Oliver Clark Speaks Out! (PS – He’s the Dude Who Asked the Question About Fannie Mae at the Presidential Debate on October 7, 2008)

Ok I usually do not participate in blogs, but I have been receiving a lot of questions so here’s what happened:

1. How did I get to participate in the debate?
Well, as many of you know I went to undergrad at Tennessee State University. (Go Tigers) I have a Nashville area code for my cell phone. So the Sunday before last, I received a call from the Gallop Poll. They asked a few questions regarding my choice in the Presidential election. They asked who I would vote for. I said most likely I would be voting for Barack Obama. They followed with, “is there any chance that you would change your mind“? I said “Of course anything is possible.” They then asked me as an uncommitted voter would I like to participate in the Town hall debate. I said “Of course!”

They told me the selection process was totally random, and I was called. I think about a 120 people were chosen to be apart of the town hall, but only 80 would be on stage. Out of the eighty people chosen to sit on stage I was number 78!

2. How did I get to sit so close to Sen. Obama?
Well, they seated us according to our numbers, they started with number one on the side closest to Sen. McCain and ended on the side with Sen. Obama.

3. How did I get to ask a question?
I had no idea they would choose me to ask a question. They told us to think of one or two questions we would like to ask the candidates if we had the opportunity. I asked a lot of friends and family what I should ask and the consensus was a question on the economy. Tom Brokaw came the morning of the debate and collected our questions and said he along with his team would review all the questions and decide which ones would be asked. About 3 minutes before the debate a fellow town hall participant sitting behind Brokaw looked over his shoulder and saw that 78 had the second question to ask. He mouthed over to me that I would have the second question. I did not believe him, but I still looked back over my question to make sure I would not look stupid! (Whether I did or not that for you to decide) Brokaw asked the first question then came to me. I stood up and asked and my question was in essence how was the bailout package going to help the average American?

4. Was I nervous?
No. I was cool as a polar bear’s toe nails. Yes, of course I was nervous, they said the show was going to be seen by tens of millions of people, but hey I am son of Blood and Thunder so I held it down! Shout out to the Ques Roo!

5. How did I feel about Sen. McCain’s response?
Sen. McCain. Well, Sen. McCain answered the questions with attacks on Barack and did not address how this package was actually going to help out the average American. Not to mention attacks on myself, but that question is to follow. He did say he warned the public of the forthcoming crisis, which I guess was a good thing????

6. How did I feel about Sen. Obama’s response?
I felt Sen. Obama addressed the issue more directly then Sen. McCain did. Obama actually stated that the bailout package was going to help Americans buy homes and stay in their homes.

7. How did I feel about Sen. McCain stating “You probably never heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac before this.”
Well Senator, I actually did. I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent person. I have a bachelor degree in Political Science from Tennessee State, so I try to keep myself up to date with current affairs. I have a Master degree in Legal Studies from Southern Illinois University, a few years in law school, and I am currently pursuing a Master in Public Administration from the University of Memphis. In defense of the Senator from Arizona I would say he is an older guy, and may have made an underestimation of my age. Honest mistake. However, it could be because I am a young African-American male. Whatever the case may be it was somewhat condescending regardless of my age to make an assumption regarding whether I was knowledgeable about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

8. Why did I have a disposable camera?
I do have a digital camera! The people at the debate actually provided the disposable cameras for us and stated we would not be able to take our digital cameras on stage, but we could take the cameras provided for us.

Well, that’s all of the questions I can think of. Let me know what you think, and feel free to ask any questions you have.

Peace and Love,
Oliver

Joe Was AMAZING!

The consensus from the debate seems to be that while Sarah Palin exceeded the exceedingly low expectations set for her, Joe Biden won the night. The word comes from former members of the Bush administration and even John McCain’s former press secretary.

Torie Clarke, who worked with McCain back in Arizona and with the Bush Administration’s Department of Defense, had the following remarks on ABC:

“I’m so surprised at what we are talking about before and after the debate. Before the debate the speculation was all on Sarah Palin, how well can she do, can she answer the tough questions? Nobody was paying attention to Joe Biden. I think Joe Biden had his best night tonight. He came with one mission, and that was to go after John McCain, and he did it, backed up by facts. I think he did a better job tonight of tying McCain to the Bush administration than Obama did last week.

Matthew Dowd, who worked for George Bush’s communications team while in the White House, followed Clarke and he too agreed that the Delaware Democrat took the evening.

