Fantasy Politics USA

Bill Clinton started his day by bragging about Hillary’s performance in last nights debate. “I don’t know if you saw that debate last night, but I did, and I thought she was great. She was great because she showed the strength and leadership and knowledge of the issues that is very important to the next president,” Clinton told the crowd in Erie, Pennsylvania. Later in the day he was at an American Legion Hall event in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania, and he told the crowd, “When I watched that debate last night, I got kinda tickled. After the debate, her opponents’, oh, the people working were saying, ‘Oh this is so negative, why are they doing this.’ Well they’ve been beatin’ up on her for 15 months. I didn’t hear her whining when he said she was untruthful in Iowa or called her the senator from Punjab.” Then he added, “And, you know, they said some pretty rough things about me, too. But you know, this is a contact sport. If you don’t want to play, keep your uniform off.” Then he tried to claim that the competition has been good clean fun so far. “The truth is,” Clinton said, “this has been basically positive campaign on the issues, and on the records and on the experience. And the real differences should be on the issues.”
Alan Cosgrove

John McCain was the guest on Chris Mathews show last night set at Villanova University and he made it clear he was gong after the youth vote. For the most part the youth vote has leaned toward Barack Obama who is about 30 years younger than McCain. “I will contest every vote of every young American,” McCain told Mathews. Mathews asked McCain why so many of the young liked Obama, and he said, “He’s extremely eloquent.” Then he added, “I think that there is a desire for change out there in America.” “And the kind of change that I think I can make is reaffirm Americans’ faith in their future, in their ability to educate their children, to serve this country, and I think that I can provide that motivation.” Ole McBush needs the youth vote to help continue Bush’s war in Iraq and maybe into Iran in his presidency. Notice he wants to motivate them to “serve this country.” He wants to continue with Bush’s tax cuts and stay in Iraq indefinitely. That doesn’t sound anything like the change that Americans are desiring.
Alan Cosgrove

Barack Obama says he is amused by the “bitter-gate” controversy, and people calling him an elitist. “It is true I am amused about this notion of elitist,” Obama said. He says he was raised by a single mom who collected food stamps, and paid for his own college education with work and scholarships. I wonder what kind of job you get to finance your way through Harvard Law school? “Michelle and I lived for the first 13 years of marriage up until three years ago, in a three bedroom condo without a garage,” Obama said. “So if you live in Chicago, that means you are scraping ice every morning.” He seems a bit bitter about this whole ice scraping thing. He fails to mention how he moved from that tiny condo into a 1.5 million dollar mansion that Tony Rezko helped him buy. He also fails to mention that the now famous “bitter” remark was made behind closed doors at the home of Gordon and Ann Getty. That is Getty as in Getty oil, and the home is on what is called “billionaire road.” Nothing elitist about any of that.
Alan Cosgrove

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have criticized John McCain for not talking about the crisis in the mortgage industry, so now he is offering his suggestions to fix this mess. He plans to have roundtable discussion Thursday at Windows We Are Inc. in Brooklyn, and has offered some of his prepared remarks for the press. “There is nothing more important than keeping alive the American dream to own your home,” McCain said. “And priority No. 1 is to keep well-meaning, deserving home owners who are facing foreclosure in their homes.” McCain’s plan offers new loans to to people with what McCain calls “burdensome mortgages.” The new loans will be at a manageable rate and based on the current market values. The lenders would get government backed certificates that would guarantee the original value of the homes. The homes would also have to be a primary residence, and the borrower would have to be able to afford the loan. If they really could afford the house in the first place, they wouldn’t have been in this situation, and the government wouldn’t need to intervene, but that is another story. “It is built on the reality that homeowners should have an equity capital stake in their home,” McCan said. “Homeowners would end up with a 30-year mortgage and an equity stake in their home. The new lender would receive a federal guarantee of the mortgage, and the taxpayer gets a benefit if the sale value ever recovers.” Notice that the taxpayer only gets a benefit if the home owner sells for a profit, otherwise all these failed mortgages will be another burden for the taxpayer. Maybe another solution for this crisis should be that people that make only 60 to 80 thousand dollars a year should not try to buy houses that are currently valued at over 300 thousand dollars. If those houses remain empty, the values will drop. I don’t think the government should be in the business of bailing out people that made really bad decisions, especially after we ignored people that were victims of natural disasters like hurricane Katrina.
Here is some more from McCain’s HOME plan speech;

I believe a more robust, timely and targeted effort is my HOME plan. It offers every deserving American family or homeowner the opportunity to trade a burdensome mortgage for a manageable loan that reflects the market value of their home. This plan is focused on people. People decide if they need help, they apply for assistance and if approved the government under my HOME Program supports them in getting a new mortgage that they can afford. There will be qualifications which require the home to be a primary residence and the borrower able to afford a new mortgage. We will combine the power of government and the private sector to find immediate solutions for deserving American homeowners.

Alan Cosgrove

Jimmy Carter was in in Abuja, Nigeria for the Carter Center awards and he hinted he might vote for Barack Obama. Carter is a superdelegate from Georgia and has not said who he would endorse but gave hints during an interview in Africa. “We are very interested in the primaries. Don’t forget that Obama won in my state of Georgia. My town which is home to 625 people is for Obama, my children and their spouses are pro-Obama,” Carter said. “My grandchildren are also pro-Obama. As a Superdelegate, I would not disclose who I am rooting for but I leave you to make that guess.”
Alan Cosgrove