Oct 15 2008
Pre-Debate Live Blogging
Update: Bottom line – I’m Joe The Plumber! The tag line from tonight – end update
To save myself time I am going to live blog the debate now and get it over with:
McCain wins most rounds, nation differs with me when polled.
OK, now that I have taken care of that I will be blogging only if something big happens – and I mean huge. Otherwise this is an open thread for you all to share your thoughts.
One thing I will be watching is Obama’s composure. Given all this noise about API having Michelle raging into the phone on a supposed recording, if it is true Obama may go into the debate rattled and off message. If he is composed I would take it as a sign there is ‘no there’ there.
9: 16 PM Eastern: Obama makes first unforced error. He claimed he would go after insurance subsidies meant to support seniors. Every senior just sat up in a cold sweat. Â You don’t touch seniors’ medical benefits.
9:36 PM Eastern: Second Obama error – laughing when McCain said Obama needs to answer about ACORN. Â He’s laughing at voter fraud and corruption. Second mistake, answering Ayers question when we all know he was well over 30 when he worked with him.
9:38 PM Eastern: Third mistake, admitting his ties to ACORN. Obama paid for ACORN.
9:42 PM Eastern: Scheiffer is asking really tough questions. Â I really liked the question “why is your VP candidate better than the opposition’s. Â Obama has shuffled off is his teleprompter again!
9:56 PM Eastern: The Obidiot showed up tonight – how did he go from Columbia, to Venezuela to Peru, to assassinated labor leaders, to car dealerships, car loans, retooled plants in the heartland, to solar panels – on free trade? Â The man is babbling!!!!! OMG – he missed Kevin Bacon, you lose!
10:30 PM Eastern: Summary, Obama babbled, McCain had some good hits, the polls will disagree with me. Have a great evening!
Toes, does it really matter who “won” the debate? Is this debate really going to change how you are going to vote? I mean, are the two candidates *really* that close in your opinion? To me it is the difference between a capitalist and a socialist. And how one or the other does in a debate doesn’t change the fact that I would rather have a capitalist in charge rather than a socialist.
Looks to me like some of the Republicans are sore losers. If they really cared about this country and their angry rhetoric, they would have gotten up off their arses and rallied to raise funds in support of their candidate.
Also I am sure that McCain has worked with many people also who profited from the Fannie Freddy fiasco.
Lets play the association game shall we? Fannie Mae CEO Herb Allison, Jr. was national finance chair of John McCain’s Republican presidential bid in 2000 and as recently as 2006 he wrote a $5,000 check to McCain’s Straight Talk America PAC.
He provided seed money for the Reform Institute, a non-profit McCain allies set up in 2001as a soapbox for the Arizona senator’s signature issue at the time, diminishing the influence of special interests in Washington.
Allison’s “Allison Family Foundation” contributed $25,000 to the Institute at its founding and Allison personally donated an additional unspecified sum under $50,000, according to IRS filings.
In the early going, the Reform Institute attracted money from a bi-partisan swath of people perhaps drawn by McCain’s vow to find a way to control the pernicious influences of money in politics.
You see even if John Mc Loosing-The-Election is associated to the Fannie/Freddie problem.
OOOPS! So sad, Guess you gonna start on the bogus birth certificate too. Better have some better ammo than weak jabs.
The reality is, McCain plan will leave us with a greater defecit than Obama, and Obama is going to improve the working guys life.
Even Bush-moron you Republicans elected says that he supports a socialism The “new plan”, President Bush declared, is and I quote “not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it.”
I guess that that SOCIALISTS croonies have invaded bushes mind too.
Sounds like the Republicans are loosing their grip on the real problem, corporate greed, and every day problems. If the republi-cants ever recver from their tunnel vision, than we hope that they can see out of their little boxes long enough to see the stock market crash down on their heads.
Better luck next election year. 2012
Opportunity Knocks!
Chris Dodd’s Banking Committee Hearing is a prime candidate for McCain to attack as Dodd brazenly tries to cover up his and the Dems pilfering hands in the piggy trough of Fannie & Freddie, as well as the Dems obstructing reforms that had been asked for repeatedly over the years.
Everybody Else Did It
Chris Dodd’s mortgage blame game.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122411797796038903.html
Toes:
McCain did talk about nuclear energy and he also talked about Sarah and the 40 billion dollar pipeline deal she negotiated. I thought he did very well myself and I think that some people are underestimating the ability of a slick guy like Obama to wriggle out of just about anything.
His reaction to Ayers: Ayers who? His reaction to ACORN: ACORN who? Unless the press starts acting like honest to God journalists rather than the propaganda wing of the Democratic party a lot of those charges will just be passed off as McCain attacks lacking credibility.
crosspatch:
I am not seeing a lot of changes in the economy here, but I do think that people are worried about the future all over America.
Folks,
Stay focused. Let BIB babble on and waste his time. There less than 3 weeks left and you shouldn’t be sitting around reading a blog!
[…] Obama looked bad last night many times. His rambling and confused response on free trade (as I noted below at 9:56 PM) had me thinking the guy had had a stroke or something he was so lost. It was funny last night, but […]
This “economic crisis” is really about speculation in mortgage-backed securities and the fallout when the value of some of the less secure (higher returns for higher risk, remember) imploded.
Looking at Fox News’s website this morning, we see jobless claims down and inflation flat. Not exactly indications of an economy in turmoil.
The part that is having problems right now is the mortgage industry. BUT at the same time, we also see homeowners who could not afford homes are the previous price levels now entering the market. The ones who can afford a house with non-ridiculous terms, that is.
The one thing that really caused this was short-term interest-only adjustable rate mortgages. The finger that pushed the first domino was the Fed finally raising interest rates after years of cutting them. When rates went up, adjustable rate mortgages went up and those who were barely able to make the payment as it was defaulted. This caused distress sales which in turn caused a drop in average property values in those areas which in turn caused the value of all existing mortgages held by the financial industry to fall (becaues of “mark to market” requirements mandated by Sarbanes-Oxley legislation).
This forced the financial houses to devalue ALL of the mortgages held in that neighborhood even though they were sound. When the values dropped below the amount due on the mortgages, the mortgage turned from a asset for the bank to a liability. So because of a short term blip in housing values, the finance houses were forced to mark a huge loss on the books and without showing those assets, they couldn’t get capital to lend for more mortgages.
What caused all of this is stupid loan terms given because “everybody knows” that housing values are going to always rise and “everybody knows” that interest rates are not going to go up before the term of the loan expires. But when one or both of those conditions were not met, the whole thing fell apart.
But we do not have a general economic recession. Though the government could CAUSE one by pulling money out of the economy in the form of taxes to bail out the lenders.