In Tuesday's debate, John McCain had a very "senior" moment -- or perhaps a deliberate lie. The gory details have been posted by ProRepublica at HuffPo.
March 22, 2007:
Barack Obama's letter to Treasury Secretary Paulson
There is grave concern in low-income communities about a potential coming wave of foreclosures. Because regulators are partly responsible for creating the environment that is leading to rising rates of home foreclosure in the subprime mortgage market, I urge you immediately to convene a homeownership preservation summit with leading mortgage lenders, investors, loan servicing organizations, consumer advocates, federal regulators and housing-related agencies to assess options for private sector responses to the challenge.
...
Working together, the relevant private sector entities and regulators may be best positioned for quick and targeted responses to mitigate the danger. Rampant foreclosures are in nobody’s interest, and I believe this is a case where all responsible industry players can share the objective of eliminating deceptive or abusive practices, preserving homeownership, and stabilizing housing markets.
November 2007:
John McCain's interview with the Keene (NH) Evening Sentinel:
I don't really know of hardly anybody who, with the exception of a handful, that said, wait a minute this thing is getting completely out of hand and is overheating. So, I'd like to tell you I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk. I did not.
October 7, 2008:
John McCain in the Nashville debate:
My friend, I'd like you to see the letter that a group of senators and I wrote warning exactly of this crisis. Sen. Obama's name was not on that letter.
According to Jesse Nankin at ProRepublica, that letter has not been found, and the McCain campaign has not produced it.
Also very interesting: while Obama's warning letter is widely known and he has talked about it on the trail for months, McCain's warning letter (if there is such a thing) is new; he's never talked about it before. As far as I know, no other Senator has mentioned the letter either, even though McCain claims "a group" of other Senators signed it. And we have no idea who received it, or when it was written.