Barack Hussein Obama claimed that “Republican deregulation” is responsible for the financial crisis in both presidential debates. Most people unfamiliar with Obama spin probably buy into his calm and deliberate rhetoric.

Obama spent most of his time in the Illinois legislature voting “present” and surrogates claim a vote of “present” or “no” is the same thing in Springfield. How convenient that explanation is for people on Mars. Obama voted “present” 129 during his eight years in the Illinois Senate.

“In the Illinois State Senate, Senator Obama voted 130 times ‘present,’” Hillary Clinton said in one debate.

“That’s not ‘yes.’ That’s not ‘no.’ That’s ‘maybe.’”

In Illinois they call voting “present” a strategy. We call a convenient cop out from responsibility.

Pam Sutherland is the president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council. She says Obama voted “present” at least seven times to provide cover to other abortion-rights supporters on such bills as the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act.” (See Video in Header)

So according to Ms. Sutherland the only reason Obama voted “present” was to help his colleagues.

“Senators didn’t want to vote pro-choice anymore, because they knew these were being used against them in their campaigns,” Sutherland said.

“If Sen. Obama were truly looking for a kind of deregulation that might be responsible for the current financial crisis, he need only look back to 1998, when the Clinton administration ruled that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could satisfy their affordable housing obligations by purchasing subprime mortgages. This ultimately made it possible for Fannie and Freddie to add a trillion dollars in junk loans to their balance sheets. This led to their own collapse, and to the development of a market in these mortgages that is the source of the financial crisis we are wrestling with today,” writes Peter Wallison.

Mr. Wallison suggests that Sen. Barack Obama could have shown leadership for tightening regulation on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“In the summer of 2005, a bill emerged from the Senate Banking Committee that considerably tightened regulations on Fannie and Freddie, including controls over their capital and their ability to hold portfolios of mortgages or mortgage-backed securities. All the Republicans voted for the bill in committee; all the Democrats voted against it. To get the bill to a vote in the Senate, a few Democratic votes were necessary to limit debate. This was a time for the leadership Sen. Obama says he can offer, but neither he nor any other Democrat stepped forward.”

Mr. Obama claims he wrote a letter to the Treasury Secretary, allegedly putting himself on record that subprime loans were dangerous and had to be dealt with. If the letter exists an extensive search does not provide a copy so maybe Obama’s dog ate it.

If Mr. Obama did write the letter he is suggesting he knew there was a problem with subprime lending but was unwilling to confront his own party by pressing for legislation to control it. As a demonstration of character and leadership capacity, it bears a strong resemblance to something else in Sen. Obama’s past: voting present. Indeed!