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Tuesday, October 14, 2008
McCain to Palin: “Stifle yourself!”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In an interview with Sarah Palin today, Rush Limbaugh claimed that the mainstream media was trying to shut Palin up because she is too effective in making her case. Palin agreed, saying that “yeah, I guess that message is they do want me to sit down and shut up. But that’s not going to happen. I care too much about this great country.”
No, Gov. Palin, the media don’t want you to shut up. To the contrary, every media outlet in the country is begging you to appear on their show. If you want to go on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week, Late Edition, if you want to hold your first actual press conference, if you want to join the free-for-all tomorrow night spinning the aftermath of the presidential debate, the media would welcome you with open arms.
Speak, Sarah. Speak. If you care so much about this great country, tell the McCain campaign to stop stifling you and speak.
And yet she doesn’t. The “pitbull with lipstick” runs and hides.
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Six years later, it still boggles the mind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Six years ago, Saxby Chambliss used this ad to directly question the courage of U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, a man who had fought for his country in Vietnam, earning the Silver Star and Bronze Star and losing three limbs in the process.
Chambliss did not serve, claiming a draft exemption during Vietnam because of a trick knee.
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It wasn’t Fannie and Freddie’s fault
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Barry Ritholz, a well-respected Wall Street analyst who warned about a lot of the current crisis and posts at his Big Picture blog, takes on the absurd claim that the Community Reinvestment Act or other government action led to the housing collapse and thus to Wall Street’s collapse. The problem was instead in private industry and its get-rich-quick mentality, he argues.
As Ritholz puts it:
“Understand this simple fact: In an ultra-low rate environment where prices are appreciating rapidly and mortgages are being securitized, ALL THAT MATTERS IS THAT THE BORROWER NOT DEFAULT IN 90 days (or 6 Months). The goal was to make a loan that did not default in that period of time, so it cannot be put back to the originator.
As a mortgage salesman, you only lose your fee if a borrower defaults within 3 or 6 months. What do you do to maximize your returns? The best way to do that — to put people in houses that would not default in 90 days — was the 2/28 ARM mortgages. Cheap teaser rates for 24 months, then the big reset. By then, it was no longer your problem.
Can you grasp what a monumental change this was? Instead of making sure that borrowers could pay back ALL OF THE 30-YEAR FIXED MORTGAGE, you only had to find people who could afford the teaser rate for a a few months. THIS WAS AN ENORMOUS AND UNPRECEDENTED SHIFT IN LENDING.”
Again, I have yet to see a top financial or housing expert make the claim that the CRA had any major role in this calamity. It is argued by right-wing partisans looking to once again make poor people their scapegoat, but I haven’t seen anybody with any real expertise or credibility in the field make that claim.
But the good news is, so far the market is holding its gains from yesterday.
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GOP draws line at holding 40 in Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
National trends are so bad in the presidential and congressional races that the Republican National Committee is trying to decide on a firewall to protect its last source of political power in Washington, the 40 votes they would need in the Senate to filibuster legislation.
As Jonathan Martin of Politico writes:
“The Republican National Committee, growing nervous over the prospect of Democrats’ winning a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, is considering tapping into a $5 million line of credit this week to aid an increasing number of vulnerable incumbents, top Republicans say….”
But that the party would use new money to block a Democratic triumph in the Senate rather than boost the odds of its presidential nominee speaks volumes about what many Republicans think is still salvageable. And some in the GOP, especially those working on House and Senate races in which their candidates’ poll numbers swoon during the financial crisis, are increasingly agitated about money being spent on what all observers, including McCain, acknowledge is an uphill fight on top of the ticket.
“They should pull the money from McCain like [former RNC Chairman] Haley Barbour did in ’96, when Dole slid away, and funnel it to save some Senate and House seats as best they can,” said one longtime GOP strategist who is working on congressional races.
“There are seven or eight [seats in danger],” a top Republican said of the upper chamber. “What’s it going to be a week from now?” Party officials see GOP Senate seats at risk in North Carolina, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Colorado, Minnesota, Mississippi, Alaska, Oregon and Georgia.
The inclusion of Georgia on that list would have been stunning until a couple of weeks ago. But a series of polls have now put Jim Martin close or within the margin of error to Saxby Chambliss, and with black turnout already high in the race, it is now considered a tossup state by Pollster.com and other sites. Pollster’s aggregate of polls in the race gives Chambliss a narrow 1.4 point lead and well below 50 percent. Typically, late deciders in a race break away from the incumbent.
In an election night that promises surprises, this one would be one of the biggest.
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