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by John McCormick
NEW YORK -- After delivering a speech on the economy, Sen. Barack Obama has a busy afternoon and evening of fundraising in Manhattan. His first of four stops was at a $1,000-a-plate event at the Credit Suisse building.
As Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign has been pointing out for several days, Credit Suisse is a major subprime lender, a financial service Obama believes needs added regulation in the wake of the nation's housing crisis.
"Today, Sen. Obama gives an economy speech followed by a fundraiser at -- you guessed it -- one of the top 10 issuers of subprime loans in America," spokesman Phil Singer said in a statement. "In fact, Sen. Obama has taken more money from the top 10 issuers of subprime loans than both Sen. Clinton and Sen. McCain."
But those in attendance were not all Credit Suisse employees. The suggestion that Obama was holding a fundraiser at the offices of a subprime lender brought a response statement from his campaign.
"The American people are tired of the sniping from the Clinton campaign, both real and imagined," said Jen Psaki, Obama's traveling press secretary. "Today's event was a general fundraiser in a room paid for by our campaign and attended by people from varied backgrounds who are committed to changing the tone of our politics, and rejecting the kind of tactics that the Clinton campaign is now embracing...Any suggestion that this was a fundraiser hosted by the mortgage industry is as imaginary as the other tall tales that have been coming out of the Clinton campaign lately."
Obama was introduced by Greg Craig, a top foreign policy adviser and former senior State Department official in the Clinton administration.
Craig told the audience that "probably the low point in the campaign occurred last Saturday" as the controversy over Obama's longtime Chicago pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., was breaking.
"Everybody was asking ourselves 'how much damage would it do and why and could it be repaired' and I can tell you the campaign was running around just as much on a roller coaster as the rest of us were," he said.
He then pointed to new polling data that suggests Obama has not been hurt politically by the controversy.
"This poll shows that despite this experience, Barack Obama's negatives had not increased," Craig said. "They're exactly the same, and to the extent that we took a hit, we recovered ... and it shows, I think, the resilience of not only the campaign, but of the candidate."
Obama, meanwhile, told the audience of about 300 at the fundraising event that the economy is out of balance and needs added regulation.
“Most of the people in this room have benefited enormously over the last decade - and I include myself in that group," he said. "But it is an economy that has left millions and millions of Americans behind.”
Obama said fixing the economy will mean "putting in place a regulatory framework that’s up to the task of dealing with a global financial system and a new set of financial instruments."
He also used a line that he had tested out the day before while campaigning in North Carolina. "More than anything, what’s important is restoring a sense that this is not a ‘you’re on your own’ society," he said.
The Illinois Democrat began his remarks with a barely-veiled shot at his primary opponent. “I decided to run not because of some long-held ambitions or because I thought it was somehow owed to me - and certainly I wasn’t presumptuous enough to think it was my turn,” he said.
Obama dismissed concerns that the bruising Democratic primary would hurt the party’s chance of taking back the White House in November.
“I am absolutely confident that by the time this thing is over, the Democratic party will be completely unified,” he said. “For those of you who are just weary of the primary, and feeling kind of ground down or that it’s like a Bataan death mark, I just want everybody to know that the future is bright.”
He took about a half-dozen questions from the audience, addressing energy policy, the war in Iraq and how he will appeal to independent voters in the general election.
Asked about negotiating with certain foreign leaders such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Obama said he believes voters understand the notion of talking to America's enemies.
“If F.D.R. can meet with Stalin, and Nixon can meet with Mao, and Kennedy can meet with Khrushchev, and Reagan can meet with Gorbachev, then the notion that we can’t meet with some half-baked dictator is ridiculous,” he said.
The fundraiser was the first of four Obama is attending in New York today, even after his campaign collected $55 million in February without holding a single fundraiser. His remaining three stops are at private homes and are not open to the media.
Comments
"OBAMA SPEAKS"
JUST ASK JOHN MCCAIN WHAT IT MEANS TO RAISE CAMPAIGN FINANCING. JUST ASK THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMITTEE ON THE RULES OF RAISING CAMPAIGN FINANCING TO FIND OUT WHAT JOHN MCCAIN "ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS" IN AMERICA ARE GOING TO BE.
