First she’s up. Then she’s down. Now Gov. Gregoire is back on top again in the latest SurveyUSA poll. And as Darryl has pointed out, Washington isn’t the only state that has seen a similar pattern in its gubernatorial race in the weeks following the national conventions.
Darryl attributes Rossi’s recent rise to a now fading “Republican Awakening;” others have dubbed it a “Palin Surge.” But I think it’s starting to look more like a “Republican Bubble,” and as we’re repeatedly reminded, often quite painfully, bubbles have a tendency to pop.
At least, that’s what it looks like according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll which finds Obama up nationally by a 52% to 43% margin, an 11-point swing from McCain’s 49-47 lead in the days following the Republican convention. Pop!
And what has led to such a dramatic swing in public opinion?
Just 9 percent of those surveyed rated the economy as good or excellent, the first time that number has been in single digits since the days just before the 1992 election. Just 14 percent said the country is heading in the right direction, equaling the record low on that question in polls dating back to 1973.
More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support.
McCain’s initial reaction to the financial meltdown was both baffling and befuddled, leading even conservative columnist George Will to question whether the senator has a temperament suited to the presidency. And McCain’s ham-fisted effort to pound a tenuous connection between Barack Obama and failed mortgage giant Fannie Mae’s former CEO Franklin Raines (apparently, they’re both black) is about to blow up in his face, with news that McCain’s own campaign manager has been on Freddie Mac’s payroll through the end of last month!
Since 2006, the federally sponsored mortgage giant Freddie Mac has paid at least $345,000 to the lobbying and consulting firm of John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement.
Freddie Mac had previously paid an advocacy group run by Davis, called the Homeownership Alliance, $30,000 a month until the end of 2005, when that group was dissolved. That relationship was the subject of a New York Times story Monday, which drew angry denunciations from the McCain campaign. McCain and his aides have vehemently objected to suggestions that Davis has ties to Freddie Mac—an especially sensitive issue given that the Republican presidential candidate has blamed “the lobbyists, politicians and bureaucrats” for the mortgage crisis that recently prompted the Bush administration to take over both Freddie Mac and its companion, Fannie Mae, and put them under federal conservatorship.
But neither the Times story—nor the McCain campaign—revealed that Davis’s lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, based in Washington, D.C., continued to receive $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until last month—long after the Homeownership Alliance had been terminated. The two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told NEWSWEEK that Davis himself approached Freddie Mac in 2006 and asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. The arrangement was approved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac’s senior vice president for external relations, because “he [Davis] was John McCain’s campaign manager and it was felt you couldn’t say no,” said one of the sources.
Huh. I guess McCain should have talked to Davis before angrily denying that he had anything to do with Freddie Mac.
When asked about his own campaign manager’s associations with the mortgage giants, McCain, in an interview with CNBC on Sunday night, said that Davis “has had nothing to do” with the Homeownship Alliance since it disbanded and “I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it.”
Or maybe, McCain and Davis were just plain lying?
Davis, in a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign Monday, said, “It’s been over three years since there’s been any activity in this area and since I had any contact with those folks.”
You know, except for his consulting firm cashing their checks. (Only in DC would being paid for doing nothing be advertised as evidence of ethical absolution.)
Many have attributed the recent Republican Bubble to Sarah Palin, whose nomination undoubtedly energized the far-right Republican base, but I’d worried that much of the bounce was due to the surprising success of McCain’s facially ridiculous attempt to rebrand himself as a Beltway outsider dedicated to bringing sweeping change to our nation’s capital. Well, if so, that success now appears to have been momentary.
As one of the Senate’s most fervent free traders and deregulators, McCain’s fingerprints are all over this financial mess, and he has surrounded himself with lobbyists who have enriched themselves on behalf of many of the failed companies now seeking a trillion dollar taxpayer funded bailout. It is hard to imagine how the coverage gets any better for McCain from now through the election.
