Obama on the financial crisis: Still trying to vote present

George C. Landrith

Senator Barack Obama has now proposed that we increase deposit insurance from $100,000 to $250,000 as if that is a serious response to America's current mortgage banking financial woes. The problem is found in billions of dollars in bad mortgage loans (i.e. loans made to people who could not afford to repay them). The problem is not that people are losing their savings accounts. Simply stated deposit insurance isn't a serious solution.

In a stunningly cowardly move, Obama said that he didn't want to be involved in formulating a solution and suggested that when others figured out a solution, they could call him if he was needed. Why is it that Obama cannot show an ounce of leadership or courage? He is still trying to vote "present" as he did 129 times in the Illinois state legislature.

Late last week, President George W. Bush held a meeting at the White House with congressional and senatorial leaders to discuss a plan for resolving the current mortgage banking crisis. Barack Obama and John McCain attended along with leaders from both the House and the Senate. Reports have indicated the meeting did not go well and ended with the Democrats storming out.

So the $1,000,000 question is how did Barack do in the White House meeting? Did he demonstrate leadership? Did he seek to build consensus? Did he unify the differing parties? Did he behave like a president? Sadly, the answer to these all important questions is a resounding, "NO!"

Reports have been leaking out from behind the closed door meeting at the White House and they suggest that Obama was the reason for the meeting's failure. Obama was not prepared to discuss the topic, yet he clumsily attempted to lead the conversation and when he began to make a fool of himself, Obama lost his composure and essentially blew up the meeting. Leadership? No. Unifier? Certainly Not.

Then to make matters worse, Obama and his surrogates walked out of the meeting and tried to shift the blame to Senator John McCain. The only reason Obama had even half a chance to play that dishonest and duplicitous game was that both the White House and Senator McCain did not want to turn the meeting into a political contest or partisan event. Thus, both the White House and McCain said nothing to embarrass Obama or draw attention to Obama's failures. They hoped to show that they were serious about putting the interests of the nation first in finding a solution -- instead of looking for a momentary advantage in publicizing Obama's gaffes and failures.

McCain suspended his campaign and said it was time for nonpartisan leadership and McCain did exactly as he said. Even with Obama's outrageous gaffes behind closed doors, McCain did not say a word about Obama's embarrassing failures in the meeting.

In stark contrast, the response of Obama and his surrogates was to misrepresent what happened at the White House meeting and falsely claim that John McCain had inserted presidential politics into the process. Had McCain tried to insert presidential politics into the process, he would have told the American public about Obama's embarrassing performance at the White House meeting. But McCain was silent about Obama's ineffectual leadership at the White House meeting. McCain understood that trying to fix the blame -- even if it fairly rested with Obama -- would do nothing to promote a solution to the mortgage lending crisis.

Obama also understood that same fact, but he didn't care. Gaining a momentary political advantage was more important to Obama than working towards a solution. Obama and his surrogates (i.e. Senator Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schummer among others), came out of the meeting with a fabricated story designed to make Barack Obama look good and fool the American public.

Had America been able to look into the White House cabinet meeting room and see what a failure Obama was, they would know he doesn't have the knowledge, experience or temperament to be president. More importantly, this entire event shows that Obama cannot be trusted to be president. And now, America knows that in addition to be an ineffectual leader mired in partisanship, Obama and his political allies are also dishonest to the core. That is not change and it is not anything Americans can believe in.

###

Mr. Landrith is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Business Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Politics. He had a successful law practice in business and litigation. In 1994 and 1996, Mr. Landrith was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's Fifth Congressional District. He served on the Albemarle County School Board. Mr. Landrith is an adjunct professor at the George Mason School of Law. He is recognized as an authority on constitutional law and jurisprudence, federalism, global warming, and property rights.

george@ff.org