On Mon, 11 May 2009 20:48:08 -0700, "John R. Carroll"
wrote:


"F. George McDuffee" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 11 May 2009 17:37:54 -0700, "John R. Carroll"
wrote:


"F. George McDuffee" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 10 May 2009 20:48:09 -0700, "John R. Carroll"
wrote:
snip
I think this is one of the big differences between Bush/Paulson and
Obama/Geithner. The latter intends to be deliberate and pragmatic.
The former was just putting out fires willy nilly, or trying to anyway.
It
was terrible to have all this come to a head in an election year.
snip
It came at exactly the right time. I only wish that all these
crisis would arise just before elections.

Do you think President McCain and Secretary of the Treasury Gramm
would be doing any better?

McCain/Palin wouldn't have beaten Obama/Biden regardless George.
Presidential politics had a big influence on what Paulson did.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Paulson pulled the trigger at a time
of his choosing specifically to prevent McCain from prevailing.
I wear a belt even when I've got my suspenders on.
He certainly knew what the Lehman failure would do and Bernanke could have
prevented that from happening.

JC

=============
Now there's a scenario I hadn't thought of.

No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up.

This would also [help] explain the fratricidal rift within the
GOP. My cousin is a long-term county Republican party official
and she remarked several times during the campaign that it was
almost like several individuals on the Republican national &
state committees and some of the Republican pacs were trying to
lose.

McCain was never really expected to win. He was to be this generations Barry
Goldwater.
To paraphrase the line Senator Lloyd Benson said to Republican VP
candidate Dan Quayle, "I knew Barry Goldwater, and he is no Barry
Goldwater, although he is a senator from Arizona."

That was why he was chosen. Didn't you notice how suddenly the Republican
field resolved itself?
The horse race was on one day and completely off the next.

In hindsight, more like a sacrificial goat.


While personal rancor is always a motive, this appears much
deeper. Any thoughts?

McCain, at 72 years of age, had survived years of brutal torture with all of
the subsequent effects as a prisoner of war in SE Asia.
He was also a four time cancer survivor.
CDC estimates before the election put his remaining years - absent the
incredible man eating stress of the Presidency - at 5 or less.
The rigors of the Presidency, especially at this time, might well have
killed him outright within weeks or months.
Even had they not, it is possible, and perhaps probable, that the 25th would
have been invoked had he not just expired.

This must have been known to the Republican poobahas -- why then
was he selected. Was it his turn, like it was Bob Dole's turn?

To expand a bit on this, McCain must have know this -- why did he
make the kamikaze charge?

The United States 2008 Republican National Convention took place at the Xcel
Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, from September 1, through September
4, 2008

Sarah Palin ends up on the ticket September third, 2008 (?) as next in line
to the Presidency should McCain win.
Think about that and reflect on the likely hood that any senior Republican
not familiar with Ms Palin wouldn't have had any real trouble discerning her
qualifications, or lack thereof, to assume the Presidency.

Treasury actively discouraged any further interest in Lehman starting
September 9, 2008 having learned that the Koreans couldn't obtain financing
for their takeover offer. BofA was specifically warned off by Tim Geithner,
then at the NY Fed as it's President, in spite of BofA's interest in a
deal.

Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 15,
2008. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers is the largest bankruptcy filing in
U.S. history with Lehman holding over $600 billion in assets.

Talk about burning the barn down to get rid of the rats!!!!!!

While hindsight is 20/20, given what must have been known, how
did the senior people involved think that they could
allow/promote just *ONE* failure immediately prior to the
election without bringing the entire jury rigged structure down?

Or was this a case that they knew that things were about to
collapse, and by triggering Lehman Brothers when they did, they
blocked McCain *AND* left the Democrats a pile of armed and
ticking financial/social H bombs to worry about. That is was
this "market break" was not an "accident" at all, but an arson
fire set by a thief to cover a burglary?


JC


Unka' George [George McDuffee]
-------------------------------------------
He that will not apply new remedies,
must expect new evils:
for Time is the greatest innovator: and
if Time, of course, alter things to the worse,
and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better,
what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman.
Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).