Meanwhile, one of Obama’s greatest weaknesses during the primary—the notion that he was a usurper with untested loyalties going up against a party stalwart like Hillary Clinton—may prove to be a great strength with independent voters trying to sort out who they can best trust to handle this crisis while protecting the interests of average Americans. Perhaps I underestimate the power of images, but I just don’t think that ads showing that both Obama and Raines are black, and that they may have met each other once or twice, are enough to convince voters to pin the blame on the donkey.
Did the market meltdown pop Little Ms. Moosedrool’s bubble?
Answer: Yes. The fashionably late Crash of ’79, which just arrived, has knocked out the last wobbly prop from conservatism. Sucks to be us.
(And I truly missed YLB while I was in Republican Rehab. Good to see you again, little buddy.)
We can see why Dino runs away from the “Republican” label – he’d be down ten to Gregoire if ran as one. It’s so bad that even trolls won’t identify themselves as Republicans. It’s gotta suck for them. More so in November, I’m sure.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....uit24.html
And even better, “Governor” Greg’s back on top! Just love that female superior action.
(Up against the wall, Mother Superior. And cease with the Gregoirian Chant.)
For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
[and so on…]
http://www.redroom.com/blog/ti.....ge-updated
Why be gop when you can be a proud and unrepentant Republican. We’re going to cancel the election anyway — economic meltdown — you know.
And all you Democrat Congressmen and Senators: We have a safe place for you to stay in the upcoming upheaval.
Real safe….
What Daryl mistakenly left out was :
904. (IF NOT DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN) Do you lean more towards the:
Democratic Party Republican Party (VOL) Neither No op.
9/22/08 RV 46 28 24 2
Just a little lop sided in responses which proves the poll rigged
@4
Read the link. Wow, that guy repeated the words “White privilege” a bunch of times, therefore it must exist!
He’s not suffering from white privilege, he’s suffering from white liberal guilt.
Blue John, wanna play a game with me some day? It’s called spot the black yard worker. We’ll drive around the eastside, where I work, and every time you point out a black yard care worker, I have to pay you $20, but every time I point out a Hispanic one, you owe me $5.
Wanna take me up on my offer? If not, why not?
We can do the same thing with fast food establishments, if you like.
What Daryl mistakenly left out was :
904. (IF NOT DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN) Do you lean more towards the:
Democratic Party Republican Party (
9/22/08 46 28
Just a little lop sided in responses which proves the poll rigged
sorry it got crushed
What Daryl mistakenly left out was :
904. (IF NOT DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN) Do you lean more towards the:
Democratic Party Republican Party
46 28
Just a little lop sided in responses which proves the poll rigged.
Again hope this works.
(Dem) (GOP)
46 28
Just a little lop sided in responses which proves the poll rigged.
Again hope this works.
“Cancel the election ….. cancel my subscription to the resurrection.”
You really need to turn off DeadAir America. They give martial-law paranoia a bad name.
Great minds, however, do go around in circles. When Palin was rolled out on Good Friday, after Obama Thursday, I promptly posted on Seattle’s better blog (ahem … Sound Politics) that the Divine Sarah sounded like Little Ms. Teenage Carolina and her touchingly pathetic pewl about U.S. of Americans. Stephanie Miller either stole the Palin/Teen-Carolina connection from me, or had the same brilliant insight.
Ditto four years ago when I suggested that 2004 was a pivot election like 1920, 1932, 1952, and 1980. Things seemed so bitched up that maybe it was best to sweep out the old. Peggy Noonan made the same point a few weeks later. Now she says that the selection of Sarah was cynical bullshit. Agreed.
Am hearing the sound of silence, @7. Think you missed your shot at a big-time cash-in bailout from blue john.
Amazing how race baiters run and hide when their racist racialist diversity politics get too hot to handle.
What’s the frequency, Truth? Isn’t 904, like, an error code?
Well, Republican suck, and everyone knows it this year more than ever, and why they got a bubble at all I’ll never know, but it’s gone.