"ILLEGAL"
"LIKE SAND IN THE HOUR GLASS AND WHILE IRAQ TURNS"
STARRING THE "MAVERICK" PLAYED BY JOHN MCCAIN.
RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE, RAISING THE TAXES ON THE RICH, EVEN DURING A TIME OF "WAR" COUNTERACTING DEMAND AND DEBT IS THE WAY TO A BETTER ECONOMY SHOULD BE THE BEGINNING OF THE MOVIE.
BUT THEN AGAIN, I GUESS AMERICA NEEDS TO ASK THE "FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION" IF HE ALREADY STARTED OFF ON THE "K" STREET WAYS OF ATTACKING THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF HIS PARTY!
SEE ECONOMY FIXED ALREADY.
HIGHER WAGES, MEAN AMERICANS CAN PAY ALL THOSE HIGH DEBTS FREDDIE/FANNIE HAS DELIVERED UNTO US.
Posted by: ROGER MORRIS | March 27, 2008 5:37 PM
Is he raising money to bail out the stupid people who took out mortagages then couldn't afford? I highly doubt that, he'd rather take hard earned money from the low to middle class folks to bail out the upper middle class folks who took out mortgages on McMansions they couldn't afford.
Posted by: mj | March 27, 2008 5:43 PM
Exactly what does St. Obama know about economics? He is a lawyer by trade and a shifty, shady, do-nothing politicain today. He believes government programs, high taxes and high spending are sound economic principles.
What has this guy done in his life that merits any consideration that he knows anything about the economy, national defense, foreign policy, health care, national security, anything??
Posted by: John D | March 27, 2008 5:48 PM
Actions Speak Better than Words
Before the negative press regarding Mr. Wright, Mr Obama had on numerous occasions declared Mr. Wright as his mentor and spiritual teacher for the past 20 years and even went so far as to include Mr. Wright in his election staff, these are the actions of Mr. Obama. When the press found out about the Hitleresque personality of Mr. Wright, Mr. Obama’s staff writers immediately created a rebuttal of hyperbole that amazingly some people actually believed.
But regardless what Mr. Obama and his staff reply, Mr. Obama cannot retract his clear public proclamation that Mr. Wright has been mentor and spiritual teacher for over 20 YEARS. And that up to recent negative press, Mr. Wright was on Mr. Obama’s Spiritual Advisor Committee campaign team. Mr. Obama cannot make excuses regarding this or deny it. And to downplay the violent rhetoric of Mr. Wright is like trying to make excuses for Hitler. Hitler and Mr. Wright both convey hateful and paranoid messages that should shivers through the average American. Never would I expect to see in my lifetime a man of such evil taking the pulpit on National Television and professing extreme hate and implied violence that has direct implications for almost every white, Jew, non-Christian, Christians of other faiths, government officials, peoples from other countries and so on. Didn’t Hitler do this too?
If you make the choice to listen and learn from a so called spiritual mentor every week over 20 years, do you expect me or any other rational being to believe that you wouldn’t be or want to be influenced by their ideas? And what does that say of your personal integrity if you chose American hating Mr. Wright as your mentor in life?
Action is the real measure of a person, not their words. We know who Mr. Obama is by his life and choices, not the words he spins. And we can only imagine the amount of hatred Mr. Obama will unleash once he achieves ultimate power. Uh-Oh!
And also consider recent announcement that the chief of the firm involved in the State Department’s passport breach is one of Obama’s adviser. (And why is this not being discussed?) And that Obama has been caught lying about Rezko, regarding the amount of money Rezko gave him, and that Obama still hasn’t come clean about his Rezko land deal. Or further, how Michelle Obama makes a phenomenal $317.000 a month at a hospital in Chicago that is famous for turning away the poor, especially the black poor and Michelle Obama’s separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah.
And today, the criminal indictment of Mr. Obama’s super delegate the governor of Puerto Rico.
If Obama were to become president, what would stop Mr. Obama from appointing Mr. Wright to his cabinet? And after Mr. Wright’s appointment, if anyone complained no doubt they would be called racist. And it seems as if this strategy - that it is racist to criticize a black man - is already in effect as Mr. Obama can do anything corrupt with minimal impunity by the public or the press.
