Freddie Who?

On Monday the 8th, at 8:30 am in the morning, my colleague S laid down a challenge: I would hear the names Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae at least ten times on that day. I took the challenge and began to keep track of just how often I heard (or read) those words. I applied a stringent standard: each story I heard or read counted as a single mention. In the context of those stories, I'm pretty sure that I heard the words Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae well over 40 times.

Here is my Freddie and Fannie journal for yesterday.

10:16 am, mention #1:
NYT e-mail alert that the federal takeover of Fannie and Frieddie has lifted the opening markets.

1:27 pm, mention #2:
Kevin Drum blog over at Mother Jones mentions the FMs.

4:45 pm, mention #3:
John McCain says the magic words on All Things Considered.

5:31 pm, mention#4:
Not to be outdone, Barack Obama weighs in on All Things Considered.

5:37 pm, mention #5:
Actual story on the bailout details and likely long-term meaning of the bailout; All Things Considered.

5:40 pm, mention #6:
Story on Fannie & Freddie and their boundless lobbying skills on All Things Considered. Turns out Fannie & Freddie were shameless lobbying whores.

5:59 pm, mention #7:
NPR bridge announcement: coming up a story on your favorite party guests, Fannie & Freddie.

6:00 pm, mention #8:
NPR bridge announcement: coming up on Marketplace at 6:30, a story....well, go ahead and guess.

6:01 pm, mention #9:
Headlines on NPR: White House weighs in on the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bailout.

6:30 pm, mention #10:
Marketplace headlines: Guess who's coming to dinner?

6:32 pm, mentions #11, 12, & 13:
Three different stories on Marketplace.

6:45 pm mention #14:
Stock Market report on Marketplace......Fannie & Freddie stock prices are included.

7:29 pm, mention #15:
Sarah Palin gaffe report on Kevin Drum's blog at Mother Jones. Palin says, " The fact is, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they've gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers," demonstrating a colossal misunderstanding of just what's going on because it was just yesterday that Fannie and Freddie belonged to the taxpayers. Also, I notice she never complains that oil companies are too big. Or insurance companies are too big. Size matters to the Republicans in a weird, weird way.

Obviously, the 6pm hour was the low (or high?) point of Freddie and Fannie in my day. Happily, I am fully versed on this particular economic governance disaster.

And I would just like to say this: when some hard-working family doesn't have enough money left over for groceries; when they can't fathom how they'll fill their gas tank and pay the winter heating bill; when they can't afford healthcare for their children, how is it that they are left to their own devices and made to feel shame about their circumstance while Fannie and Freddie stumble and get a zillion dollar bailout?

I don't oppose the bailout; I know that it must be done. But if we can make Freddie and Fannie solvent, then I think we owe the same consideration to hardworking families struggling to get by.

That view (and my promiscuously slavish devotion to the liberal media as noted above), is just one more reason that I'll be voting for Barack Obama in November.