Buh-bye, Dino. Maybe you should have told the electorate your positions after all. Yeah, right.
@13
Maybe you could read the actual poll stats.
Or have the author on HA give us this.
You really have nothing better to do at the Redmond campus, Dad, than to hang at a skank venue like this?
Am starting to get it, T(h)ruth. Lopsided against Dino, particularly in the mysterious east (Spokane, Pasco, etc.)
I got some white privilege for ya:
The rational response to tody’s financial meltdown is to pay for government services (such as massive bailouts) with high taxes on the income of high-income individuals.
Nothing would help our economy more than stifling a bit of the kind of fat-cat speculation that’s brought us to our current situation.
16 DS
Ha, ha. Yeah, you suck too.
Public Service Announcement: 10:15-10:30 State Earthqauke Drill – take your keyboards with you under your desk.
I’m already under my desk.
Stifling fat-cat speculation? Not good for Democrats, the fat-cat party.
And is it true that 4 of 5 vivisectionists of fat cats endorse Obama?
God I love the smell of burning trolls in the morning.
It smells like……..victory.
@15
Don’t tell them to read the the Stats.
Keep them in the glee of Victory as the faces of defeat are better and the price of Prozac will rise greatly as it did in 2004 :)
re 11:
http://www.infowars.com/?p=4803
“U.S. troops returning from duty in Iraq will be carrying out homeland patrols in America from October 1st in complete violation of Posse Comitatus for the purposes of helping with “civil unrest and crowd control” – which could include dealing with unruly Americans after a complete economic collapse.
The deployment of National Guard troops to aid law enforcement or for disaster relief purposes is legal under the authority of the governor of a state, but using active duty U.S. Army in law enforcement operations inside America absent the conditions described in the Insurrection Act is completely illegal.
This shocking admission was calmly reported on September 8th by the Army Times website, which reports that from the beginning of next month the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team “Will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.” …….
What’s the difference between a plan and a conspiracy? The people deploying the troops have a plan. Those who object to the plan are ‘conspiracy theorists’.
By the way: Why are there laws against criminal conspiracies if they are only figments of someone’s fevered imagination?
The McCain campaign has openly and fully proved the NYT article to be a piece of shit and you truly are a horses ass for continuing the lie.
How does this have anything to do with the topic of double standards benefiting white people?
You know, except for his consulting firm cashing their checks. (Only in DC would being paid for doing nothing be advertised as evidence of ethical absolution.)
The only reasonable interpretation of the fees paid to Davis’ firm is that Davis hadn’t done anything yet, i.e. that the fees were intended for services not yet rendered.
Hm… Wonder what those services might include…
John McCain and Sarah Palin are beginning to look like cartoon characters. A good satirist could not have drawn up two more silly figures to represent the Refucklicans in this election. We should have to pay to enjoy the entertainment that those two provide us. Pass the popcorn. Another beer, please.
I’m waiting for Rove’s “October Surprise”. We haven’t heard much from Bin Laden lately, the last time a tape from him was rolled out was when – right before the last debate in 2004????
I guess Rove and his peeps have already gone through the archives and found something they can piece together and release through some website around the end of October.
But that might backfire, as it simply reminds voters that seven years after the attacks of 9/11, Bin Laden still hasn’t been caught, despite Bush’s promise to get him “dead or alive”. At the time he didn’t specify that death by old age was included among those possiblities.
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
My favorite site, look at that blue..
I got a call from a Republican friend of mine, wanting to get together for breakfast later this week. He started out the conversation by saying that the “Congress is really making a huge mistake” by “trying to use a national crisis for political purposes”.
He went on to say that “Congress needs to put the needs of the American people first”, and reminding me that “he comes at this from the background of a fiscal conservative”.
That’s when I stopped him, and said: “Oh, so that means you are a Democrat now?”
Silence for a few seconds, then a chuckle. “Maybe we should talk about this at another time….”
Yep.
