Oct. 11, 2008
David Goldstein and Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Newspapers

As the economy worsens and Election Day approaches, a conservative campaign that blames the global financial crisis on a government push to make housing more affordable to lower-class Americans has taken off on talk radio and e-mail.

Commentators say that's what triggered the stock market meltdown and the freeze on credit. They've specifically targeted the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the federal government seized on Sept. 6, contending that lending to poor and minority Americans caused Fannie's and Freddie's financial problems.

Federal housing data reveal that the charges aren't true, and that the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.

Read full article here.

Let's not get totally distracted by Palin; this kind of ideological subterfuge will have long term consequences if it goes unchallenged. This is the first campaign in recent memory in which fundamental conservative economic gospel-- free (when convenient) markets, trickle down theory, privatization of public goods (social security, health care, etc.)-- has been a part of the political debate, and much of this has to do with the financial crisis. Acquiescing to these false, partisan, racially-tinged attacks on legislation designed to end documented institutional racism also means ceding important ground about the fundamental role of government in preserving our national economic interests.
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