NPR- Financial Crisis Gave Candidate Obama A Boost - WHAT A SURPRISE!
C.Tudor
It's too bad NPR couldn't bring itself to point out what a cheesy little
Chicago hustler he is and that he has damaged the economy by exploiting
the financial crisis in September 2008 as "brink" of The Second Great
Depression, and is largely responsible for the rise of unemployment from
the predicted 8% to 10%, 12%, or whatever it turns out to be next year
or possibly even peaking in 2011. The ObamaConArtist needs to step
forward and admit that he turned a shallow recession into a Worldwide Panic.
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[ The audio file is linked at this page: ]
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112651600
NPR- Financial Crisis Gave Candidate Obama A Boost
A year ago, the big political conventions had just ended, and with
Election Day less than two months away, a remarkable two-year
competition for the White House was reaching a climax. Over the course
of the campaign, there had been heated debates about the war and about
national security, but suddenly there was just one story and just one
issue: the economy.
Cable and business news channels warned of a financial free fall, of
global markets in turmoil, and of stocks tanking as the crisis heated up.
Meanwhile, President Bush, overshadowed for much of the year by the
campaign to replace him, now had another major crisis to deal with. Last
Sept. 18, Bush spoke in the Rose Garden.
"The American people are concerned about the situation in our financial
markets and our economy," Bush said. "I share their concerns."
Economy And The Campaign
The two major party nominees also made it clear that they shared those
concerns. The crisis provided a challenge for Democrat Barack Obama and
Republican John McCain. Neither could make policy, but each needed to
demonstrate his readiness to handle the crisis if elected.
For McCain, however, it presented an additional problem. His strength
was national security, and he had built his campaign on his resume as a
Vietnam-era prisoner of war and war hero. For the Arizona senator, the
economy had been a weak spot throughout his campaign, going back to the
primaries.
When Lehman Brothers failed, a week after the government takeover of
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Republican candidate's first reaction
was an effort to reassure the public.
"The fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very
difficult times," he said while campaigning in the important
battleground state of Florida.
Obama, on the trail in Colorado, pounced on that remark, seeing a chance
to tie his opponent to Bush's economic policies.
"This is what happens when you see seven years of incomes falling for
the average worker while Wall Street is booming and declare, as Sen.
McCain did earlier this year, that we've made great economic progress
under George Bush," Obama said at the time.
Then came the attack that the Democratic nominee would repeat over and
over in the coming weeks.
"That is how you can reach the conclusion, as late as yesterday, that
the fundamentals of the economy are strong."
The Turning Point
McCain tried to explain his line, saying he was talking about the
fundamental strength of "American workers," but Obama kept up the
attack. McCain's problems were compounded by a decision to suspend his
campaign until Congress dealt with emergency legislation to bolster the
economy. McCain even said he was canceling his appearance at a
presidential debate, scheduled for days later in Oxford, Miss. He later
reversed both decisions.
Earlier in September, the McCain campaign was feeling good about how the
race was shaping up.
After the Democratic and Republican political conventions ended, polls
showed the Republican with a modest lead in the polls. He had also
received at least a temporary bounce from the selection of Alaska Gov.
Sarah Palin as his running mate. But once the economy became the issue,
Obama took the lead and began to pull away.
Looking back, this was the decisive moment in the fall campaign. But
David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president and a top Obama
campaign strategist, says the outcome wasn't so clear at the time.
"I think it became a great test of leadership at the moment, and I think
it redounded to his benefit," Axelrod says.
But Axelrod said they couldn't say for sure it would break in Obama's
favor at the time.
"All we knew was a very serious crisis was in the offing and he wanted
to deal with it in as serious a way as possible," Axelrod said.
Voters Concerned By The Economy
On Election Day, Obama won handily, with polls showing that the economy
was a major issue for voters.
Once he was in the White House, the serious crisis that dominated the
campaign's final months continued for the new president. Within weeks of
Obama's inauguration, Obama signed into law a $787 billion economic
stimulus package.
"Today does not mark the end of our economic troubles," Obama said, "nor
does it constitute all of what we must do to turn our economy around.
But it does mark the beginning of the end."
The stimulus passed without a single Republican vote in the House and,
in the nearly seven months since, the opposition has continued to accuse
the White House of trying to spend its way out of recession while
running up huge deficits.
Among the most persistent critics is Republican Whip Eric Cantor from
Virginia.
This summer, Cantor told Fox News, "I think it is fair to say that the
stimulus is a flop."
Cantor complained about the continued job losses in the country and the
rising rate of unemployment. The White House counters, however, that the
benefits of the stimulus have only begun to be felt, and that without it
the recession might have been far worse.
'Road To Recovery'
On Labor Day, Obama attended a big union picnic in Cincinnati sponsored
by the AFL-CIO. He defended his policies, saying people seem to forget
how bad things were a year ago, even as he expressed displeasure that
the job losses continue to mount � an additional 216,000 in August. Even
in that number, however, Obama sees some reason for hope.
"For the second straight month, we lost fewer jobs than the month
before, and it was the fewest jobs that we had lost in a year," he told
the overwhelmingly Democratic crowd.
Then, kicking into campaign mode, Obama said: "So, make no mistake,
we're moving in the right direction. We're on the road to recovery,
Ohio. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise."
Still, it demonstrates that the road to economic recovery can be long,
hard and politically painful. It's a challenge for the White House to
hang on to support along the way, a task made even more difficult for a
president and a party that that took office promising to bring an end to
the economic crisis.
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