Obama walks a fine line on financial regulation

After all, he’s gotten 50 percent more in campaign contributions from the financial sector than McCain has, a whole $3 billion difference.

And Goldman Sachs, lucky enough to still be standing, is Obama’s single top source of campaign cash; three executives from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have raised at least half a million dollars for Obama.

I’m sure that, as we blog, McCain’s camp is combing through his past statements to find, if nothing else, silence from him on the issue of calls for tightened regulation of the sector.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (a Goldman Sachs alum, as was Robert Rubin, Clinton’s last Treasury Secretary) proposed giving the Federal Reserve more power over investment banks.

But the Fed has powers NOW that it hasn’t been using. And, given the Fed’s record over the past few years, wouldn’t that be the fox consorting at the henhouse door?

Beyond that, why should we expect real reform? Also don’t forget that Rubin was a prime driver behind passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which broke down the Glass-Steagall Act and eliminated the wall between commercial and investment banking.

Has Obama or McCain ever called for reinstituting Glass-Steagall protections?

The silence is deafening.