XDA

God, I've missed Mark Steyn. The prosecution he faced for accurately quoting Muslims about Muslims which POed other Muslims (hypersensitive ones) in a nation, our polite neighbor to the North, which once defended freedom of speech, put him in a fit of pique and silent for a while.

But he's back in a pretty big way with a review of the recent Vice Presidential debate, with a focus on Biden, and it was very good, as usual, and insightful but the second to last paragraph made me laugh out loud, twice. Here's a taste from another paragraph or two.

By contrast, Biden was glib and fluent and in command of the facts – if by "in command of the facts" you mean "talks complete blithering balderdash and hogwash." He flatly declared that Obama never said he would meet Ahmadinejad without preconditions. But, on Debate Night, the official Obama Web site was still boasting that he would meet Ahmadinejad "without preconditions." He said America spends more in a month in Iraq than it's spent in seven years in Afghanistan. Er, America has spent over $700 billion in Afghanistan since 2001. It's spending about $10 billion a month in Iraq. But no matter. To demonstrate his command of the "facts," Sen. Biden sportingly offered up his own instant replays:

"My friend John McCain voted 422 times against tax cuts for the middle classes. Let me repeat that so the American people are clear on this. My friend John McCain voted 673 times against tax cuts for the middle classes."

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race; Joe Biden; Truth Challenges

Some people think Senator Joe Biden did OK in the vice presidential debate last night. Getting basic facts wrong again and again and again is not doing OK in my book. Let's look at one of the many:

Biden said that "...two years ago Barack Obama warned about the sub prime mortgage crisis." I didn't remember any such warning in 2006. So I googled the phrase and this is all I got, a March 22, 2007 letter from Senator Obama to Bernanke and Paulson. So not actually 2 years ago. But rather than a warning about the CRA mandated risky mortgages, which is the crux and source of most of our finance troubles lately, and the reason for the 'bailouts,' the letter was about protecting the end users of the financial market, the mortgagors. See for yourself:

There is grave concern in low-income communities about a potential coming wave of foreclosures. Because regulators are partly responsible for creating the environment that is leading to rising rates of home foreclosure in the subprime mortgage market, I urge you immediately to convene a homeownership preservation summit with leading mortgage lenders, investors, loan servicing organizations, consumer advocates, federal regulators and housing-related agencies to assess options for private sector responses to the challenge.

We cannot sit on the sidelines while increasing numbers of American families face the risk of losing their homes.

Let's compare that milktoasty, 'jumping late on the bandwagon' letter to the legislation Senator John McCain co-sponsored in 2005 and the speech he gave in support of it on May 25, 2006:

Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae's regulator reported that the company's quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were "illusions deliberately and systematically created" by the company's senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae's former chief executive officer, OFHEO's report shows that over half of Mr. Raines' compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

[...]

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation. (Emphasis added).

So what Biden said was not an actual lie, but it was far, far from the truth, particularly in light of the clear warning about what has just happened which McCain voiced and sought to remedy a full 3 2 years ago.

Oh, so what happened to the bill? The Democrats killed it.

UPDATE: More on the subject here.

UPDATE II: Michael Totten throws in his two cents (and the first part, at least, is funny) here.

CORRECTION: The legislation to rein in Fan and Fred, the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, was 2005 but McCain became a co-sponsor in 2006.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race; Joe Biden; Truth Challenges