Obama, responding to a question after his rally in Indiana, said he believed the Bush administration would have to intervene, at the cost of billions in taxpayer dollars, to ensure that Fannie and Freddie would not collapse and further damage the housing market.
But Obama said that any federal bailout should be constructed in a way that does not reward the executives and shareholders of the two troubled mortgage companies.
"The one thing I want to make sure of is that whatever steps we take that we don't let them make profits and keep those private, but then when they have losses simply those are all public," he said. "You notice a lot of these folks don't like government when they're making money but the minute they start losing money, they think government's just swell."
Amid the day of partisan rancor, the candidates also found time for a bipartisan gesture: a joint statement announcing that they would appear together at ground zero in Manhattan to mark the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We will put aside politics and come together to renew that unity, to honor the memory of each and every American who died, and to grieve with the families and friends who lost loved ones," the statement said.
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noam.levey@latimes.com
maeve.reston@latimes.com
Levey reported from Indiana, Reston from Colorado and New Mexico. Times staff writer Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.