After not holding a news coinference for 40 days McCain want’s to call off Friday’s debate and says he will stop campaigning.
Is that an Onion piece?
In a statement, McCain says he will stop campaigning … and return to Washington to focus on the nation’s financial problems.
Bush to speak to Nation tonght and use the tremendous credibility for competence and truthfulness he has earned over the past 8 years of one of the most conservative administrations in history. What a job this guy has done. If only the country could have 8 more years we would all be speaking (North) Korean.
MCCAIN ‘SUSPENDS’ CAMPAIGNING?…. It’s not at all unreasonable to wonder if there’s just something wrong with John McCain.
McCain suspends his campaign, and asks to postpone Friday’s debate, to address the financial crisis.
Both candidates have been marginal players; McCain, though, seems to have the potential to make himself a major one, and his move is a mark, most of all, that he doesn’t like the way this campaign is going.
But in terms of the timing of this move: The only thing that’s changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling.
Apparently, as McCain sees it, 10 days after the Wall Street crisis began, now he wants to head back to Capitol Hill to do some work. Of course, lawmakers and administration officials have been working quite a bit, but McCain, who has played no direct role in the negotiations thus far, wants to swoop in and tell everyone what they need to do. This from a man who hasn’t shown up for work at all in literally months.
What’s more, after whining incessantly for months about the need for one-on-one debates, McCain has decided, just 48 hours before the first official debate, that everything should be postponed. And Barack Obama should go along with all of this, because McCain says so.
I’ve never even heard of a presidential candidate acting in such a reckless, compulsive, and ultimately haphazard fashion. McCain just decided to “suspend” campaign activities? This rivals picking Sarah Palin for the ticket on the list of desperation moves.
McCain spoke at some length yesterday about the nature of the economic crisis, and what he’d like to see happen. But at the time, it apparently never occurred to him to get actually get involved in the process. That is, until today.
The Republican nomination has apparently gone to some kind of man-child who believes stunts and gimmicks are the way to the White House. It is nothing short of breathtaking to see someone so manifestly unserious seek the highest office in the land.
The moment the winds shifted and Obama had a growing lead in the polls, it’s time to suspend the campaign. Good lord, McCain really does think voters are idiots.
25 RR
In place of “manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks” think “McCain is losing election.”
34 SPP
I think Atrios put it pretty well:
“McCain is suspending [his] campaign (whatever that means) and going to Washington so he can have pictures taken of him looking like he’s doing something. Asks that Obama do the same, and wants Friday’s debate to be postponed, because he can’t possibly do 2 things at once.”
26
You cite the McCain as evidence of the thruthiness of something. Are you nuts?
@39
Well they did getsome great phtos of Palin meeting with various political leaders and war criminals yesterday. When an AP reporter asked her what she learned from the meetings the McCain handlers would not let her answer. they better check her ears for transmeission devices when she debates Biden.
Comrades, take heart in the great and final victory of socialism we have just witnessed. And also take heart that, because of the awesome victory of socialist workers, every penny of the $700 million “bailout” will be going into the pockets of workers!
Ha ha. I can haz satire.
#37
It’s a smart move for McCain to suspend his campaign right now. His poll numbers are tanking.
Politico.com
September 24, 2008
Categories: John McCain
McCain’s gambit
If Obama’s team is smart, and they are, they’ll run some more ads after Bush’s speech tonight with photos of Bush and McCain hugging.
43 T3 (ooh, like the Terminator)
And, of course, Palin met ONLY with our own bought-and-paid-for “world leaders:” former UNOCAL employee Hamid Karzai and Colombian wouldn’t-be-president-without-US-dollars, McCain-recently-used-him-for-photo-op-and-hostage-rescue President Alvaro Uribe.
Here’s the funny part. Karzai was quoted as saying “I found her quite a capable woman. She asked the right questions on Afghanistan.” CNN attributed the quote to Karzai, but it actaully came from his spokesman Humayun Hamidzada. Here’s the real money quote from the report:
“Palin was asking questions, he said. Exactly what questions he couldn’t recall.”