But if Hillary so much as sneezes, she is taken through the laundry and hung out to dry and then beaten some more. Such an obvious bias treatment towards Mr. Obama because of his race is racial discrimination. And I believe another reason why Mrs. Clinton is unfairly criticized to such an extreme is because a handful of powerful men in the media can’t stand the idea of a woman for president – likely a libido thing.
We should have as our country’s leader someone with wisdom and knowledge, whose goal is the selfless betterment of the world. We should not elect someone with a personal agenda for personal power or select them because of the fashionably of their race or the preference for a gender.
With all the red lights in Mr. Obama’s resume, and all the hyperbole that he spins that keeps us from knowing the real Mr. Obama, are you sure this is the person best to lead our country? Should we gamble away the American future to a man who associates with and is taught by men who hate this country and its people?
Posted by: Thomas Richards | March 27, 2008 6:21 PM
"JOHN D SPEAKS"
Well John After seven (7) years of Bush Economics, it doesn't take a Harvard Economic Freshmen to have a clue as to what a Harvard Grad Senator would do versus a Princeton Grad that didn't graduate Princeton Freshmen Economics 101.
Tax Cuts for the Rich at a time of War, isn't good fiscal policy, but it was George Bush's Policy.
It doesn't take a Eigth Grade Graduate to understand Losing 9 billion 9,000,000,000,000 dollars "unaccounted for" doesn't show good Monetary responsibility.
It doesn't take a Harvard Grad, or a Senator to to question his merits on the economy, national defense, foreign policy, health care, or even NATIONAL SECURITY to understand that when a man says he has NO CLUE.
I'm listening and IT MAKES GREAT NATIONAL SECURITY NOT TO VOTE FOR HIM!
That is why this guy can say anything and it will make better sense than that of someone who says THEY DO NOT HAVE A CLUE ABOUT THE ECONOMY OR ECONOMICS!
We're doomed if that is the question that lingers in the mind of the many.
DOOMED!
Posted by: Roger Morris | March 27, 2008 6:31 PM
mj, do you have any evidence for that assertion? Obama has frequently assured that the bailouts will be for the most responsible borrowers and not speculators.
Posted by: Brad K. | March 27, 2008 6:34 PM
John D,
So would you rather trust the candidate who said "[t]he issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should"?
Posted by: Brad K. | March 27, 2008 6:40 PM
Exactly what does St. McCain know about economics? He is a killer by trade and a shifty, shady, do-nothing politicain today. He believes government programs, high defense spending and high deficits are sound economic principles.
What has this guy done in his life that merits any consideration that he knows anything about the economy, national defense, foreign policy, health care, national security, anything??
Posted by: John Anti-D | March 27, 2008 6:57 PM
Let's what St BO knws about economics.
1. He didn't come from money, him and his wife had college loan as high as his motgage.
2. He worked hard to overturn his fortune, through being a community organiser, a human rights lawyer, a state sanator and now a US sanator.
3. Doesn't that sounds like a citizen kind of experience
4. Oh wait he started this compaign with nothing and outraised and out perform pple that have been buiding a political machine for 20 years.
5. Tell me isn't that what repbulicans like to can feasical discipline.
6. NOW TELL ME WHAT DOES HILLARY OR MCCAINE KNOW ABOUT ECONOMICS????
Posted by: What Senator Obama Knows about economics | March 27, 2008 7:41 PM
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!. I want all Catholics to denounce and leave the Catholic church. Why? The Catholic Church has been a haven for pedophilia and child molestation. What makes matters worst is that instead of silencing these so called priests, the “church” move these priest around only for them to possibly continue their disgusting acts of pedophilia and child molestation. Catholics know this to be true but yet they continue to attend. How hypocritical.
Posted by: ntsystem | March 27, 2008 7:42 PM
As voters are investigating his background more thoroughly-questions are mounting about his integrity and qualifications. I was at a loss to explain how Sen Obama could lie so openly to the American public- unless he was certain that the corporate media would not challenge him. Please go to this link to see some excellent work by citizen journalists, independent journalists and others who have taken it upon themselves to investigate Sen Obama's background, legislative work, ethics in office, etc...
Obama represents “Change” in Washington DC? The more I learn about this man, the more certain I am that he should not lead our country. All material on this website is backed up with links to sources of the information. Please pass this link on to others.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/03/24/barack-i-didnt-know-obama/#more-1919
Read the well-documented scathing expose: GUARANTEED TO SHAKE UP OBAMA SUPPORTERS.
