Monday, March 09, 2009

Buffett: GOP Should Unite Behind Obama

NY Daily News

After saying the economy has “fallen off a cliff,” legendary investor Warren Buffett this morning rapped political leaders for not being united enough in dealing with what he called an “economic Pearl Harbor” about six months ago.

Buffett, who supported Barack Obama in the election, didn’t let Democrats skate, but he particularly singled out the GOP.

“They really do have an obligation to support things that are clearly designed to fight the war in a big way,” Buffett said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this morning.

“I think that the Republicans have an obligation to recognize this as an economic war and realize you need one leader,” he said in a pitch for leaders to unite the way they did after Pearl Harbor.

But he also said he understood why the GOP might gripe, since the Democrats have been using the crisis to push all sorts of things.

“You can’t expect people to unite behind you if you’re trying to jam a bunch of things down their throat,” Buffett said.

The Oracle of Omaha also hasn’t been entirely impressed with the way the White House and Congress have been explaining the huge problems to America.

“We’ve had muddled messages,” he said.

Nevertheless, he echoed President Obama’s position that government has a huge role to play in getting the economy working again, which Buffet said could take five years if things go poorly.

“Government is going to play an enormous factor in how fast it (confidence) comes back,” Buffett said.............

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