McCain hasn’t cast a vote in the Senate since May-NOW he wants to get busy.
She asks questions? Clearly Palin is qualified to be
President,vice-president…uhhhhh35 “Is that an Onion piece?”
Apparently not.
I’m guessing she asked things like:
What’s an Afghanistan?
Where did you get that funny hat?
Cool stuff:
You can bring up party ID again, but I think this trumps.
For once, I think McCain’s right. It’s become increasingly apparent that the “Paulson plan” has a lot of flaws. Also, Paulson, Bernanke and Bush are all pushing so hard for its immediate implementation that…well, ya just gotta go, “Hmmmmmm…”
This still leaves the ball in Congress’s court to do someting before they adjourn. Otherwise (or maybe anyway) you can bet your left gonad that Bush will use the next institutional failure (which may well be WaMu) to declare an emergency and try to foist God knows what upon us by executive order during the recess.
McCain isn’t suspending campaign activities. What he wants is for Obama to suspend his campaign, while McCain re-focuses his campaign into lots of photo-ops of him “discussing” the problem and “showing leadership” to resolve the crisis. Same campaign, just a different format. His schedule pretty much shows that.
McCain did the same thing on Sept. 11, when he agreed with Obama to suspend campaign activities on that anniversary date. But while the news cycle lacked any news from the Obama campaign, the Palin interview with Charles Gibson hit the airwaves that day, pushing aside most other news. Obama would be a acting foolishly to go along with such a request.
Besides, isn’t this the perfect time to have a debate about national economic policy – when the government is about to consider a massive bailout which would encumber our federal budget for decades to come, and result in an unprecedented transfer of economic power to the executive branch? If not now, when would we have such a debate?
What McCain frevently hopes is that he can re-position himself as a “tough protector of the taxpayer” on the bailout plan before he has to answer any tough questions regarding his, and his fellow Republicans responsibility for the current mess.
My friend’s announcment (mentioned above) that Congress is being unpatriotic by trying to take political advantage of the situation, and McCain’s proposal to “suspend” the campaign due to the crisis, signals that the Rove organization has already begun issuing new talking points. They want to deflect attention for the Republican responsibility for the crisis, and the shaft the American taxpayer will take if the current plan is accepted, by re-forming the issue as whether the Democrats are being sufficiently “patriotic” in how they handle the issue.
The Treasury Secty in his testimony to Congress took a similar tack when he insisted that this “crisis” wasn’t the appropriate time to assess blame, or to argue over the details of the plan but that Congress should simply accept the plan, as is. Apparantly anything less than blind obedience is “unpatriotic”. Even the Republican senators bristled at that one.
ABC News is reporting that there are currently 26 active FBI investigations ongoing on Wall Street. According to this ABC report, the FBI is trying to determine “whether company officials systematically misled investors about the financial strength of their institutions.”
And these are the guys to whom Bush and Paulson want us to give $700 billion? Hell no!
50 You nailed it.
52
You can’t make this shit up. What is astonishing is that anyone would vote for any Republican in this cycle.
Oh and 52 You’ve seen this right? McCain campaign manager Davis also worked on McCain’s 2000 campaign. They know each other well.
SHOCK: Freddie Mac Paid McCain Campaign Manager’s (Davis) Firm Through Last Month.
Pre-Shock: McCain: My Campaign Manager Had Nothing To Do With Freddie Mac Since 2005… “And I’ll Be Glad To Have His Record Examined”
From Huff Post
1) As Ben Smith notes, McCain’s move “is a mark, most of all, that he doesn’t like the way this campaign is going. … The only thing that’s changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling.”
2) The idea of uniting the campaigns to find a bipartisan solution to the Wall Street crisis wasn’t even McCain’s idea. A few minutes ago, Obama spokesman Bill Burton emailed to reporters:
“At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama’s call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details.”
