State of the Race and the Country, Sep 2008

The last time that I wrote a blog post, John McCain was behind in the polls and had not yet named his running mate for the 2008 election. Although only a month or two has gone by, a lot seems to have changed since then. In fact, a lot seems to have changed in just the past week. This race is fluid unlike any other I have ever seen.

Sarah
First, let me make a few comments about Sarah Palin. I was as surprised as anyone last month when John McCain chose Sarah Palin for his running mate, but I quickly came to appreciate the pick as a brilliant political move. I had seen pictures of Governor Palin before, since she was considered to be on McCain's short list, but I had never heard her speak, as I suppose most other people had not, also. When I watched her acceptance speech in Ohio that day, I came away with a giant grin on my face, knowing I had just seen the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. Governor Palin was amazing. Besides being very pretty, she was articulate and intelligent, devoutly religious and an outdoorswoman, and down to earth all at the same time. A conservative feminist in the truest sense of the term. Someone I could walk through fire for.

I was, of course, also impressed with Governor Palin's speech at the Republican convention the following week. On such a huge stage, and with a teleprompter malfunction, Governor Palin was flawless. The crowd loved her, and so did I. Her life experience and the person she is today provide a fantastic role model for both of my daughters.

Insane Media & Left Reaction
Of course, the reaction by the media and the Left to Governor Palin's appointment was unbelievably bad. I have never in all my life heard more evil vitriol, sexist comments, religious bigotry, and just downright nastiness directed at any one person, especially not a good and virtuous person. To this day, I still cannot understand how people who seem so normal in an ordinary conversation can spew such evil and hatred toward a truly good and moral person. Call me naïve, I guess. It has certainly been an education for all of us, that much is certain. I have to believe that Americans who lean to the left surely must have been as aghast at these attacks as I have been, and will have come to see what the left actually stands for, instead of what they have always claimed they stood for: Not for advancement of women, for example, but advancement of liberal women. Conservative women can go to Hell. I have finally come to realize that the left is truly evil.

The Polls
Sarah Palin is a decent and honorable person. She is the type of person who is so happy with her own life that her smile is contagious. She is the type of American who you feel like you know right away, someone who is a "regular" person. People sense this about her, just as John McCain must have. And so she is more popular than McCain himself. She has revitalized the Republican ticket like no one dreamed could have happened. For couple of weeks, the Republican ticket was ahead of Obama in every poll. That was the first time that had happened in this election cycle. Things have since died down a little, but the race is basically dead even at this date.

The Financial Meltdown & Crisis
During the past week, extremely bad financial news has been rolling in day after day. After having had Bear Stearns file bankruptcy a month or so ago, this week we had Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, two huge investment banks, threaten to file bankruptcy unless they were bailed out. Merrill Lynch was in a similar position, and sold themselves to Bank of America to avoid having to go bankrupt. Goldman and Lehman are now being turned into banks, also, which will put them under the scrutiny of federal bank regulators and force them to invest much more conservatively than they have before. The era of investment banks is officially over.

The really interesting thing about this crisis, however, is the reaction of the public so far. Senator Obama has received a decent bump in the polls as a result of this financial crisis. Why? Because President Bush is a lame duck and unpopular, and because Senator Mccain is a republican just like Bush. People are having a knee-jerk reaction and blaming the president for this crisis, not knowing all the facts yet. As I understand them, and as the public will come to understand them during the next week, the democrats, not the republicans, are squarely responsible for this mess. It's not often that it's possible to blame just one side of the aisle, but in this case it certainly seems to be fair.

The reason we're in this financial crisis today is because there is significantly less liquidity in the financial markets now than there was a month ago. There is a crisis of confidence among investors that is paralyzing them and preventing them from investing in American financial Instruments. They're taking their money elsewhere to invest, because they see too much risk in American financial markets.

Why is this? Because the two largest providers of mortgage-backed securities in this country, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have basically burned everyone who has been investing with them. They sell packages of mortgages to institutional investors, and the securities are considered very low risk because everyone knows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are backed by the United States gov't. If, God forbid, large numbers of homeowners whose mortgages are packaged inside these securities stop paying their mortgages, a highly unlikely scenario, the Federal government would step in if necessary to make sure that investors in these mortgage-backed securities did not lose their investments.

Well, as it happens, large numbers of American homeowners did stop paying their mortgages when the housing bubble popped and they could no longer afford to pay their monthly mortgage bills. Lenders, egged on by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged low income families to buy their own homes, permitting them to put "zero down" and/or to borrow against unrealized capital gains (that never materialized). Home ownership, part of the American Dream, is believed by liberals to be extremely important in this society, and Democrats in Congress have done everything possible to encourage more homeownership, even (especially) among the poor. Since housing prices had been rising for years and years, this was seen to be a low risk venture. But eventually, housing prices peaked, and as they came down, more and more people got into more and more trouble.

Besides "zero down" loans, loan officers also offered "no-doc" loans (at higher rates), where you didn't have to provide any documentation of the financial situation you claimed. We're learning now that (surprise, surprise) a great many of these people lied on their applications, and their defaulting on their mortgages was just a matter of time.

Liberals in Congress have been so enamored with the idea of making it possible for every American to own a home that they balked whenever responsible Republicans tried to impose additional oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or otherwise tighten up lending rules. For years, Republicans and conservative economists warned that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were getting too big; were not being regulated tightly enough; and were eventually going to cause a serious financial meltdown that would extend beyond the mortgage industry. Democrats pooh-poohed these notions (it's in the Congressional Record), pointing out correctly that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had been great successes, increasing overall homeownership and providing a ready market for mortgage-backed securities. With a Democrat majority in the Congress and party-line votes, Republicans pushing for greater regulation -- John McCain as one specific example -- were rebuffed and voted down by Dem's, notably by Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Bottom line

1) Republicans saw this coming and tried to avert it years ago, but were blocked by Democrats.
2) Specific prominent senators from both parties were involved directly: John McCain sponsored a bill that would have tightened regulation and averted today's crisis. The bill was voted down by Democrats including Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
3) Americans in general are blaming the GOP for some reason, and McCain is being hurt by this. The truth must be put out there.

My Attitude Now
I continue to be hopeful for a McCain victory for a number of reasons. One, I love Sarah Palin and want to see her made Vice President and eventually President. Two, I can't think of one other person in Washington who I trust on the War On Terror more than John McCain. He is a true war hero and American patriot, and I believe he would do his absolute best for this country as President. Third, I believe Barack Obama is manifestly unqualified and unprepared to be President of the United States. He has never run a single thing, and has no accomplishments at all in his resume. He is a first term senator who has done absolutely nothing of note up until this point in his career. Why anyone would think that he is qualified to be president is absolutely beyond me.

Most importantly, he is a staunch defender of abortion, even to the point of voting against bills designed to prevent infanticide, and would stand an excellent chance of appointing perhaps four Supreme Court justices during his term(s) as president, and this would effectively cement Roe vs. Wade in the books, possibly forever. This last fact alone should be enough for any even marginally pro-life voter to make sure that Senator Obama never becomes president.

In short, as a devout Catholic, and as a person who believes that America occupies a special place in God's heart, I honestly do not believe that Our Lord will permit a radical leftist like Obama to be elected President. I believe that we will defeat him with God's help. I truly believe this. I don't worry too much from day to day, even when I see McCain down in the polls, because I believe this. I also believe, on the same grounds, that God has a special plan for Sarah Palin. We will see what it is over the next several years.

In the meantime, there are 40 days left until the election. We must all do what we can to get McCain/Palin elected. I know I will.