over saying Palin will self-destruct
- Wizbang
- The Other McCain: Shaking their confidence daily
- Trying To Correct A Correct Statement Makes You Look Stupid « Beltway Snark
- Left Swings and Misses on Palen, Freddie Mac and Taxpayers | 186 k per second
- Economic policy of the candidates | Think Forward
- The Gaffe That Wasn’t… | Jeffrey A. Setaro
- Sarah Palin’s Attitude Lifts McCain Above Obama: « Riggword Weblog
- American Power
- Webloggin » The Much Anticipated Palin Gaffe
- Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator
- Blatant Anti-Palin Bias in the Liberal Media: A Collection « BUUUUURRRRNING HOT
- Michelle Malkin: Huffing HuffPo desperate for a GOP gaffe « American Sentinel News and Opinion Watch
- Palin gaffe! | Cold Fury
- Sarah Palin Crime Scene Investigation: « Riggword Weblog
- Jules Crittenden » Bridge Goes Somewhere
- Some Palin Smears Smashed « Gunservatively!
- Democrats Launch Desperate Search for Scapegoats | NeoConstant
- Are Reporters Financially Illiterate? Fannie and Freddie Are Called “Government-Sponsored Enterprises” for a Reason | OpenMarket.org
- When Government Fails, Blame the Private Sector | OpenMarket.org
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TheOtherSide said:
Aw, you upset Other? Maybe we can have a crying session then you can punch a pillow. Wahhhh.
McCain has remained at an upward trend, Obama is the one who meanders up and down.
Good one, ajmontana!! ROFLMAO!!
You’re about to find out.
I think you should keep that comment, too. I have a good feeling the other side isn’t going to be the one laughing.
Obama will not recover. It’s over. 3 More weeks of pounding by McCain and it’s done.
LGM
Here is the situation, LGM.
Would you like to place some sort of wager on that?
TheOtherSide said:
I sure F’in do kid.
Name it.
You have to change your name to “I am a liberal penis head” if you lose.
All I can say is that Palin is a CLASS act. What a breath of fresh air that swept into this election season.
The inner ugliness the leftists are spewing is proof positive she’s the real deal.
This woman can actually understand how the majority of Americans live. She knows, because she has lived it. She isn’t a millionaire or billionaire or some Ivy League snob. She’s truly done it on her own.
I can’t begin to say how much I wish she were the top of the ticket! But having her on the ticket makes me, yes even me, think again about pulling the lever for
McCainPalin.She is the American Dream personified. She IS America. She speaks for me.
Unless she’s for Amnesty… lol
Goldwater Knight #103 –
ABC News/Wash Post- McCain +2
CBS News- McCain +2
USA Today/Gallup- McCain +10
CNN- Tie (fishy)
Rasmussen Tracking- McCain +1
Hotline/FD Tracking- Tie
Gallup Tracking- McCain +5
Surge.
.
Ok and you have to change your name to “TheOtherSide Schooled Me” if you lose.
GK:
Unfortunately it’s not about popular vote and it looks like Obama’s strategy of a delegate victory strengthened over the 2 conventions.
These are FOX/Rasmussen state polls in the key battleground states. First % is after conventions, % in parenthesis is pre-conventions.
CO: McCain 46% (49%) – Obama 49% (48%)
FL: McCain 48% (48%) – Obama 48% (46%)
OH: McCain 51% (48%) – Obama 44% (43%)
PA: McCain 45% (45%) – Obama 47% (43%)
VA: McCain 49% (48%) – Obama 47% (47%)
Looks like Obama moved ahead in Colorada, pulled even in Florida and pulled ahead in PA. McCain did well in Ohio but that’s about it.
Where has our free market gone? We are on our way to socialism.
Just In Case the Left Isn’t Having a Lousy Enough Day, Here’s Another Poll to Compound the Depression
I’m detecting a trend.
Both Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain solidified support among party loyalists during the conventions, but it was the Republican nominee who entered the presidential campaign’s final stretch with newfound momentum, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
McCain, lifted by increasing enthusiasm for his candidacy and a jump in support among white women, has wiped away Obama’s pre-convention advantages. Among all registered voters, the contest is now basically deadlocked — 47 percent for Obama, 46 percent for McCain. It is also about even among those who say they are most likely vote — 49 percent for McCain, 47 percent for Obama.
