Send Them Home Poor

Barack Obama on the Fannie and Freddie execs:

Senator Barack Obama and two other prominent Democrats urged federal housing regulators on Tuesday to cut the golden parachutes of the ousted leaders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, another sign that the government bailout of those mortgage giants could reverberate through the presidential campaign.

Mr. Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, asked that any “inappropriate windfall payments” to the chief executives and senior managers of those agencies be voided, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the new regulator for Fannie and Freddie.

Together, Daniel H. Mudd of Fannie Mae and Richard F. Syron of Freddie Mac are eligible for as much as $24 million in severance, retirement benefits and deferred compensation.

“Under no circumstances should the executives of these institutions earn a windfall at a time when the U.S. Treasury has taken unprecedented steps to rescue these companies with taxpayer resources,” Mr. Obama wrote.

(standing on my table clapping)

You know, this kind of populism could be reported on. It could be acknowledged that Obama opposes taxpayer funds going directly to CEO windfalls while John McCain's own fundraiser is installed as the new head of Fannie Mae. It could be noted that Obama seeks to end the privatization of government resources while McCain has at 20 fundraisers who have lobbied for Fannie and Freddie.

It could be turned into a narrative about which candidate is on your side and which isn't.

It won't be, because there's important "common idiom parsing" to be done.

RELATED: Mike Oxley sez White House extremists and Alan Greenspan are responsible for this mess.