3) John McCain has skipped more votes during this session than any member of the Senate except for Tim Johnson, who had major brain surgery. All of a sudden, McCain demands that the presidential race shut down so he can return to Washington?
4) For all of his sudden urgency, McCain acknowledged just yesterday that he had not even read the administration’s three-page bailout proposal.
5) It’s not clear at all that having McCain and Obama back in DC will actually help. “What does seem apparent, though, is that putting the two candidates in the negotiating room is far more likely to distract–and derail–negotiations than having them out on the hustings,” Jonathan Cohn writes at the New Republic. “Besides, it’s not as if McCain has any great expertise he can bring to this subject. Or does he plan to bring Senator Phill Gramm, Mr. Deregulator himself, along?”
It’s impossible to know why McCain chose this course, but it sure seems like more of a political stunt than a maverick moment.
57
That McCain is such a dirty bastard. And an incompetent Republican to boot. It used to be that being a corrupt backstabbing liar selling out the country to corporate interests was enough to win elections. But, if the country is lucky, not this time.
Obama Adviser: We’re Inclined To Go Ahead With Debate
By Greg Sargent – September 24, 2008, 4:02PM
Asked how the Obama campaign will respond to McCain’s call for a delay in the debate, an Obama adviser emails: “We’re inclined to do the debate.”
Obama will make a public statement on this shortly — it’ll be interesting to see if Obama calls on McCain to do the debate on other terms. For instance, he could invite McCain to make the debate about the economy, rather than about national security.
After all, the venue is in place, and it’s hard to see how efforts to solve the crisis would be hampered by a high-profile discussion of that same crisis between the two men who each want us to make them chief stewards of the economy.
Separately, the McCain campaign confirms to me that they will in fact be taking down his ads.
How comforting a thought–John McCain, a befuddled know-nothing on the economy–heading back to DC to provide leadership. His desperation is transparent.
57
What a putz McCain is.
Over at the PI soundoff about McCain “suspending” his campaign and canceling the debate only one of twenty commenters are on his side. And soundoff is home to more fucking wingnuts than Horsesass has ever seen
Seen on the Intertubes:
McCain Suspends Campaign Due to Lack of Interest
Somehow I’m getting the feeling that by this time next week, we may be living in an entirely different America.
After spending a couple of days looking at the current plan put forth by the Fed and the Treasury Dept., I have concluded that in it’s current form, it is fundamentally flawed beyond correction.
Putting band-aids on this turkey isn’t going to make it any better. It amounts to an unprecedented transfer of entirely discretionary power to the executive branch, a huge increase in our national debt, virtually no protections for current and future taxpayers, and in all likelihood would only be a temporary fix, at best, since it doesn’t address the root causes of the problems.
If this plan had come from a Democratic administration, it would have been roundly condemned by the Republican Party as a plan for socialism in American, and rightly so.
The administration is dealing with this as a problem with the stock market and banking liquidity problem (which are related to one another). It’s natural that they should see it as such, because that’s where their interests lie. It is their friends and colleagues who are suddenly suffering, and it’s their impulse to bail them out. But it won’t solve the fundamental problem.
You see, the problem is based in bad mortgages and their affect on real estate prices, which are closely related. Bad mortgages may have several different causes. Some debtors took out mortgages on properties they never intended to occupy or repay the mortgage, because they planned on flipping the house and making a short-term profit. Some debtors took on more house than they could afford, and over time they couldn’t keep up with the payments. A lot more debtors have “exploding mortgages” where a ballon payment or an APR increase pretty much put the mortgage in default by themselves, unless the debtor can re-finance (which they might not be able to do with the current depreciation in property values).
The problem is the domino affect caused by the inter-relationship of these bad loans and the real property values. As the properties go into default and foreclosure, the available housing inventory goes up, resulting in a depreciation of real estate values. Compounding this is that as defaults increase, the credit market tightens, making it less likely that current homeowners can refinance, or that prospective homeowners can purchase the foreclosed houses.