This now has McCain ahead in five of seven polls released the past 24 hours, and tied in the remaining two.
Dig down in the story, though, and you’ll see some bad news for the community organizer.
McCain has a 17-point lead on which candidate can best handle an unexpected crisis and, for the first time, a double-digit advantage as the one more trusted on international affairs. McCain also has a 10-point lead on dealing with the war in Iraq, an issue that voters had been divided on since the outset of the campaign.
Experience counts, and Obama doesn’t have it. They can squeal all they want about Sarah Palin, but frankly, I trust her more than I do Obama. Or Biden, for that matter.
It gets better.
Many of McCain’s gains on these questions come from shifting support among white women. That group now gives McCain a 10-point advantage on who can deal best with the economy; before the Democratic convention, Obama held a 12-point edge. On Iraq, the two were tied among white women in late August, but McCain now has a 22-point advantage. There were similarly large shifts in whom the group favored on social issues, international affairs, energy, values and consistency in issues positions.
Funny, but I don’t hear any talk about Obamacans these days. Anyone had a Jim Leach or Chuck Hagel sighting lately?
Further bleak news for Obama:
But Obama hasn’t completely won over former supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, nearly a quarter of whom (23 percent) said they will support the McCain. At the same time, 78 percent of women who wanted Clinton to win the nomination back Obama, a new high.
With partisan lock-in now higher, the race for independents will invariably heat up. In the new poll, independents now break narrowly for McCain — 50 to 43 percent. It’s a small advantage but the Republican’s first of the campaign.
A small, narrow seven-point advantage?
Speaking of small, narrow seven-point leads, that’s now what McCain has in Ohio. up from the teensy-weensy, microscopic four-point lead in August.
Seems also to look like Republicans are much more enthusiastic about their VP selection than Democrats are.
Fifty-three percent of registered voters – including 85 percent of McCain supporters – are glad Palin was selected as McCain’s running mate. Obama supporters are less enthusiastic about Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden: Just 65 percent of Obama backers are glad the Delaware senator was selected as Obama’s running mate. Forty-eight percent of registered voters overall are glad Biden was selected.
See ya in November OtherSide.
Don’t you mean “I am a liberal penis head”
That Arianna Huffington is one UGLY stupid sounding broad… daaahling.
Biden is a two-time president wanna-be loser. I can’t for the life of me understand why b. Hussein chose him. Where Palin has energized the Rs, there was almost a ‘what the?’ sound heard across the country when Biden was announced. Terrible choice.
That name is taken. Carville claimed it in 2004.
How about T-Bone or Coco?
Okay, I have a better name: If GK wins, TOS has to change his moniker to “Richard Cranium.”
If TOS wins, GK has to change his to “Instant Obama Forever.”
Heads are about to roll. Does anybody else think the all-powerful Huffingtonpost is going to be disgraced if they can’t bring home a win ?
If Ariana, and all her vile propaganda isn’t powerful enough to put her Man in office, come November……it does make you wonder about the future of the bloated ‘Huffingtonpost’.
I also wonder about Oprah’s future, and her so-called power.
A lot of people, it seems, have overplayed their hand.
Desperation time.
According to the WSJ, both McCain and Obama agree that Ford, Chrysler and GM also need tax money.
But maybe McCain will change his mind after we hand him the title.
Thank you, Ms. Malkin, for explaining this.
BTW, it’s still over a month and a half till the election. I saw a few people acting as if it was over. Not good.
Well, I suppose you can call this a gaffe, but I call it an outright lie and another example of The Golden Calf’s BLATANT dishonesty. I refer to his statement that he “had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school…”
You do not have to sign up for selective service after high school. In fact, there is no such thing as a high school requirement at all. The requirement is that on your 18th birthday, you are to go and sgn up for Selective Service. You might still be in high school you might have been out of high school because you graduated, dropped out or just plain never went. It is an AGE requirement
I offer as prrof my own experience. I had every intention of heading down to the post office on my birthday to sign up as is required, and was actually quite proud to do so. However, I had a great many things going on at that point in time, what with being a Senior, holding down two jobs, track and field prectice, a girlfriend and other things, and it just plain slipped my mind.
Then, one bright and sunny afternoon, the phone rang. I answered it and was met with a Sargent So-And-So from the United States Army looking for me, and asking if I had any intention of signing up for the Selective Service. I told him I was, that I had completely forgot all about it and got my happy little butt into my car the minute I hung up the phone and went to the post office and filled out that little card, just like i promised him.
