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WASHINGTON: White House hopeful Barack Obama discussed the US
housing crisis with top officials as he stepped up a campaign
offensive on the economy and vied to elevate his leadership
credentials Tuesday.
After his talks with Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Obama also
reviewed the war on terror with Pakistan’s visiting prime
minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Meanwhile, speculation intensified that Obama
could soon name his running mate. Timothy Kaine, the one-term
governor of the pivotal state of Virginia, was named by the
Washington Post as a prime contender.
With the succession of meetings in Washington,
the relatively inexperienced Obama vied to project the image of a
statesman who stands ready to serve if he defeats Republican John
McCain in November’s election.
But McCain, battling back after Obama’s
well-received foreign tour last week, said the Illinois senator was
a dangerous bet on the economy and on the war in Iraq.
Obama said he pressed Paulson in telephone talks
to ensure that government-backed bailouts of mortgage finance giants
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “protect homeowners and not bail out
shareholders or managers.”
Paulson and Bernanke have been overseeing
efforts to rescue the stricken housing market and prop up enfeebled
banks and mortgage lenders, whose financial troubles are threatening
to spill over to the wider economy.
New legislation, which is set to be signed into
law by President George W. Bush this week, provides some $3.9
billion to help local governments buy and rehabilitate foreclosed
homes.
Obama also met Bernanke in person during a stop
in Washington, and said he “made clear his respect for the
independence of the Federal Reserve System and the special
importance of its role during periods of economic uncertainty.”
In a meeting Monday with top economic advisers,
Obama said the economy was now in the grip of an “emergency”
that required short-term aid to consumers and longer-term action to
retool both Washington and Wall Street.
But as voters reel from job losses, home
seizures and rocketing fuel prices, McCain’s rival campaign said
Obama’s economic plan would serve only to plunge the United States
into a 1930s-style depression.
-- AFP
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