Obama is the hammer, McCain is the nail.

a really old, bent, rusty nail.

I don't know if this has hit the website. If it has, then y'all probably already saw it. If not, it is certainly worth taking a look. This needs to be a widely seen ad. Let's make it viral people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJThPjvscFs

Nice! Throw in a few lipstick jokes and he's got himself a campaign!! ;)

A trillion dollars may be spent on this latest mess.

A TRILLION!

What might that trillion dollars have done if devoted to conversion to alternate energy sources?

It could have been used to shore up Social Security.

It could have been used to build mass transit across the country.

Instead, after the henhouse has been raided by one fat cat after another, we lowly citizens end up throwing our money towards cleaning up their mess.

Thanks guys. Well done.

This is the kind of campaigning we've been waiting for. Of course, when the other side gives you such good material, it's hard to resist.

Now we need Obama surrogates pointing out Obama's successful bipartisan accomplishments -- another ridiculous GOP talking point that needs to be bitch-slapped.

Steve, I just want to thank you for spending your Saturday keeping us all up to date. I want to tell you that you deserve a break, except that I am too selfish to want you to take one! :)

Curt M -- I've been asking myself similar questions about that trillion dollars. I've been wondering, what if they used that money to, say, pay down mortgages instead of buying debt. The government of the people agrees to cover, say, a third of your mortgage -- not the monthly, but the mortgage itself -- up to a cutoff point. Houses worth less than a million, for instance. That money then goes directly to the banks -- so they get an infusion of cash -- homeowners get direct relief in a very troubled economy. Back property taxes get paid. Cars get fixed. A significant segment of the population has a measure of disposable income freed up to, y'know, go shopping.

Instead, we're just bailing out banks. Which is gonna buy us maybe a couple months, if we're lucky...

"Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed."
John McCain

"...I’m totally in favor of personal savings accounts… As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it—along the lines that President Bush proposed...�
John McCain

“This legislation takes a small but important step toward eliminating the tremendous regulatory burden imposed on financial institutions… One principal reason banks are unable to make loans is the bewildering array of statutory and regulatory restrictions and paperwork requirements imposed by Congress and the regulatory agencies. While a case can certainly be made that every law and regulation is intended to serve a laudable purpose, the aggregate effect of the rapidly increasing regulatory burden imposed on banks is to cause them to devote substantial time, energy and money to compliance rather than meeting the credit needs of the community.� [John McCain: Congressional Record, 11/19/93]

Can you imagine the vast sums of money that Wall Street wished they could get their hands on via privatized SS accounts?

Please folks, the above quotes are John's own words. Use 'em. Maybe if we hammer home the point over and over and over, some dim bulbs just might start getting the idea that John is not Change We Can Believe in.

The more John McCain talks about substantive issues that affect everyday Americans, the more it is apparent that he doesn't know his asshole from a hole in the ground.

Obama needs to stay in this "on fire" mode for the next 6 weeks and not drift back into the "casual" mode.

The healthcare/privatization gone wild theme is right on the mark. More of this please.

Also, lets acknowledge reality, the health care industry is already just as dysfunctional as Wall Street if not more. The Republicans have already sold out the american people on this issue a long time ago.

Enjoy your emergency room visit and your lifetime of debt because of it?

How many 401ks, retirement vehicles are basically wiped out within a two-week period due to health care costs?

How many mortgages/home equity crises have a direct tie in to health care costs that sunk a family?

It needs to be repeated that our health care system is cancerous and deadly to the financial lives of most americans.

C'mon, not knowing your aft end from your elbow is not only par for the course for the GOP, it's totally OK if you're a Republican.

You know, to borrow a phrase...

Don't you think McCain sounds kinda tired?

Considering Bushco's habit of underestimating the costs and overestimating their chances, I'd say that the trillion bucks is the cost of the band aid that will staunch the bleeding enough to get them out of office. To say that they're solving the problem when no one knows the extent of the problem typifies the Bush presidency. Once the bailout legislation is passed I look for Bush to preside over another self-congratulatory "Mission Accomplished" moment - to the same effect as the first one.