As depreciation accelerates, it causes even more mortgages to “explode”, as more homeowners find they can’t refinance, or sell their homes due to illness, job change, etc., because their homes are “underwater” (they owe more than the property is worth). So even more homes go into foreclosure, creating an ever-widening spiral.
On top of all this, the real estate downturn affects jobs which, in turn, means that some homeowners who are barely making their payments now might find themselves laid off, and unable to make payments under any terms.
The one common denominator among the “bad loans” is that they all are caused by a declining real estate market (or at least one which isn’t appreciating). Solve that problem, and all the other problems go away. I don’t propose that the federal government have a “price freeze” – some of those prices were unrealistic, anyway. But they can help stop the spiralling effect of depreciation and foreclosures.
So how to solve the problem? You concentrate on stopping the foreclosure cycle, which will allow the real estate market to find a “floor” upon which it can comfortably rest as it assesses the real value of its debt load. Because that’s the real problem on Wall Street – it’s not that all the loans are bad, its that the loans were bundled together with good loans in such a way that nobody knows which loans are good and which ones are bad. Until that uncertainty is removed, Wall Street will be reluctant to start buying again.
There are several ways to stop the foreclosure cycle. You can’t stop all of them, but you can concentrate on those homeowners who really want to stay in their homes and stay out of default and bankruptcy. You can do this in several ways. One way is to put together a new FHA program which re-finances the “exploding” mortgages at reasonable interest rates, and perhaps pushes the debt in excess of 95% of equity into second mortgage (thereby preserving the value of the first mortgage). Another way is to allow a bankruptcy judge to do the same thing in a Chapt. 13 (wage-earner’s reorganization plan) proceeding. There are some other options out there.
Anyway, I’d rather see my money spent that way, actually solving the underlying problem, rather than trying to give money directly to Wall Street to reward them for practices which led to this problem, and isn’t likely to solve it anyway.
The key to the credit crisis: (as a commentator said) somebody ordered a “code red” on the housing market.
From DailyKos
—
Obama Addresses Country
by SusanG
Wed Sep 24, 2008 at 01:42:08 PM PDT
“Every American has a stake in solving this crisis …”
“The clock is ticking but we have to get it right.”
First, we need a bipartisan board overseeing accountability.
Second, Americans should be treated like investors.
Third, we will not bail out Wall Street without helping homeowners.
Finally, not one dime to reward the same Wall Street CEO’s who got us in this mess. No welfare for Wall Street execs.
There are times for politics, and then there are times to rise above it.
This is no longer a Democratic or Republican problem. It is an American problem, requiring an American solution.
Question: Is McCain playing politics cancelling the debate?
Answer: This is exactly the time the American people need to hear from the people who will be dealing with this mess. … It’s more important than ever.
Lots of talk of bipartisanship … no bankruptcy reform in this package, and Republicans should hold off on their issues in this package.
Question: You staying in Florida or going back to DC?
Answer: If I can be helpful, I’ll go back. Talking to Paulson, Pelosi, Reid. As presidents, we’ll need to deal with more than one thing at a time.
Question: Should both you and McCain be present for vote for the package?
Answer: (Basically) yes, it’s important for the message.
The White House has admitted that the Bush administration has actually had this “Paulson plan” in the works for quite a long time.
This can only be taken as an admission that:
(1.) Bush & Co. have known that this crisis was coming all along; and
(2.) That as per their now long-familiar modus operandi, they’re seizing the crumbling of Wall Street as another “Pearl Harbor type event”, to be exploited in another shameless grab for executive power.
Fucking liars!
Fucking thieves!
Fucking murderers!
Fucking traitors!
Art @ 68:
The fact that this plan has been in the works for some time is no less than Treason against the United States of America.
The fact is, they were hoping that this crisis would wait long enough for it to blow up on the “Democrats” watch and then make a power grab in 2010.
This also goes to prove that Reagan’s theories on economy and governing are inadequate.
