Remember yesterday? Ah, sweet sweet memories of 24 hours past. How outrageously young we were, and how foolishly alive. But that’s in the past. Those days, like the Road Warrior, now live only… in our memories. The Democrats, only caring……

Like that’s ever worked.

He is too moderate to represent the GOP properly.

“I got some good news in the last hour or so … it appears that Sen. McCain is going to come out for this,” Reid announced.

Since when does Reid speak for McCain? Seems rather slimy to me for any senator to “announce” another senator’s position like this. Especially for someone in Reid’s position to be making public announcements on behalf of a senator from another party.

Maybe the McCain camp should first just come out and say that Reid does not speak for Senator McCain.

My vote doesn’t hinge on whether he votes for or against the bailout.

It would be nice if just for once people could rise above partisan politics and do what is best for the people as a whole. That is too much to ask for in the middle of an election I know, but if this thing is half as big as they say it is, and Congress does nothing..the Democrats will not get the blame, the Republicans will. Gallup says party ID is back in a double digit lead for the Democrats after steady declines in recent months. Let the financial sector crash and burn and it will only get worse.

The Democrats in Congress are an obstacle from anything positive happening. They are largely responsible for the problem in the first place, and many should be in jail. The notion that we should get along with them to lesson the problem is wrong. They are incapable of fixing it. They don’t want to fix it. They want to social engineer our society, and use the economy and any other levers they can find to do it. That’s their goal. If it enhanced their power and control, they’d take bread lines.

Not to be rude, but exactly what does MM know about all this?

I wasn’t pointing out MM’s opinion for the mortgage mess. I was simply challenging your comment that Paulson isn’t a Democrat.

The question is, will Reid be satisfied with that or will he insist on McCain going down with this ship?

The One’s campaign commercial writes itself: “We told you McCain voted with George Bush 90% of the time… Now you can make it 91% of the time…”

I think McCain needs to get his ass back to D.C. and work on this. Time to show some leadership, maverick!

Not to be rude, but exactly what does MM know about all this? That is what I am talking about. There are all kinds of people who do not have any expertise in all this making it a partisan political issue. And it should not be one.

Paulson will be gone in a few months, he is not going to be around to rule over anything.

And no, they will not follow a strong leader through hell and back if it means economic collapse that could have been avoided. That is just ridiculous. I know I will not. If this things goes to hell and I lose my job I will not be blaming the Wall Street fat cats or even the Democrats. I will be blaming the people who demaded that we do nothing and let it all go to hell for the sake of some poltical purity. That is who I will blame.

I am worried. I am worried at all these people like Newt seem to think this is just some political game. That there is no real crisis here. They seem to be completely oblivious to the ramifications of doing nothing. It is as if they think they are above it all, that is has nothing to do with them or their jobs or their mortgages or their states..that it is all some kind of game.

But the people who live with this stuff and deal wi

Time to go to work, while I still have a job.

If you make the argument capitalism=economic collapse and the end to government intervention in the market because intervention is bad…you will lose, capitalism will lose.

This is a much better to way to so what I’ve been trying to say.

Standing around hollering about the private sector does you no good when the other guy has been mucking about behind the scenes screwing stuff up for decades. Don’t let the democrats use this as an indictment of capitalism — because believe me, they’re trying! Nothing would please them more to frame this as an endemic problem, one bound to happen over and over again as a result of the free market.

Nice post Terrye!

Bush and Paulson are not Democrats.

Actually, I believe Paulson is a liberal democrat. MM has quite a take on him.

The only thing that will save us will not be any kind of political will, it will only be the hope that it is not as bad as some people are saying. That will be our only hope.

Wrong. Completely backwards. People will follow the right leader to the gates of hell and back–as the saying goes. It’s the oldest story in the book.

Ummmm, they were regulated not unregulated. It was poor government control and decisions that caused this problem to fester and then implode.
And now you want the men who were the “regulators” the ones in charge of the various commissions and committees, to now correct it.