John McCain, of all people, should not be attacking Social Security.

i get so irritated by discussions about social security which reference people ALREADY RECEIVING SOCIAL SECURITY, because the real group that's going to get slammed by the current hate-fest surrounding one of the most successful government programs in american history are those in MY age cohort (late 40s to late 50s).

many of us had pensions once upon a time, many of us never had pensions at all, many of us have not had the "luxury" of "extra money" to sock away for retirement and all we have to keep us fed and housed in retirement will be what we get from social security.

and many of us have lost good-paying jobs and had to take lower-paying jobs, and our social security income on retirement is going to be lower than it would have been if we had been able to keep those good-paying jobs.

fifteen years out is when the real failures of today come home to roost.

Use of "My opponent" vs. "The Republican candidate"

We're gonna win Florida, and the election.

But we're still screwed in advance if the Dems write a blank check for what is potentially a trillion-dollar bailout. The Dems in Congress should insist that the bailout be paid for, within a reasonable time horizon (like the next 5-10 years) by taxing the daylights out of the rich.

@ handle the truth.

Re: The link you posted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJThPjvscFs

Be careful with this one. The video is produced anonymously and if you watch carefully, you'll notice some questionable edits and splices.

Crude, ignorant, deceitful demagoguery.

Are you people proud of this guy?

pwnage! Obama/Biden is right on track, they might even overtake the racist vote! McCain/pAlien are in the ditch but they can pay bushies to applaud and howl and listen to the same old lies, they also still have a Vulcan mind-meld with the fairly unbalanced media.

Obama needs to stay in this "on fire" mode for the next 6 weeks and not drift back into the "casual" mode.

am wrote:
Are you people proud of this guy?

Not in the slightest. I am totally disgusted with McCain. Your observations about him being crude, ignorant, and deceitful don't even begin to cover McCain's failings as a human being.

Crude, ignorant, deceitful demagoguery. Are you people proud of this guy?

Yes. Yes I am. But I also see no evidence of ignorance, deceptiveness or demagoguery. Care to cite specific examples?

Meantime, you lot are standing a petty, vindictive, punk-ass liar. Hows your sense of pride looking at that trainwreck of a ticket?

Just got off the phone with a friend in the UK, they are really following this election and of course it is no surprise that the whole of Europe & Asia are
really looking forward to Obama as president, they cannot believe that Palin is on the repub ticket and the papers over there have been having a field day with her, I guess they do not have to be as politically correct as those over here. Anyway, if they had a vote it would be 95% for Obama.We should realize that our elections affect the other countries, especially like the UK who have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bernard is dead right about this. Obama's dirty little secret is that, at heart, he's a policy nerd. He loves the stuff, he loves weighing the options and sweating the details. He's never happier than when he's crafting some intricate piece of legislation about proliferation or whatever. But he learned early in the campaign that it doesn't work on the campaign trail, because people tune it out. Now, post-crash, they ARE engaged, and he's letting his inner wonk do just a little strutting

Good comments on the whole but too many people have fallen into a trap laid by opponents of Social Security, mainly the idea that there is any problem with the program to begin with.

SOCIAL SECURITY IS NOT BROKE. Not by any definition of 'broke' that uses real economic numbers in context. Right now the system is on track under Intermediate Cost assumptions to deliever 78% of a benefit in 2041 that is scheduled to be 160% in real terms compared to what a similarly situated beneficiary gets today. Which by application of what I cheekily dubbed 'Rosser's Equation' (after Prof. Barkley Rosser of JMU's Econ Dept who first pointed it out) we get 78% of 160% = 125%. That's 'crisis' in numeric context, a deal 25% better than my Mom gets today.

