McCain in 'help your customers' plea to US banks

Republican presidential candidate John McCain called on US banks today to help their customers in the same way as they have been helped by the US government.

The former Vietnam prisoner of war and Arizona senator, who has admitted the economy is not his strongest point, said US banks should be passing on to their customers the benefits of heavy doses of federal assistance.

On the campaign trail in California, Mr McCain, 71, said he was calling upon banks “to help their customers, and their nation, out”.

Mr McCain, the Republican Party’s likely nominee this summer, said: “I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis.

“I will evaluate everything in terms of whether it might be harmful or helpful to our effort to deal with the crisis we face now.”

The Federal Reserve, the US central bank, essentially bailed out the US investment house Bear Stearns last week.

Mr McCain said the government was not in the business of saving and rewarding banks or small borrowers who behave irresponsibly, and added he wanted to leave the door open to a wide array of proposals to address the problems.

“I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers,” he said.

“Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy.”

His comments came after Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton unveiled a four-point plan yesterday which she said would help families avoid foreclosures and unfreeze mortgage markets.

Today, Mrs Clinton was coming under fire for overstating her foreign policy experience.

The former first lady claimed she landed in Bosnia 12 years ago under sniper fire and had to run from the airplane, but footage discovered by CBS showed her being greeted by a young girl on the tarmac, with her daughter Chelsea at her side.

Mrs Clinton described the issue as a “misstatement” and a “minor blip”.

But Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Barack Obama’s campaign, said that her story “joins a growing list of instances in which Senator Clinton has exaggerated her role in foreign and domestic policy-making”.

The 60-year-old New York senator has also been accused of overstating her involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process.

Mr Obama, who was on the last day of a three-day Easter break today, will go on a six-day “Road to Change” bus tour across Pennsylvania, which holds the next presidential primary contest on April 22, later this week.

Polls show Mrs Clinton has a substantial lead over the 46-year-old Illinois senator in the state.

The race for the Democratic nomination is likely to come down to so-called superdelegates, party officials and other leaders whose votes are not tied to the primary season results, as neither Mr Obama nor Mrs Clinton are likely to reach the magic number of 2,024 needed with pledged delegates alone.

Mr Obama has 1,620 delegates, compared with Mrs Clinton’s 1,499, according to the latest Associated Press figures.

After Pennsylvania, where Mrs Clinton is seen as favourite, the remaining nine contests in Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana, South Dakota and Guam only offer a total of 408 delegates between them.