I was still in school and was still 2 months from graduation.
TGC is doing nothing more than pandering, and once again attempting to spread the lie that he really is patriotic and what-not with his lie that he actually considered joining the military.
I would bet my life savings that he never had a single nano-second in his entire life where that thought ever went through his mind other than, “Hell no I am not going to join the military”.
Sorry Mr. False Idol…but we don’t buy it and your actions are deafening when put against your pandering lies.
Well, it wasn’t good enough to get herself elected as Governor soooo…
Just sayin.
Agreed. The idea of joining the military probably never crossed his mind.
If he had ever seriously considered it, why has not written about it in either of his two memoirs?
argh, should read: why has HE not written about it…!
Sorry for the extended post, it is way longer than I expected
Obama interview quote:
NY Times:
Occidental College:
Obama’s memoir:
State Journal-Register (IL):
I do not know what the military’s drug policy was in 1981 but I am going to guess that even if Obama had wanted to join the Service, he would not have been able to in ‘79-’80. I feel that he never actually considered the military as a career option, but rather contemplated it as one option to help himself overcome his personal failure.
No judgement on that as I’m not going to cast the first stone, but he obviously wanted to clean up his act and make something of himself. For that, Dem or Rep, I have to congratulate him (at a personal level not at a political level) for not becoming another statistic. He could have easily ended up in prison or dead instead.
I hate to argue the position of that which I do not want to defend, but….. I’m bored.
If you take that specific quote literally and as a historical statement, then true, it is incorrect. But barely.
On the other hand, if you take the statement in the context of a non-scripted interview while recalling a 28+ year old event, then all that needs to be done is to switch “when I graduated” with “after I graduated“. At that point his statement is absolutely true.
But if we go one sentence farther, then my argument breaks down “You know, I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii,and I had friends whose parents were in the military,…”
The only way I can salvage a win now without getting entirely convoluted is that he should have said “And when I was growing up”
So for a valid perspective, the corrected paragraph should state (and then I am done):
“You know, I had to sign up for Selective Service after I graduated from high school. And when I was growing up in Hawaii,and I had friends whose parents were in the military,…”
Hmmm, but that’s not what he said is it… however am I to understand that pot smoking or coke usage warps time and perspective?
Thank God the other Times is finally starting to provide substantive coverage of the McCain-Palin ticket.
The Washington Post has dug into Palin’s expense reports. The left is on it like white on rice. Even though she is spending far less than her predecessor.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26616212
‘She flies coach’
Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.
“She flies coach and encourages her cabinet to fly coach as well,” said Garnero, whose job is equivalent to state controller. “Some do, some don’t.”
Leighow said that the governor’s staff has tallied the travel expenses charged by Murkowski’s wife: $35,675 in 2006, $43,659 in 2005, $13,607 in 2004 and $29,608 in 2003. Associates of Murkowski said the former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment.
Here’s how the aforementioned article begins:
ANCHORAGE – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.
The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.
Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official “duty station” is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.
Then they go into breaking it down per family member.
Sorry Rabid, but I am not going to debate the meaning of the word “is”.
For 8 years now, I, like the rest of you, have been made to endure just about every foul thing that could be said concerning the alcohol and drug use of President Bush. We have all heard how he has no business being President because of it, that he chocked on that pretzel because he was drunk, he can’t be trusted, and as aprime example, the T.V. show “American Dad” depicted him falling off the wagon and running naked through the streets, dancing the Skull and Bones, and various other things not limited to admitting that hae not only wanted to quit, but that he had no business being President and wanted to go back to partying.
Well, I think it is far past time that we hang these b**tards with their own words as well as their own “morals”
We need to demand from them at hat point it became OK for a President to have engaged in such things. After all, George Bush was never on his way to becoming a “Junkie”.
The drug and alcohol use by Obama occurred at approximately the same time as Pres. Bush has admitted to, with both of them supposedly being sober for the same lengh of time, give or take. Shouldn’t we be in just as much danger, especially given his youth, of Obama falling off the wagon and becoming a “pothead” as he claimed he was back then? Look at what they feared.
When did it become ok? Why is this yet one more example of Liberal and media hypocrisy that we are just expected to suck up and let occurr? I think it is far time that they are held up to the standards they claim they have.