Barack-I-Didn't-Know-Obama- By MBolack. Also read the “information source documentation” (links) and comments provided by bloggers (inc. myself) to the site listed above. All information presented is well-supported by FACTS…
Posted by: athy | March 27, 2008 8:03 PM
If Obama and Hillary want to take care of the mortgage crisis, why dont they go back to the Senate and take care of it? After all they are still getting paid by the taxpayers.
Posted by: Jerry Johnson | March 27, 2008 8:38 PM
If Obama and Hillary want to take care of the mortgage crisis, why dont they go back to the Senate and take care of it? After all they are still getting paid by the taxpayers.
Posted by: Jerry Johnson | March 27, 2008 8:38 PM
Barack has the intellect needed to effectively deal with the looming massive problems this nation faces -- including declining output from the largest oil fields around to world.
Posted by: David | March 27, 2008 9:25 PM
If you cannot understand what Barack is saying and understand the depth of his understanding of the subject, you should stop criticizing him. I know it's a waste of time to write this but cannot help it.
Posted by: Georgee | March 27, 2008 10:20 PM
Thing is: whom do we trust after all promises have been made. The respected UK paper THE INDEPENDENT just published this interesting article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-when-hillary-clinton-tells-such-obvious-mistruths-she-exposes-herself-as-a-fantasist-801709.html
Posted by: Pedro G. | March 27, 2008 11:34 PM
Hussein O has raised over a million dollars from the very folks that talked people into buying homes they can't pay for. The only thing I see other than a racist is a better educated con man than MLK, Je$$ie and $harpton rolled into one. It's real effective when dealing with the 'self proclaimed' best educated people in the country, Dhimmi Democrats.
Posted by: Scrapiron | March 28, 2008 12:07 AM
Hussein O has raised over a million dollars from the very folks that talked people into buying homes they can't pay for. The only thing I see other than a racist is a better educated con man than MLK, Je$$ie and $harpton rolled into one. It's real effective when dealing with the 'self proclaimed' best educated people in the country, Dhimmi Democrats.
Posted by: Scrapiron | March 28, 2008 12:07 AM
So much ignorance in such a short post.
I think scrap iron is what he uses for brains.
Posted by: Lois | March 28, 2008 9:18 AM
Let's not be so quick to make blind assumptions and blanket statements about irresponsible loans "GIVEN" to people who can't afford them.
My wife and I used to rent our house 15 years ago. Then about 10 years ago we got this bright idea that we'd just buy it. Now we pay $1300 a month for a house we used to rent for $600 a month. Our mortgage balance is less than $70,000 (HARDLY EXTRAVAGANT) but we're struggling to keep up because the county has raised our tax assessment by 35% in just 5 years, the cost of flood insurance (our house fronts the Illinois river on the east bank) has increased 40% over the same period and with the additional escrow charges Countrywide has raised our payment nearly $400 in 4 short years. And we're on a FIXED RATE mortgage. So we're paying out just about every extra dime we bring in just to try and keep up with something that we've NEVER had any control over in the first place.
And now I get to be judged some kind of deadbeat and LOSER because the County, the insurance Co. (FEDERAL flood Ins. that is) and the Mortgage Co. all want to line their pockets at my expense?
Thanks a bunch. let me try to explain this one more time using small simple words...People don't have BAD CREDIT because they can't pay their bills, They can't pay their bills because they have bad credit. Yeah I know you don't get it, always confusing cause with effect. If there were NO credit bureaus (and they're rigged to damage peoples reputations, not to protect them) then lenders would pretty much have to give everyone the same rates.
Only that doesn't make them enough money. No the sweetheart rates are reserved for their buddies, the wealthy and influential (you know the old adage, there's no problem getting a loan at a cheap rate if you can just prove you don't need a loan in the first place) while those who could benefit most from a FAIR rate (you know the people who actually DO the hard work that makes the money for the rich people in this country) get hot boxed into crappy deals with huge up front fees, excessive rates and terms that keep them on the hook for half again as long as the wealthy privileged few.
And for what? So the TRASH the have the system rigged in the first place can get wealthier, and wealthier, and Wealthier. Well it's gotten so far out of hand that now it threatens to collapse the entire economy, and you people get on here and STILL stubbornly defend these scumbags right to rip of literally EVERYBODY they come in contact with? What ARE you thinking.
