Reply #94: I would suggest that you make certain that you have an honest understanding [View All]

[FrenchieCat]

as to all sides of this complex issue before making a proclamation as to what "should" have happened.

In other words, you are setting up the "vote for or against" option that was offered at the time and equating Obama's choice as though he wholeheartedly supported the TARP package vote, when in your eyes he should not have. The problem with that kind of thinking is that you are not discussing the ramifications as to what would happened under the other option (voting against it), and are only looking at what did happen to date.

As an Accountant whose husband is involved in the finance business, I say to you the same thing that Obama stated on 60 minutes when asked basically the same question as you have framed it. he responded, it's easier to make pronouncements about what happened then to contemplate what didn't happen.

I think sometimes some of us think we are smarter than what we truly are, and make statements like "It makes no sense to me that someone as intelligent as Obama would fall for this scam."

Perhaps the question should be, since Obama is so intelligent, is it possible that there is something that we are missing, and that perhaps we are not as smart as we think we are, and that we really don't have all of the answers? What would others have done in the same situation, assuming that like Obama, your only power at the time (that of being a candidate) was to stipulate safeguards and to insist over and over again that they should be part of the package?

To some degree, Obama is like someone sitting on a bus behind the Bus Driver, telling the bus driver to turn left in order to avoid careening over a cliff. He may be sitting behind the driver, but he still doesn't have control over the steering wheel. And so the driver does eventually steer to the left, but perhaps not fast and hard enough. So the cliff is avoided, but perhaps there is damage to the bus that would not have occurred if the turn would have been executed differently. Does that put Obama at fault? And would it been better for Obama not to have said anything to the driver at all (which is what I equate as Obama's only other option; voting "no" on the package)?

If something wasn't done, could there have been catastrophic consequences? Are you taking those consequences under consideration in your hindsight analysis? Because if not, then aren't you doing anyone any favors by the way you have framed your wonderment?