No Obama in 2008. The stakes are just too high to elect a drunken, cocaine sniffing pot head to the highest office. He could snap under pressure and return to feeling ‘alienated’, just like all Presidents do, and return to that life because after all…“Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it,” He was still doing this when he was 18 and 19 by his own admission, thus…not exactly just something he did in high school as he claims.
Nope…can’t trust him. Might explain all the “Ahhh…ummm…errr…” pauses when he talks, the dreamy, far away gaze he gets etc. How sure are we that he has quit?
Reminds me of a couple of lines from Speed:
I am sorry I do not remember details better in the following anecdote.
Yesterday afternoon around 5:00 MSNBC had an anchor on interviewing an analyst/writer for BusinessWeek in regards to the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae fiasco.
Even though Sarah Palin was not mentioned in the dialogue, this question stood out, “So, this takeover had nothing to do with charges that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had ‘gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers,’ right?”
Of course the BusinessWeek analyst agreed with him. I guess there is a reason they are dead last in the ratings.
TheOtherSide: My how times have changed, I remember screaming liberals having screaming hissy fits about removing the electorial college….
Sarah Palin is not the person the Obama Campaign wants you to think she is.
Compare and contrast with the Obama’s “achievements” as a state legislator and community organizer. The hick small-town Jesus-freak mayor looks pretty darn good.
Thanks to Open Secrets (H/T Jonah Goldberg), we now know that Berry has been one of the prime benefactors of the Fannie and Freddie lobbying largess.
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/07/top-senate-recipients-of-fanni.html
There was a most excellent post on the cost of a HuffPo, street lamps and financial statements, but I can’t find it. Oh were are you Young Evil One? The Force needs you.
I have heard people bringing up her funny religion, now that might open a can of worms. The Rite Rev Al Sharpton, shares the religion as Sarah Palin doesn’t he? Speaking of funny religions, there is that black liberation theology thingy going on the other side. Joe Biden finds out just how inconvenient it is politically to be a Catholic.
Laree said:
The more we talk about religion, the worse it is for the Democrats.
Laree said:
No.
Laree said:
And that is why the Democrats are doomed if religion is brought into discussion. Who has a crazier preacher – Palin or Obama? Of course, that won’t stop the MSM from attacking Palin’s religious beliefs – which will ultimately mean more votes for McCain/Palin.
I hope the Catholic church comes down on top of Biden’s head like they did with Pelosi. That was some funny stuff.
Are you reading this, Democrats? PLEASE go after Palin’s religious beliefs. PLEASE mock her. Let me fill you in on a little secret… she is like a lot of Americans… unlike Obama/Wright’s “Black Power/Blame Whitey” theology. shhhhhh
Funny?
Oh well, score one for our side.
The failure of the Democrats to learn from their mistakes election season after election season is nothing short of being an endless source of hillarity.
he way they continue to insult the religious people of this country, both Jews and Christians, shows just how intollerant they truly are. These atheists continue to believe that they are so incredibly superior in intellect simply because they have no faith, treating people who belive in God and Jesus as mentally inferior, then being completely flabbergasted when they lose.
After the 2004 election, one would think they would have learned from doing such things, but no. What was their reactions to their sound thumping? It was to increase the insults, calling the Red States “Jesusland” and all it’s inhabitants mental midgets.
Now look at what they are doing. Look at this jackass with his attempt at sounding inferior, calling GOVERNOR Palin’s beliefs a “funny religion”.
Apparently they just are completely and totally blind to the facts concerning just how many people in this country consider themselves to be Christian, as well as “practicing” Christians. Those such as Biden, Kerry and Pelosi, who do not stand up for their own faith, but instead mock it, mock those believers, and make outrageous claims against the very tenets of Catholicism, and then wonder why the Pope, Bishops, Cardinals and Priests become irate. They are not Catholics. They are merely failed in their own beliefs and use the fact that once, long ago, their parents and God Parents held them, promising to renounce Satan and keep them free from sin, to raise them properly and in God’s love, to win elections and garner power.
This is tolerance?
They will continue their insults but there is a line they have drawn. The line is Islam, for they will not speak out against the one religion that actually practises those things which they accuse Christianity of and oh so much more.
Hypocrisy thy name is Neo-Democrats and Liberals.
GK, you make me PROUD to be a Right Wing Wacko and what ever else the LPHs want to call us! Well done.