2nd Presidential Debate Part 1

It's a townhall format. TB = Tom Brokaw moderator. BO = Barack Obama and JM = John McCain.


TB Since you last met at Ole Miss the world has changed. The economy. BO is going first.

Allen Schaefer- "What's the fastest way to bail out the people at the bottom?

BO- worst crisis since Great Depression. You are worried about sending kids to college. it's a failure of policies of last 8 years. Deregulation hasn't worked out that way. Step one make sure the package passed last week works properly. Perform oversight. AIG went on a 400K junket after bailout. Middle Class needs a rescue package. It means help for homeowners...loan projects...fix healthcare...fix energy. You need some working for you and not just those with lobbyists.

JM-you go to the heart of Americans' worries tonight. My plan has to do with energy independence. We have to keep taxes low. Lets not raise them on anybody. You know we laid a 10 trillion debt to our kids? I think this has become so severe we have to do something about home values. As President I would order treasury sec. buy up those mortgages.

How do you pay for this without revenues John?-me

TB - obviously Paulson's powers are expanded who would put there McCain?

JM-not you Tom. I think the first criteria is someone Americans ID with. Meg Whitman E Bay. The point is somoene that inspires trust and confidence. We don't have trust and confidence in our institutions.

BO-Warren Buffet is a good choice. The key is making sure that the next Treas. Sec doesn't just help those at the top and hope it trickles down. Part of the problem is for many of you wages have flat lined. It's getting harder to save. I want to provide a tax cut to 95% of Americans. Sen. McCain is right about stablizing housing prices but wages are also a priority.

TB- Oliver Clark "Well through this crisis most have had a difficult time. What started this?"

JM-Bailout is the right word. One of the real catalysts..really the match is Freddie Mae and Mac. They are the ones with the encouragement of Obamam's cronies and friends. We tried to stop that greed and excess. Meanwhile some Dems and members of Congress. Meanwhile they were getting all kinds of campaign contributions. BO got the most of their lobby money.

The bailout is not enough. Fanny Mae was the catalyst.

BO-As a pratical matter...the credit market has frozen up. And companies use that for payroll. We shouldn't have been here in the first. I have to correct McCain's history.

It was about the deregulation of the system. I said two years we have a subprime lending crisis. I wrote letters to Paulson and Bernake and nothing happened. With respect to Fannie Mae. I never promoted Fannie Mae. In fact McCain's campaign advisor is a lobbyist for Fannie Mae. This is the beginning of the process. And the next president has to make sure that you and not banks get bailed out.

TB- Are you saying the economy is going to get worse?

BO-I am confident about the American economy...but we still have an archaic 20th century regulatory powers in this modern financial environment.


JM-I think if we get rid of the special interest. I'd like you to see a letter I wrote...Senator Obama's name is not on that letter. America's economy is the best exporters. Best workers in the world. We got to give them the chance to do their best again.