Democrats and the Financial Crisis

John McCain can pick up his economic game a bit by highlighting the Democratic Party's role in the creation of the financial crisis, seen here in this ad from Right Change:

This is much more than smear politics.

As Ron Moody writes:

As we prepare to elect our next president we need to keep in mind that a president can do only as much as Congress allows him to do. Case in point, the Bush administration made an effort five years ago to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prevent the mortgage mess. This move was aggressively opposed by congressional Democrats, specifically Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, who are now trying to put blame [on] Bush.

Four years ago, Sen. John McCain pushed for federal regulations in regard to Fannie and Freddie to control their reckless business practices. Again, the Democrats put a halt to such regulations.

The top three U.S. senators getting big political bucks from Fannie and Freddie are Democrats, with Sen. Barack Obama in the number two position after only fours years in office. Dodd is number one, with more than $250,000 received.

So now we have Frank, chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, in hot water because of his past relationships with Fannie Mae, and Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, who accepted millions of donations from now-failing finance firms he oversees. They helped put together the deal to bail out the companies that line their pockets. Think wisely, people, when you cast your ballot in November.

See also Bloomberg's penetrating piece, "How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis," which provides additional information on how congressional Demcrats blocked regulation that might have contained - if not prevented - the Wall Street collapse.