This week's Nation magazine is running a piece by the head of its intern program, Max Fraser, in which he suggests that the economic advisors who are assisting Senator Obama's campaign are helping him stake out a position on the subprime lending crisis 'to the right of not only populist Edwards but Clinton as well." Fraser notes that Obama's proposed solution to the mortgage mess is "short on aggressive government involvement and infused with conservative rhetoric about fiscal responsibility." He states that Obama has not called for a moratorium on foreclosures or a freezing of interest rates or the use of federal subsidies to help homeowners keep up with payments and restructure loans or some regulation of the financial industry -- Edwards and Clinton have offered variations on those themes. Instead Obama has proposed legislation against mortgage fraud, a tax credit for homeowners which amounts to about $500 on average and an additional fund that will help a certain limited number of homeowners. Fraser attributes Obama's constricted response to "the centrist politics of his three chief economic advisors and his campaign's ties to Wall Street institutions opposed to increased financial regulations" and points out that Obama has received almost $10 million in contributions from the finance insurance and real estate sector through October 2007. For the candidate of change and bold ideas, Obama's tepid response to the overwhelming mortgage crisis suggests a Republican-orientation rather than a Democratic one -- and should be subject to debate in the remaining presidential primaries.
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