Acorn, Obama and the Financial Mess

In my past posts, I've attempted to demonstrate the current financial crisis is not a result of deregulation, but rather of government interference in the free market through the GSE's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It is interesting to note that the radical organization, Acorn, has been a major proponent of sub-prime lending and the CRA which punished lenders who did not offer risky loans to questionable borrowers. More interesting is that Barack Obama has strong ties to Acorn, and it is no surprise that the original bailout bill had earmarks to Acorn and similar groups. Those earmarks were eventually removed by GOP lawmakers after much wrangling, but the bailout still failed.

The National Review has revealed the Obama-Acorn connections and how the two are tied up in the current financial mess:

What deserves closer scrutiny is Barack Obama’s history with ACORN. Obama cites Saul Alinsky, a self-acknowledged radical who advocated extreme acts to achieve social goals, as one of his inspirations. ACORN follows the Saul Alinsky model. After Obama graduated from Harvard, he went to work for ACORN in Chicago. Mr. Obama then became a trainer for ACORN, teaching others how to employ ACORN tactics in voter registration drives. This ACORN involvement coincides with the increasing partisanship of this situation.

Those who want to save Fannie and Freddie appear to be those who are receiving the most from these pathetic entities:

You can also see where Fannie and Freddie look for protection by where they direct their money. Public records show that the top two recipients of Fannie/Freddie campaign contributions are Sens. Chris Dodd and Barack Obama, taking $165,000 and $126,000, respectively. Dodd, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, and Mr. Obama, who says he’s going to remedy the whole situation.

...But here, the Democrats are squarely to blame. They have resisted all attempts at reforming Fannie and Freddie, and pushed those organizations to become ever more reckless in their policies. This made the investments on Wall Street carrying those tainted mortgages go from bad to worse, and now we’re in a crisis and on the verge of a meltdown.

This is inexcusable. And if independent voters figure this out, their outrage over this situation will suddenly be directed against the party that pushed these disastrous policies. So Democrats want ACORN to get as much funding as possible, because they might need some new votes in their column on Election Day.

The eagerness of the Democrats to pass this bailout makes it stink to high heaven. More than that, their eagerness to work with President Bush to pass a bailout conjures thoughts of corruption and malfeasance at the highest levels of government and industry. Investigations, both criminal and congressional, are needed to ensure that justice is done. The American people deserve better than they're getting, and certainly deserve better than Acorn's biggest cheerleader: Obama.