FACTS?  ANYONE?

Posted at 8:15 A.M. ET

The great Tom Sowell asks, "Do facts matter?"

He's referring, of course, to a political campaign in which facts seem to have become luxuries, and out of reach for some.

The current financial bailout crisis has propelled Barack Obama back into a substantial lead over John McCain-- which is astonishing in view of which man and which party has had the most to do with bringing on this crisis.

It raises the question: Do facts matter? Or is Obama's rhetoric and the media's spin enough to make facts irrelevant?

Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years-- including the present year-- denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis.

It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial crisis.

Pay no attention.  Pay absolutely no attention.  This is propaganda of the far right, secretly written by Joe Lieberman's cousin.

We also hear that it is the free market that is to blame. But the facts show that it was the government that pressured financial institutions in general to lend to subprime borrowers, with such things as the Community Reinvestment Act and, later, threats of legal action by then Attorney General Janet Reno if the feds did not like the statistics on who was getting loans and who wasn't.

Then there is the little matter of Franklin Raines, who made $90-million at Fannie Mae, and, despite sudden denials, is an adviser to Barack Obama.

Who in Congress defended Franklin Raines? Liberal Democrats, including Maxine Waters and the Congressional Black Caucus, at least one of whom referred to the "lynching" of Raines, as if it was racist to hold him to the same standard as white CEOs.

And more...

Obama has been the second-largest recipient of Fannie Mae's financial contributions, right after Senator Christopher Dodd.

But ties between Obama and Raines? Not if you read the mainstream media.

Facts don't matter much politically if they are not reported.

The GOP is asleep, its usual situation:

The media alone are not alone in keeping the facts from the public. Republicans, for reasons unknown, don't seem to know what it is to counter-attack. They deserve to lose.

They sure do, if they can't wake up and get the facts to the American people.  But it's been reported that McCain fears being seen as "racially insensitive" if he lays the truth on the table - as if large numbers of African Americans would vote for him to reward his "sensitivity."

And finally...

But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all, who has accomplished absolutely nothing beyond the advancement of his own career with rhetoric, and who has for years allied himself with a succession of people who have openly expressed their hatred of America.

Tom Sowell argues it better than the McCain team...which is one reason why McCain is being so badly beaten.

John McCain, call Tom Sowell.  Chat a bit.  You'll learn how it's done.

October 5, 2008.