Point the blame

This is the definition of irony - the Republicans may well lose the upcoming election because of a flawed policy promoted, encouraged and demanded by the Democrats.

Back in 1999, Fannie Mae listened to President Bill Clinton, Sen. Charles Shumer, Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd and eased credit requirements on loans to minorities and low-income consumers. The Dems wanted to broaden the home ownership policies to allow consumers with questionable credit history the opportunity to achieve the American dream. They did so despite dire warnings from a number of economists.

Well, all went along fairly well until the bills started to arrive. Fannie Mae, the nation's largest underwriter for home mortgages, had a green light from the Democrats in Congress and thus, opened the pursestrings even wider. Fannie Mae said at the time that the new mortgages were available to all potential borrowers but that the move was intended to increase the number of minority and low-income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings. So by 2001, half of the Fannie Mae portfolio was made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers.

Fast forward to 2008 and the you-know-what has hit the proverbial fan. The disgraced former head of Fannie Mae has now joined the Obama team and the government has been forced to take over the failing lenders.

But when it comes time to point fingers, it's the Democrats who heap the blame on the Republicans for the massive failure. This lending crisis now threatens to hit the pocketbooks of every American while Frank, Shumer and Dodd blame the Bush administration for their own failures.

If John McCain has any hope of reversing the polls in the upcoming election, he needs to quit playing nice and start naming names. He needs to follow the lead of the infamous Watergate investigation: who knew what and when did they know it? If he can tell the American public exactly who is responsible for this financial fiasco he still has time to capture this election.

The financial crisis was the responsibility of a handful of people who played fast and loose with the taxpayers' money. When you combine greed and the obsession with power you have a dangerous combination. When you ignore common sense and logic you have the same formula for disaster.

In a nutshell that is exactly where we find ourselves.