NOW is the time to turn the term “Reagan Republican” into the dirtiest word in political lexicon. The same way Reagan made Liberal dirty word.
The Beast is weak, now is the time to strike the final blow and bring the treachery of conservatism.
This is GOOD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWxTQbfsEA8
@70 “Bullshit, you’ve been Bushified!”
Great stuff there.
Racist Donkey Mark#55:
A Partisan Paper of Record
Today the New York Times launched its latest attack on this campaign in its capacity as an Obama advocacy organization. Let us be clear about what this story alleges: The New York Times charges that McCain-Palin 2008 campaign manager Rick Davis was paid by Freddie Mac until last month, contrary to previous reporting, as well as statements by this campaign and by Mr. Davis himself.
In fact, the allegation is demonstrably false. As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis separated from his consulting firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006. As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis has seen no income from Davis Manafort since 2006. Zero. Mr. Davis has received no salary or compensation since 2006. Mr. Davis has received no profit or partner distributions from that firm on any basis — weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual — since 2006. Again, zero. Neither has Mr. Davis received any equity in the firm based on profits derived since his financial separation from Davis Manafort in 2006.
Further, and missing from the Times’ reporting, Mr. Davis has never — never — been a lobbyist for either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Mr. Davis has not served as a registered lobbyist since 2005.
Though these facts are a matter of public record, the New York Times, in what can only be explained as a willful disregard of the truth, failed to research this story or present any semblance of a fairminded treatment of the facts closely at hand. The paper did manage to report one interesting but irrelevant fact: Mr. Davis did participate in a roundtable discussion on the political scene with…Paul Begala.
Again, let us be clear: The New York Times — in the absence of any supporting evidence — has insinuated some kind of impropriety on the part of Senator McCain and Rick Davis. But entirely missing from the story is any significant mention of Senator McCain’s long advocacy for, and co-sponsorship of legislation to enact, stricter oversight and regulation of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — dating back to 2006. Please see the attached floor statement on this issue by Senator McCain from 2006.
To the central point our campaign has made in the last 48 hours: The New York Times has never published a single investigative piece, factually correct or otherwise, examining the relationship between Obama campaign chief strategist David Axelrod, his consulting and lobbying clients, and Senator Obama. Likewise, the New York Times never published an investigative report, factually correct or otherwise, examining the relationship between Former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson and Senator Obama, who appointed Johnson head of his VP search committee, until the writing was on the wall and Johnson was under fire following reports from actual news organizations that he had received preferential loans from predatory mortgage lender Countrywide.
Therefore this “report” from the New York Times must be evaluated in the context of its intent and purpose. It is a partisan attack falsely labeled as objective news. And its most serious allegations are based entirely on the claims of anonymous sources, a familiar yet regretful tactic for the paper.
We all understand that partisan attacks are part of the political process in this country. The debate that stems from these grand and sometimes unruly conversations is what makes this country so exceptional. Indeed, our nation has a long and proud tradition of news organizations that are ideological and partisan in nature, the Huffington Post and the New York Times being two such publications. We celebrate their contribution to the political fabric of America. But while the Huffington Post is utterly transparent, the New York Times obscures its true intentions — to undermine the candidacy of John McCain and boost the candidacy of Barack Obama — under the cloak of objective journalism.
The New York Times is trying to fill an ideological niche. It is a business decision, and one made under economic duress, as the New York Times is a failing business. But the paper’s reporting on Senator McCain, his campaign, and his staff should be clearly understood by the American people for what it is: a partisan assault aimed at promoting that paper’s preferred candidate, Barack Obama.
BlueJohn@67:
Now replay the Obama words on this same crisis last week.
Go on I dare you!
I like what Scary Land Deal Reid said to McCain: Don’t Come Back to Capitol
Because if you all remember (probably not) I placed the words of Reid – “No one knows what to do.”
So McCain would tell Harry and he’s
S C A R E D
of looking as stupid as always! At least Daschle could say something coherent!