Lack of celebration at DU is very telling.

[miskie]

After last night's debate, I fully expected to find dancing and joyful celebration on the island.
I was wrong. The primitives seem to be watching stormclouds roll in from over the horizon, even though their holy-men insist there is no cause for concern. Deep in their hearts, they seem to know something is wrong with the Obamessiah & his holy message.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Gawd, I hope you're right because I've been saying anything less than a McCain with a KO is a defeat.

McCain allowed Obama to look non-radical.

[franksolich]

There's lots of reasons for the primitives, especially the Obamaite primitives, to be disturbed.

[miskie]

Gawd, I hope you're right because I've been saying anything less than a McCain with a KO is a defeat.

McCain allowed Obama to look non-radical.

The only person who introduced anything new at the debate was McCain, - his (IMHO misguided) solution to fix some bad mortgages by buying, and rewriting them to keep the homeowner in the house. Other than that it was a mish-mash of stump speeches and talking points. I agree though - McCain needs a game changer and FAST - but I don't think this actually did him any harm, nor did it accelerate Obama's lead growth.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

The only person who introduced anything new at the debate was McCain, - his (IMHO misguided) solution to fix some bad mortgages by buying, and rewriting them to keep the homeowner in the house. Other than that it was a mish-mash of stump speeches and talking points. I agree though - McCain needs a game changer and FAST - but I don't think this actually did him any harm, nor did it accelerate Obama's lead growth.

Buying the mortgages makes sense in this regard:

The bad laons were written and bundled as securities, which you probably know. But as more were sold the price went up beyond reasonable market value creatiung artificially high prices. When the defaults started rolling in and the buyers of the securities were not able maintain legally dictated levels of liquidity the law also compelled them to sell the bad assets.

The probalem is: you have an over-priced asset that you cannot hold on to but how do you get someone to buy something that is overpriced? If buy and seller cannot agree the asset has no value to either one of them but there is still the outstanding demand by the law to sell.

With the gov't coming in they will essentially dictate the price of the new home, i.e. the $100k property that last sold for $350k will be bought for $80k.

Yeah, the guy that wrote the $350k mortgage is taking a bath but down the line somebody is going to buy what the gov't spent $80k on for $95k. The bright side (gov't meddling from nose to nut notwithstanding) is: at least the property actually has a priced value allowing the market to reset itself.

[miskie]

Buying the mortgages makes sense in this regard:

The bad laons were written and bundled as securities, which you probably know. But as more were sold the price went up beyond reasonable market value creatiung artificially high prices. When the defaults started rolling in and the buyers of the securities were not able maintain legally dictated levels of liquidity the law also compelled them to sell the bad assets.

The probalem is: you have an over-priced asset that you cannot hold on to but how do you get someone to buy something that is overpriced? If buy and seller cannot agree the asset has no value to either one of them but there is still the outstanding demand by the law to sell.

With the gov't coming in they will essentially dictate the price of the new home, i.e. the $100k property that last sold for $350k will be bought for $80k.

Yeah, the guy that wrote the $350k mortgage is taking a bath but down the line somebody is going to buy what the gov't spent $80k on for $95k. The bright side (gov't meddling from nose to nut notwithstanding) is: at least the property actually has a priced value allowing the market to reset itself.

Agreed - The thing that causes the most upset, is that law-abiding bill paying folks like you and I get no relief whatsoever. Not even a tick downward on interest rate for fixed --and as for those with an ARM - they be screwed.

Thankfully, we bought our home in 1998 at 6% on a 30 year fixed on a principle of $89K - leaving us unaffected by this mess.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Neither one of them seemed all that great, unfortunately with the wind of the Press and the bullshit "Change" meme  at his back, all Obama has to do to rate a "win" is avoid totally screwing the pooch.

McCain gave a great strong answer at the end on Iran, Obama managed a "Oh, yeah, me too" that unfortunately allowed him to distance himself from his previous naive statements about the bearded chimp from Tehran.

I missed a large part of it but on replay I caught some of Obama's "95% of taxpayers will benefit" BS.  McCain failed to effectively call him on the utter BS of that so it played well for Obama.  People would rather hear their taxes will be cut than go through 2+2=4 and figure out it is impossible.

As far as I can see, Obama's plan does not involve cutting anything on the expenditure end, just the opposite in fact, and does involve increasing taxes on the top 5% and corporations to fund it.  However, that target is the part of the population which is absolutely best situated to completely evade the impact of his tax strategy by a variety of different means, and therefore it is completely DOA from any practical perspective...a point apparently lost on the populace at large and which McCain has yet to effectively address.     

[Digger]

If I understand it correctly, Nobama's new tax plan will raise taxes on my tiny Mom & Pop Landscaping business since we gross more than 250K.  We are OK but we are a long way from wealthy. WTF?

[BEG]

Neither one of them seemed all that great, unfortunately with the wind of the Press and the bullshit "Change" meme  at his back, all Obama has to do to rate a "win" is avoid totally screwing the pooch.

McCain gave a great strong answer at the end on Iran, Obama managed a "Oh, yeah, me too" that unfortunately allowed him to distance himself from his previous naive statements about the bearded chimp from Tehran.

I missed a large part of it but on replay I caught some of Obama's "95% of taxpayers will benefit" BS.  McCain failed to effectively call him on the utter BS of that so it played well for Obama.  People would rather hear their taxes will be cut than go through 2+2=4 and figure out it is impossible.

As far as I can see, Obama's plan does not involve cutting anything on the expenditure end, just the opposite in fact, and does involve increasing taxes on the top 5% and corporations to fund it.  However, that target is the part of the population which is absolutely best situated to completely evade the impact of his tax strategy by a variety of different means, and therefore it is completely DOA from any practical perspective...a point apparently lost on the populace at large and which McCain has yet to effectively address.     

I wish McCain would have pointed out 40% of that 95% do not pay taxes.  Then point out the redistribution of wealth Obama plans on giving those 40% by giving money "back" that they did not pay in the first place.

[SaintLouieWoman]

Agreed - The thing that causes the most upset, is that law-abiding bill paying folks like you and I get no relief whatsoever. Not even a tick downward on interest rate for fixed --and as for those with an ARM - they be screwed.

Thankfully, we bought our home in 1998 at 6% on a 30 year fixed on a principle of $89K - leaving us unaffected by this mess.

Sadly I bought my house 3 years ago at the height of the market and have since added improvements. It gets me sick that I got a home that I could afford. I guess if I knew there would be all these give-aways, I would have gotten a better house.

Those who live prudently get screwed. Sad fact of this crazy, mixed-up environment now.

[SaintLouieWoman]

If I understand it correctly, Nobama's new tax plan will raise taxes on my tiny Mom & Pop Landscaping business since we gross more than 250K.  We are OK but we are a long way from wealthy. WTF?

If he gets in, incorporate. Someone who's more conversant with the appropriate terms can help you with this. Don't give the Obama (shudder to think of it) gov't an extra penny. Use whatever loopholes you can.

[miskie]

Sadly I bought my house 3 years ago at the height of the market and have since added improvements. It gets me sick that I got a home that I could afford. I guess if I knew there would be all these give-aways, I would have gotten a better house.

Those who live prudently get screwed. Sad fact of this crazy, mixed-up environment now.

Thats exactly what we did - We went and bought a home we could afford on one income - just in case one of us couldn't work. We could have gone bigger but instead decided to buy one of the last surviving octagonal houses in the United States -Unique and affordable. (there is give or take 100 of them left in total)