Obama Claims Community Organizing Experience Would Help Him Solve Banking Crisis

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama today told a hastily assembled St. Louis, Missouri news conference that his experience as a community organizer made him “uniquely qualified” to solve the nation’s banking crisis.

“My time organizing poor folks in the streets of Chicago, combined with my months of service in the U.S. Senate,” Obama told reporters, “shows me exactly what needs to be done to solve our banking crisis.”

Obama laid out a three-point plan for ending the crisis.

“First,” he began, “I’d get all the people affected by the crisis into one room to see what their concerns were. I know a lot of people were affected, so we’d probably need a big room.

“Second,” he continued, “I’d put all of their concerns on a yellow pad, and then I’d concentrate on their issues, along with a bunch of really smart people who have a background solving banking crisis issues, and come up with a plan.

“And finally,” he said, “I would enlist the support of the American people to rally around the plan and end the banking crisis. Together, we can solve the banking crisis.”

Meanwhile, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain today told a hastily assembled Denver, Colorado news conference that his experience as a Vietnam war hostage made him “uniquely qualified” to solve the nation’s banking crisis.

“My time trapped in a small prison cell in Hanoi, combined with my years of service in the U.S. Senate,” McCain told reporters, “shows me exactly what needs to be done to solve our banking crisis.”

McCain laid out a three-point plan for ending the crisis.

“First,” he began, “I’d get all the people affected by the crisis into one room to see what their concerns were. I know a lot of people were affected, so we’d probably need a big room.

“Second,” he continued, “I’d put all of their concerns on a yellow pad, and then I’d concentrate on their issues, along with a bunch of really smart people who have a background solving banking crisis issues, and come up with a plan.

“And finally,” he said, “I would enlist the support of the American people to rally around the plan and end the banking crisis. Together, we can solve the banking crisis.”

At both news conferences, when pressed for details about the nature of the plan that would emerge from the three-step approach, each candidate offered a terse “No comment.”