The first comment by mcoleman is spot on.

@SayHey “…the lenders were bludgeoned by government regulators into making loans that at one time would have been unthinkable.”

@eleno “The Community Reinvestment Act was done under Clinton. And pushed forward by such activist organizations as ACORN. It was the root of the housing problems.”

Congratulations on perfectly Orwellian arguments. I could point out that it was decades of relentless deregulation which allowed the shadow banking industry to spring into being. I could mention that Fannie and Freddie were late getting into the sub-prime game and did so because they were worried that they were rapidly losing market share. I could draw your attention to the fact that the real estate bubble was actually a global phenomenon affecting economies across the developed world from Ireland to Spain to China (where the bubble is only now beginning to pop). However, I’m absolutely certain that I’d be wasting my breath (or my typing as it were). You people do not hold these beliefs because they are rational. You hold these beliefs because they satisfy an emotional need sharper than any crack addict’s hunger. You are simply and utterly incapable of admitting that you are wrong. It’s that simple and that childish. You will invent any excuse to lay the blame at someone else’s feet, no matter how farcical. When Bush was lambasted for the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the aircraft carrier during perhaps the most absurd photo op in presidential history, his administration blamed the Navy for the banner. Not his fault, see?

@eleno “The regular publishing of left wing and Democrat shills without ever publishing an alternative viewpoint explains why Reuters is considered to have a relentless left bias.” Unless a media conglomerate has a “relentless” right-wing bias (looking at YOU Fox), then conservatives will bitterly complain about “left-wing” bias. When scientists reveal the results of their experiments, they are regularly denounced by conservatives whenever those findings contradict conservative orthodoxy. eleno, you don’t merely wish for an “alternative viewpoint.” You wish to utterly destroy any viewpoint which challenges your belief system. You and your ilk are not capable of self-doubt, no matter how compelling the evidence that your beliefs are incorrect.

The root cause of the resurgence of the right is that these are stunted people who cleave to irrationality and emotionalism instead of fairness and logic. Yes, many liberals suffer the same disease. It is the human condition after all. Yet it is a matter of degree, and most conservatives have their irrational indignation perpetually turned up to “11″.

It would be nice to see a right of center article on Reuters from time to time. The regular publishing of left wing and Democrat shills without ever publishing an alternative viewpoint explains why Reuters is considered to have a relentless left bias.

[As an aside I have repeatedly (8 times) asked Reuters what its policy on bias is. So far silence.]

It was then allowed to continue under Bush.

How disingenuous of Frank to hide that core fact under the rug. In other words the Democrats and left wing activists are as much to blame for the economic issues as the Republicans.

This article contains the oft-made claim that the conservatives are doomed because they are so “extreme”. How does that explain the 2010 election which resulted in the biggest Congressional turnover in 60 years? That does not sound like a losing strategy. Sure, the progressives would prefer a Republican Party populated by plenty of liberals (usually referred to as “moderates”) – like it used to be when the Republicans were a permanent minority – it was only when the Republicans fully embraced conservatism that they became a majority.

When Bill Clinton was in the White House, the economy was on fire, the stock market was setting new records on a weekly basis and the US was not involved in any significant military action overseas. And, for this, Mr. Clinton was nearly impeached. Before Clinton even took his first oath of office, one could see “Impeach Clinton” bumper stickers on cars. The right had been kicked out of the presidency and they were pissed.

The right is also very good at messaging. During the debate on health care, the phrase of the day was “death panels”. I still don’t understand why the right wants 10 to 15 percent of the citizens of the US to be excluded from the health care system, but to make the argument, they invented “death panels”. As the economy continued it’s free fall, the right switched to talk of Obama’s citizenship. When Bin Laden was killed, Sarah Palin congratulated George Bush. I didn’t say the message was sensible or sane, just consistent.

When the right does not occupy the White House, they become the most obnoxious, screaming child in the room. In the 90′s, there was a huge congressional move to the right during Clinton’s first term, but, he still got re-elected, as the right splintered between conservative and ultra-conservative in 1996. I sincerely hope history repeats itself in 2012.