“I think, you know, I agree with her on this. I think Sarah Palin did reasonably well. The death spiral she has been on for the last week, she survived. She’s lived another day. She did well. But I think, when the polls come out in the next two, three days, Joe Biden won this debate.”

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1.02.05

You Wanna Talk About Articulate?

Damn, Barack Obama took McCain to SCHOOL today on Econ 101. This is a thing of beauty.

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1.02.21

1.02.05

John McCain has Freddie Mac Head Lobbyists on His Campaign Staff

From Mother Jones…

John McCain railed against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the campaign trail today, saying that the CEOs that led the lenders to ruin “deserve nothing” and should have to pay back their severance packages. In an Wall Street Journal op-ed co-bylined by his vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin, McCain suggested bold reforms for Fannie and Freddie that would “terminate future lobbying, which was one of the primary contributors to this great debacle.”

If that’s the case, McCain should look first to his campaign staffers as the cause of that debacle. One of them was Fannie Mae’s head of lobbying, and spread tens of millions of dollars around Washington in the form of lobbying contracts. A number of McCain staffers were on the receiving end of those contracts, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each from the lenders to rep their interests. And McCain’s campaign manager served as president of a lobbying association that fought to protect Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from the sort of regulation that McCain is now proposing.

In McCain’s op-ed in the Journal, he and Palin wrote:

For years, Congress failed to act and it is deeply troubling that what we are seeing is an exercise in crisis management rather than sound planning, and at great cost to taxpayers.

We promise the American people that our administration will be different. We have long records of standing up to special interests…

But McCain’s own campaign staffers are those special interests, a fact that casts doubt on both McCain’s hiring judgment and his ability to pursue tough reforms of Fannie and Freddie.

Aquiles Suarez, listed as an economic adviser to the McCain campaign in a July 2007 McCain press release, was formerly the director of government and industry relations for Fannie Mae. The Senate Lobbying Database says Suarez oversaw the lending giant’s $47,510,000 lobbying campaign from 2003 to 2006.

And other current McCain campaign staffers were the lobbyists receiving shares of that money. According to the Senate Lobbying Database, the lobbying firm of Charlie Black, one of McCain’s top aides, made at least $820,000 working for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004. The McCain campaign’s vice-chair Wayne Berman and its congressional liaison John Green made $1.14 million working on behalf of Fannie Mae for lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations. Green made an additional $180,000 from Freddie Mac. Arther B. Culvahouse Jr., the VP vetter who helped John McCain select Sarah Palin, earned $80,000 from Fannie Mae in 2003 and 2004, while working for lobbying and law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP. In addition, Politico reports that at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pocketing at least $12.3 million over the last nine years.

For years McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was head of the Homeownership Alliance, a lobbying association that included Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, real estate agents, homebuilders, and non-profits. According to Politico, the organization opposed congressional attempts at regulation of Fannie and Freddie, along the lines of what John McCain is currently proposing. In his capacity of president of the group, Davis went on record in 2003 and insisted that no further reform of the lenders was necessary, in contradiction to his current boss’s sentiments. “[Fannie and Freddie] are subject to an innovative and stringent risk-based capital stress test,” Davis wrote. “The toughest in the financial services industry.”

At a campaign rally Wednesday morning in Fairfax, Virginia, John McCain said that the heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ought to give back the millions of dollars they’ve earned. What about the lobbyists who helped Fannie and Freddie game the system? Maybe McCain can ask them — at the next campaign strategy meeting.

Special 9-11 Edition of The Block FM

Tomorrow marks the 7th anniversary of 11 September 2001. To honor those who lost their lives, who sacrificed their lives, who were injured, traumatized, or affected in any way by the attack on NY’s Twin Towers, Tim and I are having a special edition of our radio show airing on 92.5FM KYHY in Los Angeles tomorrow at 9am (PST). You can listen online at KYHY’s website or you can subscribe to our podcast at our awesome website.

Here are the topics we’ll be hitting tomorrow:

1. 9-11 Commemoration
2. How to be a patriot? – Register to vote and mark November 4, 2008 on your calendars
3. Celebs for Obama – Streisand to headline LA fundraiser – can she break her 0-3 streak?
4. Stan Simmons the sports guy speaks with us about USC v. Ohio St., Tom Brady’s injury, Aaron Rodgers, the rise of the Dodgers, and political wagering
5. Barack Obama’s new ad campaign and his awesome interview with Keith Olbermann (see below)
6. Hillary Clinton – no way, no how, no McCain, and no Palin (the only similarity between these two is an extra x chromosome)