The failed presidency of Barack Obama
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The failed presidency of Barack Obama
That's what Rick Santelli and his friends keep telling me. Meanwhile, in the reality-based world:
As President Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress tomorrow night, he receives strong grades for his first full month in office, as large majorities of Americans support his $787 billion economic stimulus package and the recently unveiled $75 billion plan for stemming mortgage foreclosures, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Nearly seven in 10 believe Obama is delivering on his pledge to bring needed change to Washington, the poll found, and about eight in 10 say he is meeting or exceeding their expectations. At the same time, however, the bipartisan support he enjoyed as he prepared to take office has eroded substantially.
Comments (46)
Ok, I over generalized. But, it does hold true that the value of property is one of the surest investments that will make you money. No one held a gun to anyone's head; but, when you are told by a professional that something like home ownership is possible, why wouldnt you believe them? If faced with the choice of renting an apartment in a run down part of the city or having a shot of buying a home in the suburbs, that THE bank says you can afford, which are you going to do? Like I said before, I am not going to give you examples of hard working people that were lied to, that bought into the American dream with those same lies. You obviously just want to blame the homeowner and that is fine. I, personally, have no problem helping out the type of people that Obama has spelled out in his plan. You, genius, and others point out people Obama says he has no plan on helping. Those that tried to beat the system, speculators, etc. A writer for the DN offered a sane solution to this problem -- refinance all mortgages that are in trouble at a fixed rate, or the rate of the original mortgage, thus making the banks have to take these mortgages and some responsibility; but, to make homeowners shoulder some of it too, make the mortgages for 40 years. So people get to keep their homes, banks can still make a bit of a profit, and everyone should be happy.— Master Dreamz
Comment removed.- MD, stocks are a gamble, but so is buying a home an expecting the value to only go up. That's my point! What do you mean "the value of your home shouldn't"? The forces of supply and demand dictate these things; they aren't pre-ordained. There are shady stock brokers and shady mortgage brokers, but at the end of the day, financial decisions are each individual's responsibility. No one held a gun to anyone's head and forced them to enter into a no-down payment mortgage that sounded too good to be true.— Vandy
- And, your head goes down further in the sand. It is not like the homebuyers lied about their income, lenders inflated it; it is not like homebuyers had any real way of knowing the worth of what they were buying, lenders overvalued it. Where homebuyers made their mistake (a shortsighted one) is in not realizing that for the first 10yrs of a mortgage you are basically paying all interest and if your interest rate goes up 50%, so does your payment. But, even then, they were lied to and told they would have no problem refinancing. Like I said before, normally I would not support this bailout; but the reprecussions would be so deep and last so long, we have no choice but to make up for the mistakes of the lenders. If the lenders had not put the buyers in a position to fail, it would never have happened. You really cannot fault someone for believing a guy in a suit and tie telling them they can have a piece of the American dream. Where is the homebuyers fault? Trusting a professional? Not realizing what no one else realized up to this point-- that banks were lying to them, and setting them up to fail? I can put my kids in a beautiful home, in a nice neighborhood, and things will get better for me in the next 5 years, then boom..gas goes up, groceries rise by 40%, and even a careful planner, who was marginally able to afford the home could find themselves in serious trouble. Listen, I am tired of giving you examples of normal people who find themselves in bad situations. If it helps you to sleep at night believing they are all "losers" who over extended themselves, then so be it. But, you are hiding from the greater truth.— Master Dreamz
Will, like the rest of us, you are supposed to shut up and accept the Conventional Wisdom [TM] of, as Bob Somerby puts it, the Kool Kids in the media. Exercising free thought means the terrorists win. Hush little baby, don’t say a word…— Hamlet- Comment removed.
