If Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s callfor a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures sounds familiar, that’s because his former Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, proposedsomething similar during their primary fight. And Obama didn’t thinkit was a good idea at the time. Politico’s Ben Smithnotesthe Obama camp is going out of its way to note that Obama opposed Clinton’s push for a five-year freeze on interest rates, not necessarily the moratorium. He did refer to her plan as “disastrous,” but he was referring to the specifically to the interest-rate freeze, Smith says. Still, he clearly wasn’t a fan, and he didn’t propose anything similar during the rest of the primary campaign.
One big difference now: The moratorium would be limited to banks that participate in the government’s $700-billion bailout plan — a kind of give and take, in order to get the government’s help, Smith says.
Obama’s rival, Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, is supposed to come out with some of his new economic ideas Tuesday.
Wonder if some of them will sound familiar as well.