And he’s right. It’s bad enough watching the other failed executives walk away with money in light of the extraordinary actions by the US taxpayer. The idea of two complete failures, who pushed out numbers to make a bad situation appear better, walking away with a few dozen million dollars while everyone else is picking up the tab is sickening. (Whoever updated that contract in July to guarantee more money also deserves to be sacked immediately.)

Mr. Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, asked that any “inappropriate windfall payments” to the chief executives and senior managers of those agencies be voided, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the new regulator for Fannie and Freddie.

Together, Daniel H. Mudd of Fannie Mae and Richard F. Syron of Freddie Mac are eligible for as much as $24 million in severance, retirement benefits and deferred compensation.

“Under no circumstances should the executives of these institutions earn a windfall at a time when the U.S. Treasury has taken unprecedented steps to rescue these companies with taxpayer resources,” Mr. Obama wrote.