TARP: "I inherited..."

I can’t let go of TARP. Bush was shown a piece of paper that said if he didn’t immediately authorize the release of nearly a trillion dollars the world economy would collapse within 24 to 48 hours.

He was like a father who takes his kids to the movies. On the parking deck, a group of thugs jump out of the shadows and point their guns at the young ones. He is told that he can kiss them good-bye unless he goes down to the ATM in the lobby and withdraws a sum. He cannot tell if the guns are even loaded; or judge the resolve of the thieves. All that would have to come later. All he knows is that he must do what he can to protect the kids NOW!

What makes me suspicious of this episode is its timing. Having come just days before the election, it clearly knocked out the Republican candidate. Much was made of McCain’s panicking in the press. Obama, on the other hand, seemed aloof, almost as if he were in on the joke.

Nobody to this day (that I am aware of) has examined what actually happened: Who talked to Bush; who talked to those who talked to Bush, and so on down the line. If there actually was a problem, what were the metrics that defined it? If an actual run on the money markets was in progress, who started the stampede, and how did they start it?

All we have is the result: Obama got elected; and Bush continues to be vilified because of it, and labeled a spendthrift to give Obama cover for his own excesses.

What’s been happening since amounts to a cover-up. It’s Bush’s gift to Obama that keeps on giving. Who, nowadays, can avoid that clarion call of our current president, repeated over and over again: “Why, when I was elected, I inherited…”