- "Genius" if you think the only people that are in trouble because of the housing market are the two examples you give, you are a bigger fool than I thought. The problem is that it just doesnt effect some people, it effects everyone. When home prices devalue, they dont just devalue on the foreclosed homes, they devalue yours as well and your neighbors and so on. So, keep on thinking it is the "losers" that are getting burnt on this and one day your head will come out of the sand and it will be you (or someone you know)that is going to get burnt if this keeps going the way it is going.— Master Dreamz
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- Iggle- Nice posts. Seriously.— pagoda
- Vandy, two points to make about your post: 1. 401k's vary in value according to the stock market -- your home shouldnt; 2. The stock market is a gamble, albeit, usually a good one, but it subject to fluctuations; and, finally, 3. If the housing market rebounds, stocks are sure to rebound.— Master Dreamz
- Pagoda -- recessions are natural parts of an economy. To me, there was a natural recession occurring just as Clinton left office - it was compounded by the .com bust. In the middle of that mild recession, 9/11 happened which really threw a wrench into the economy. There was another natural recession occurring in late 2007/2008 that was completely compounded by the house of cards that had become the housing market. There is a lesson here -- any time we artificially try to prop up our economy, we get short term gains, but provide for a long-term mess. We HAVE to let our economy go through the natural ebbs and flows that capitalism demands. It is during these ebb times that companies drive efficiencies, make themselves leaner, and better able to compete. Also, there are businesses that die during these times, which is necessary for Darwinian capitalism to thrive. I accept that what we have now is not a "normal ebb" anymore because of the disaster in the credit market. To me, what we need to do is focus on fixing that. Once that is done, let the normal ebb of capitalism trim the herd of companies that cannot compete is slack economies. We will emerge stronger.— IggleFan68
- This is ridiculous. You can't judge a presidency one month into it. In fact, I would state that you can't really judge a Presidency until 25-30 years after. Obama has clearly inherited a difficult time, and we as Americans need to give him a chance to try to fix it. Though I don't share his politics, and disagree with the stimulus package, I'm rooting for him (and it) to succeed. I'm concerned with Tim Geithner -- just saw a "Today" show expressing serious doubts about his competence and leadership (ALREADY??). The "marginalized" minority still needs to be vocal to provide balance to the arguments and discussions that need to happen for us to fix the problems we have.— IggleFan68
- When the economy started tanking in Bush's second term, many Republicans began floating the idea the recession began during Clinton's watch and was ultimately his fault. Hannity and ilk bloviated on and on about the "Clinton Recession". Now everything is Obama's fault. Don't get me wrong, Obama is going to make many tough decisions and I will not agree with everything. But to pretend Bush was anything short of a disaster is purely partisan stupidity. Obama may very well prove to be unsuccessful, but I think the haters here are jumping the gun a bit. Remember, it was your guy, twice elected, who left quite a load, so much that Obama won Indiana and North Carolina and Virginia and Florida and Ohio, REMEMBER???— pagoda
- Again, by this logic, what's the difference between a house and a 401-k account? The values of stocks in which mutual funds and others invest were apparently inflated during the latest boom, much like the housing market. So if the government wants to address home values for people, can we expect them to restore the value of our retirement accounts, as well? This is a painful time economically, irrespective of what the government does, and there's little evidence suggesting that their meddling will have a positive effect, let alone the major moral hazard introduction.— Vandy
- That's right bill a. and Genious, keep thinking that this housing crisis only effects "losers". You buy a house that is worth $140K and in two years, you are told it is worth $200K, you are supposed to know any number other than that. No. You think you are dealing with professionals. So, you believe them and borrow against that number. Who's really at fault that you are stuck with $60K in negative assets? You want to blame the homeowner, fine. I would blame the professionals. Under normal circumstances I dont think the government should rescue anyone; but, in this case, if they dont, it will end up effecting even you, who are in a good mortgage that you can afford; because, when all those foreclosed homes hit the market, what do you think it would do to the value of your home? Imagine if you had to move -- you played it smart, didnt overextend; but suddenly your modest $150K home is now only worth $100K because 5 houses on your block just went to foreclosure and can be bought for a song. Dont think it can happen? Ask homeowners in Detroit, where the average home price in the city is $18K.— Master Dreamz
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"The people are revolting!" -Louis XVI (Mel Brooks)- Comment removed.