Eh, not really. Those involved in creating the problem were in the Carter and Clinton administrations. You can’t just broadstroke the government as “they” — there’s at least fifteen people up there. ;)

What caused this problem was unsound economic theory being forced on the market, shoved down it’s throat, as it it were, by the Gov’t. They lapped it up, all the way to the bank (har) but at the end of the day, they’re hurting. Normally I wouldn’t care, but in this case it can and will directly effect me. If commercial paper fails, my employer will be out of business because we deal with fairly large projects…we charge our customers several million dollars for 2-3 month jobs. All those payment terms are Net 30 days. That’s commercial paper. It makes it tick.

Don’t just scream “can’t trust the government, they screwed it up, taxpayer’s money, blahblahblah” because then you just sound like a real partisan…like Newt…and as a biproduct you sound relatively ignorant.

Those who know are worried. This is not a time to stand on some vague unfounded capitalist principles when other people have taken that option away from you due to socialist government intervention over the last 30 years.

No, it is not. This is about regular people, American people. I was a realtor and I never sold a house to an illegal. Not one.

Yes, we are faced with a financial question here. This is not some philosophical discussion. I heard on Fox last night that there is over 6 trillion in money market accounts overseas right now that can not be moved, the system is seizing up. If that is true, philosophy and will are not the question.

If you make the argument capitalism=economic collapse and the end to government intervention in the market because intervention is bad…you will lose, capitalism will lose.

People are not going to care one way or the other who started this 10 or 15 years ago if they lose their jobs, their homes, their life savings etc. All they are going to care about is that things went to hell in a handbasket and conservatives were talking about the political will to go broke vs doing something to stem the tide. If McCain chooses the former he will lose and the Republican party will lose. It will be Hoover all over again..only worse.

The only thing that will save us will not be any kind of political will, it will only be the hope that it is not as bad as some people are saying. That will be our only hope.

I just hope it is not as bad as some analysts say. I really do, because it seems to me that way too many people are to cavalier about this. I can only hope that they are right. But I have my doubts. We can talk about the base all we want, but how would the base feel about collapse? Is that what they want? I don’t think so. I just think they believe this is all a ruse to get money.

phronesis on September 24, 2008 at 12:36 AM

Correct. I still don’t get why the present holders are required to use mark to market, but the future holder (us) won’t. That’s the basis upon which the argument is made that the taxpayer may come out alright in the end–that the mortgages have a held to maturity value quite different than their present no-value.

This part appears gimmicky to me. And why should the taxpayer absorb 100% of these holdings? Why not spread that risk back to the “saved” entities by eliminating mark to market, making them hold say 50% of these loans, or find a private party to sell them to.

At the same time, the door is open for new financial entites to be created–ones not yet in existence who have none of these mortgages on their books. Why not some new winners? Isn’t that exactly what Buffett and Goldman are up to?

Indeed, but after 18 months of campaigning, he’s not going to go out on a limb and oppose a plan which his own party’s leadership is telling him is crucial. If he leads a revolt and kills the bill and the worst happens, he’s finished.

Allahpundit on September 23, 2008 at 9:08 PM

Think of this like the Iraq war. We have the wherewithal to win, in any number of ways. Even if the surge hadn’t worked, we could try something else. Think WWII–plenty of trial and error. It is the political will and leadership drought that saps our abilities.

The same applies to this. The right leader can make it work, by hook or by crook, by trial and error, stumble after stumble. It’s not a question of this being entirely and completely right or wrong.

Make no mistake about it. We will have hell to pay in our economy as a consequence of these mortgage social engineering crimes and their financial manipulation through derivates. But we can succeed in reforming the economy with the right leadership and political will.

We’re not really faced with a financial question here, we’re faced with a political one. It’s all politics. And McCain either is, or isn’t the person who is both desirous and capable of leading us through this wilderness.