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Obama: 'little doubt' country in recession
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-13 14:22 "I have little doubt that we've moved into recession at this point, and the sooner we can get money into people's pockets, the sooner that we can stabilize the housing market, and the sooner that we can send a message to the markets that we're serious about creating an energy policy that will create greater energy efficiency over the next decade or so, I think the sooner we're going to get our fundamentals right," he said. Said he has been closely monitoring the financial health of mortgage providers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Concerns falling home values may require a government bailout prompted a Wall Street sell-off Friday before markets recovered. "There are a lot of different definitions of what a 'bailout' would look like," Obama said. "There are issues related to the short-term liquidity - can they borrow money? - versus issues related to whether the underlying assets of the two corporations are really unsound. And I think we need to watch carefully and see how it plays out before we make a decision about which steps need to be taken." _Said he hadn't spoken with the Rev. Jesse Jackson since the civil rights leader spoke into an open microphone that he wanted to castrate Obama for delivering a speech about fatherhood that Jackson thought spoke down to black men. "I had spoken to him before, a few days before what he said was released, and, we had actually discussed some of the concerns that he had raised about my fatherhood speech, and I told him that I absolutely believe that we have structural inequalities that have to be dealt with," the senator said. He said he told Jackson he is committed to better education, health care and community reconstruction to benefit black families, but fatherhood must also be discussed when half of black children grow up without their father. "My argument is simply that it's not an either/or proposition; it's a both/and proposition," Obama said. "I won't back up one bit in asserting that that's a problem that we have to be honest about." _Said he hoped both the US and Iraqi governments would soothe Sunni fears of reprisals by the country's Shiite majority. "I don't expect that a withdrawal will be perfectly neat," Obama said. "I think that we've got to do a lot of legwork and we've got to make sure that we are ramping up both diplomatic efforts and reconstruction efforts and humanitarian efforts in Iraq, and that we have to make sure that Sunnis have some assurance that they're going to be legitimate partners in the government process." _Drew the line at negotiating with al-Maliki or making any promises to the Iraqi foreign minister. "We have one president at a time," said Obama. "I'm there to listen." |