It's time to CLAMP DOWN on these financial parasites, get some REAL laws with some TEETH in them. Rich CEO's that bail a week before the SEC shows up to confiscate the financial documents of their companies need to be tracked down, drug back from the Cayman Islands (or wherever the HELL else they're hiding out) in SHACKLES and then thrown right into a REAL honest to god Max security prison genpop.
I'm no expert, but I do know that there's no golden parachute on earth that can protect their tight white A---- from a cell mate like Mike Tyson. And the sooner we get busy DOING some of these thieves the sooner the economy will start to improve. Of course, that's just MY opinion, I COULD be wrong.
Posted by: Jim Griffin | March 28, 2008 3:09 PM
Jim, your escrow payment is rising because of taxes and required insurance. How can you blame your mortgage company for that?
Your house is worth more so an insurance raise shouldn't be a surprise.
And who demanded the services from your elected officials, voted for their "giving," and now blames everyone else for the bill?
Posted by: whatnow | March 28, 2008 4:19 PM
ATHY,
Your "scathing expose" shows more about you than Obama.
Martin E. Marty, a nationally respected religious scholar said on Easter Sunday that Wright's speeches were mostly hopeful and uplifting in the many years he had known him. For other well known preachers, Wrights radical comments - aka "GD America" and "chickens coming home to roost" were mainstream:
Evangelical pioneer Francis Schaeffer "called for the violent overthrow of the US government, yet was often solicited by Reagan and Bush Sr.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/obamas-minister-committe_b_91774.html
Like Wright, Pat Robertson also believes God allowed the 9/11 attacks as punishment for our evil country. Yet President Bush consults him on the Iraq war. He has also said "Just like what the German Nazis did to the Jews, so liberal Democrats are doing to evangelical Christians."
Jerry Falwell: "That our gays, lesbians, abortionist the ACLU etc. were to blame for 9/11".
"This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain," said Billy Graham, agreeing with Nixon's comments about Jews and their influence in American life.
McCain's “spiritual guide” Rod Parsely has said “it's America's destiny to destroy Islam” while Parsley labeled McCain a "strong, true, consistent conservative."
Few would be surprised if the first preachers of some retired president's who married them or baptized their children were Xeno-phobic along either racial, religious or ethnic lines.
It is dangerous for voters to presume to know what a president or a candidate can learn from his church or preacher, even after 20 years. By listening to some outrageous words (we don't know how many) for 20 years, Obama speaks profound truths that every American should listen to - with their children. (Frankly children get their cues from their parents' reactions to radical ideas, not the ideas themselves.)
Huckabee understands the importance of keeping such bile in context AND of not transferring blame to the politicians who keep such associations.
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/19/72716/0494/229/479797
It is now time for this country to grow up and stop judging a man's patriotism by what he chooses to listen to at church NOR whether he wears a flag pin (during a time when displaying symbols was becoming an obligatory proof of one's patriotism. It is exactly this kind of behavior that American founders wanted to change when crafting this secular democracy after leaving King George and the conformist British churches.
Posted by: Young Atheart | March 29, 2008 4:20 AM
It would be an remarkable for any one to:
1. turn down well paying law jobs after graduating MagnaCuLaude from Harvard and go to work for $12K a year as a community organizer
2. pass over 800 bills in 8 years in IL - the largest share on Healthcare
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/07/29/us/politics/20070730_OBAMA_GRAPHIC.html
3. Risk his US Senate run with a no-holds-barred position on Iraq when nearly the entire Congress was beating the war drums
http://www.digg.com/politics/Full_text_of_Barack_Obama_s_2002_Speech_Against_the_Iraq_War
4. Reach across the isle to Lugar, Coburn and Hagel in a republican controlled government to pass WW threat reduction bill, government ethics bill and immigration reform bill
5. risk the attacks of his Senate peers by arguing for meeting enemies without pre-conditions but with preparation (Reagan and Nixon were the last presidents with similar policies)
6. Win bi-partisan support from folks who follow issues diligently - Dodd, Feingold, Lincoln Chaffee, Peggy Noonan, Michael Gersen
Posted by: Young Atheart | March 29, 2008 4:33 AM