Yesterday in in Espanola, New Mexico, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said, “Get rid of the do-nothing approach to our economic problem and put somebody in there who’s going to fight for you.“

Um, Senator, based on your Senate record, that means you’re asking us to get rid of your approach and put John McCain in there to fight for us.

As I noted previously, John McCain in 2006, spoke out “on behalf of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005,” his plan to fix FannieMae and FreddieMac. Sounds like someone was fighting for us.

And that wasn’t his first effort at reform:

Three years earlier, McCain had introduced legislation—co-sponsored with the House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt—to create a Corporate Subsidy Reform Commission. The purpose of this group was to eliminate what McCain called “corporate welfare.”
. . . .

In other words, as far back as 2002, John McCain realized that underlying what would ultimately become the Fannie and Freddie crisis was the willingness of Congress to provide financial support to private corporations. And he was willing to take on powerful interests to stop this process. If his bill had resulted in action at that time, the unprecedented steps that the Secretary of the Treasury and Congress had to take in the last two weeks would not have been necessary.

(Via Powerline.)

That’s doing nothing? Teaming up with a member of the other party, taking on powerful special interests. Kind of sounds like some new kind of politics, you know the post-partisan kind.

John McCain has a record of attempting to do something to prevent the current crisis. That’s hardly doing nothing. Sounds like someone who’s fighting for his fellow Americans.

Now, Senator Obama, I pose the question to you. You’ve been in the United States Senate for over three-and-one-half years, what have you done to try to stand up to entrenched interests and powerful bureaucracies? Have you done as much as the current Governor of Alaska in approximately the same amount of time (after she had stepped down as Mayor of Wasilla, but before she was elected to that office)?

And heck, at that time, she was only the chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission (AOGCC).  You’ve been a United States Senator.

UPDATE: Even the Washington Post (The liberal Washington Post!?!?) agrees: “In 2006, [McCain] pushed for stronger regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — while Mr. Obama was notably silent, concluding “Mr. Obama’s attack does not give a fair reading of the McCain record.” Is that like lying? Or is it misrepresentation? Or just plain ignorance?

The record is clear. John McCain pushed for oversight. Barack Obama did nothing. On this issue (as on many others), the Democrat has the “do-nothing” record.

UP-UPDATE: Jeff Emmanuel asks a great question, “If Senator Obama really has the solution to our ruinous financial situation, why is he withholding it from Congress while they are in their final session of the year?” Delving into Obama’s rhetoric in New Mexico, Emmanuel observes “Obama was extremely short on detail and long on generality.” (H/t Instapundit).