McCain Event, Economics, Mannequins and Illigitimate Middle Class Warfare

I went to a McCain fundraiser in Los Angeles, CA on Thursday the 31st. Among lots of Hollywood celebs, former Congressmen, Senators and our California Governor, McCain spoke about the war in Iraq. He made a comment that was quite interesting to me.

Many critics have said that he must begin discussing the "economic situation", so he's thrown a few comments in here and there to let people know he's in tune with the American concerns. He said, loosely quoted as I didn't write it down verbatim, "yes I know I know, we need to talk about the economy..." and then proceeded to talk about the war again.

In my view, many people on the left and right are using the fundamental misunderstanding of the general population with regard to how economics works to their political advantage. I see Romney doing it to the nth degree, Obama and Clinton of course - not unexpected. They talk about the middle class families; even create a 'war between the classes' that is highly misleading and divisive all while talking hypocritically about unity. Speaking of hypocrits. We need a "CEO to run the country?" Last time I checked, weren't the CEOs being jailed, blamed for scandals and ripping off their shareholders and employees?

Some countries try to avoid having a middle class altogether. American clearly has one; one that has unprecedented homeownership (thanks to the creative lending practices that are now being trampled upon by so-called economic experts saying they "predicted this long ago", and the Bush tax cuts).

What people don't realize is this:

1. What the Dems and some Republicans are calling a debacle with regard to the mortgage "crisis" is that, still, less than 2% of people in this nation are late on their mortgages.

2. The economy not be growing as fast as it did three year ago, but we are hardly in a recession. No one cares to look up what the term actually means.

3. The middle class has the highest home ownership in the history of this nation. Why? Because mortgage companies wanted to make money. Hedge fund managers wanted to money. Mortgage companies got creative, provided funding to people who wanted to buy homes, investors bought the mortgages - and the middle class benefitted this entire thing. And, not commonly heard in the media? Most are actually paying those obligations - so who is losing exactly?

4. As the middle class gains in equity, and they will (markets never go down over a long period), they will become even wealthier. Lower-middle income individuals who bought homes will move into the middle class.

What I found refreshing about McCain is that he knows he has to talk about the economy if he wants to score points. He does.. to a small degree, to avoid losing to a talking mannequin known as the former Governor of Massachusetts.

But what about this? Will losing 70000 jobs after gaining hundreds of thousands matter when another Islamic radicalist boards a plane and takes a Delta jet into the Empire State Building? Probably not. A Dow down day of 300 could be a blessing.

Maybe we need to stop all the whining, cowtowing to Wall Street, and let the Fed do the hard work it needs to do.. and stop using bogus hypocritical claims to try to win the office of President. Maybe for once, people will see through the BS and think of the big picture rather than the $50 their mortgage payment went up in two years on that McMansion they bought on their $50,000/year salary.

Dani