Umm, Barack?

Obama laid out his thoughts on the bailouts, laying out seven conditions in which he would support a bailout:

1) No blank check

Sounds good to me.

2) Tax money should not be used to provide golden parachutes to the CEOs who are partly responsible for this mess

Definitely.

3) Taxpayers should have the opportunity to recoup losses

Sure.

4) Plan must include a way to keep homeowners in their home

I'd like to know a little more about what he means by this. Is this a plan to put a moratorium on foreclosures? Or is going to give a free ride to the people who took out a bad loan? Just as I'm not okay with corporate welfare, I'm also not okay bailing out folks who got in over their heads. Think about it: I don't live in a mansion because I can't afford it. Should someone get to stay in their mansion because there's a gold mine being thrown somewhere in their direction? So, I'd like a clarification.

5) Other nations need to step in since this crisis is affecting their economic health, too

Seriously, good luck with that. On the surface, it's a very common sense proposal--I've thought of this before: why do we have to shoulder the burden and stabilize the global market? It is because the US is the epicenter of the mortgage crisis, so convincing a bunch of other countries-- who also got screwed into buying these bad loans-- to chip in and help, will be a huge waste of time. Unless Obama has a way of securing cooperation from other countries (because if this doesn't get solved, they're all screwed), this point is just wishful thinking on Obama's part.

6) Increasing regulation

While de-regulation is partly to blame for the mortgage crisis, I don't know if folks have enough faith in our government to regulate the financial sector--Republicans and Democrats alike are bedfellows with industry lobbyists.

7) A bailout has to benefit main street

Agreed.