You can't point this out enough. Due to the current schedule adjusting initial benefits to increases in overall real wages over the workers worklife each generation has been getting a better deal out of Social Security in real terms. And this remains true even if there has to be some cutback after 2041 (SSA) or 2049 (CBO).

Now Prof. Rosser and I believe that the bias is to the upside, after all the result of the equation using the 2007 Trustees' Report was 75% of 160% = 120%. Meaning fully 12% of the gap (and five points of the result) between the schedule and the projection vanished without our doing anything. But even ignoring the steadily improving numeric outlook you can only say that Social Security after 2041 might be only a pretty good deal as opposed to a really great deal.

I put my 50 piece series on Social Security over at Angry Bear on hiatus this week (links still in sidebar) because I thought only an idiot would even think of bringing up a PRA (Personal Retirement Account) 'solution' to a 'problem' or 'crisis' that on examination never really existed to start with. After the events of this past week I thought privatizers might sit back and take at least a temporary deep gulp of STFU. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe it is still the right time to open a little can of FDR WhoopAss on these guys.

But the bigger point is not to buy into the frame that Social Security needs any particular fix to begin with. Which for those paying attention explains why Obama's team quietly moved the implementation date for a cap increase back to 2018 the other week. Because 2018 is the earliest date that Social Security can plausibly be said to need additional revenue. If you look at the numbers.

Social Security is NOT broke. Social Security does NOT NEED shoring up anytime in the next decade and probably not ever. The notion that it does is all bait and switch by people who have wanted to destroy it since its inception in 1936. Disagree? Not match with what you know? Great drop in a comment on any post at my Social Security blog and I'll get back to you.

We need to keep repeating these lines from Obama's convention speech -- you know, the one that didn't get much coverage because of McCain's Friday Surprise:

"In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.

"Well it's time for them to own their failure."

I heard some wingers talking about how Obama had taken some campaign money from Freddie and Fannie totaling 105,000.

Well, Lobbyist Charlie Black,[Charlie Black: JP Morgan, Washington Mutual Bank, Freddie Mac, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, National Association of Mortgage Brokers] is working for McCain. Fair enough. But 'Trailblazer' Judy Black [Judy Black: Colorado Credit Union League, Genworth Financial, Bay Harbour Management, Merrill Lynch] Has bundled some $500,000 for the McCain campaign.

Pot Black Meet Kettle Black

There is only one republican who can replace McCain and win this presidential election.

ALAN KEYS FOR PRESIDENT, 2008

"Are you people proud of this guy?"

You bet! w00t!!

Instead, we're just bailing out banks. Which is gonna buy us maybe a couple months, if we're lucky...

As far as the Republicans are concerned, all they have to do is shore them up until November. Once a Democrat is in office, they can let go of the rope and start screaming about how it's all the Democrats' fault and obstructing every regulation the Democrats try to pass to prevent this from happening again.

Lather, rinse, repeat. It's what they do.

Factcheck.org does not like the remarks Obama made on Social Security that you quoted. At all.

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_social_security_whopper.html
"Obama's Social Security Whopper"

Lets give credit where credit is due: Bush tried to bring some reform to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a few years back. Top Democrats such as Chris Dodd and Barney Frank blocked any attempt at correcting the ongoing abuses in the mortgage industry. Now that the chickens have come home to roost the party of deception is playing fast and furious with the truth. While both parties have gotten donations from the mortgage industry the biggest contributions were directed towards the democrats. Despite his short time in Washington Obama was the second biggest receiptant of donations and his campaign has ties to some of the worst players in this fiasco. Of course all of the blame will be layed at the feet of Bush and the republicans by the drive by media and their cohorts in the democratic party but even so there are those who know what the truth is. This financial crises will be used to advance the cause of those who want a one world government and one currency. Yes Virginia there is an anti Christ and he is setting the stage for his introduction to the world stage!

am: Crude, ignorant, deceitful demagoguery.

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people have noticed...
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John McCain's Journey From Maverick to Liar - US News 9/15/08