Award-winning reporter Charles Duhigg of The New York Times on This American Life, October 11, 2008:
The blame for this is absolutely bipartisan. Both parties deserve a great deal of blame for what happened with the subprime mess. And to try and pin the blame on one party or the other really muddies the issue. A crisis like what’s going on right now, can’t develop without everyone fueling it. I mean we’re looking at the biggest crisis in a century. That only happens when basically everyone drops the ball. So there’s enough blame to give to both parties here.
Fannie and Freddie were part of the problem, but not the cause of the problem.
Neither McCain nor Obama have any particular claim to doing either right or wrong.
(We know Duhigg is good because he’s a native New Mexican.)