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- Did I say he was responsible for 9/11? No -- when you can't deal with reality, chnage the subject -- typical Republican.— taconybob
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- Give me a break! Obama's been in office one month and you commenters are blaming HIM for the gigantic mess he inherited? Who was in charge the last eight years? Bush, Cheney and the Republican borrow and spend, give tax cuts to the rich, invade Iraq, ignore Al Qaeda crowd!— taconybob
- I'm still waiting to meet just one person who supports the spending bill or the new plan to bail out the deadbeats who bought houses they couldn't afford. Of course where is the poll on how many support the President's bailing out of the automakers which should be happening any day now. Can't upset the UAW voter base.— ResponsibleAmerican
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- ---}}} TPS, even by the Administration's own projections, nearly half of the homeowners who receive aid will ultimately default on their mortgages. {{{--- And how many of them were irresponsible homeowners who obviously bought too much house, or were speculators figuring to flip a house. How many were homeowners who accepted overinflated appraisals made by "experts" and are now upside-down on houses because the market tanked because of irresponsible financial practices by fat cats? So, you're advocating allowing them to accept full responsibility for a situation created by Wall Streeters that pulled in tens of millions per year? Additionally, do you honestly believe that tons of those mortgages were deceptively marketed by unethical brokers? Or do you think that honest homeowners that got themselves in over their heads should take all the burden for those brokers also. Do you not realize that you're talking about your hard-working neighbors there. Do you realize that the policies you're advocating will have a hugely negative impact on the economy? Do you realize that significant numbers of those that you're talking about will be destitute without support? You're right - where do we draw the line? Well the place to start is NOT to politicize these kinds of programs by wailing about the "socialist" ideology being forced through. The folks advocating these policies are mainstream economists, not socialists. Your plan for just allowing banks to foreclose and then allowing the former owners to rent might have some merit on one level - but on the other level, apparently, you don't seem to realize that the prospect of the banks foreclosing on that amount of mortgages is what has driven the whole economic crisis to begin with. The point is to deal with the crisis positively.— Talking point sleuth
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- TPS, even by the Administration's own projections, nearly half of the homeowners who receive aid will ultimately default on their mortgages. The supposition that the government is better able to spend our hard-earned money for the benefit of society is at the heart of this philosophical difference. Heck, why stop here. My 401-k has been getting killed during the past few months; why doesn't the government restore it to previous levels, which were also based on stock valuations set by those same Wall Street wizards? Where do we draw the line, and why are we so carelessly putting this burden on our children and grandchildren. If we're truly worried about folks keeping a roof over their heads, let the banks foreclose and allow the previous owners to remain in their homes as renters!— Vandy
- As bad as things are in America, manufacturing declines and other symptoms are actually worse overseas...so why is this Administration so interested in European-style socialism? To be fair, it's not Obama who should take the brunt of this; he just hasn't demonstrated a willingness or ability to stand up to the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Obey, and Frank. He let them take the lead on the stimulus package, and it's merely fulfilled their wildest spending dreams.— Vandy
- First - the mortgage program is primarily for homeowners that haven't gone into default yet. Second - the program is intended to screen for the types of situations Idiot describes. Third - it seems that Republican toadies are completely incapable of understanding that the main sources of the problem were that houses were assessed - by experts in the mortgage industry - at ridiculously inflated values, banks only used appraisers that would give them those kinds of inflated appraisals, fat cat "genius" financial wizards leveraged themselves at outrageous levels - up to 30 to 1 - to buy all that bad debt, and those same financial "geniuses" purchased "insurance" on that bad bundled debt from insurance issuers that were irresponsibly leveraged at rates up to 30 to 1 because of the kind of deregulation Republicans have been clamoring about for decades. But keep blaming the average working-stiff homeowner, toadies, who purchased a house only to find it drop in value by 30%, even as his pension dropped by 40%, even as he got laid off. Hating on Americans is real smart politics - in fact what got you to the elevated status you enjoy today. Lol!— Talking point sleuth
- ---}}} Mr. Bunch- please pretend for a minute that John mcCain won and started out his presidency with- tax cheats... {{{--- Help a brother out here, Idiot. Would that be the same John McCain that admitted to intentionally defrauding the IRS?— Talking point sleuth
- ---}}} If you want to look at a real world poll, take a look at the Dow free-fall since Obama's inauguration. As Will says: "numbers don't lie" {{{--- Dow in Jan '01? 10,887. Dow in Jan' 09? 7,949. Is that "real world poll" enough for ya' jmc?— Talking point sleuth
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- But since President Obama pre-selects the reporters who will be privileged enough to ask him questions at his rare press conferences, why should he worry about having to face the tough issues head on?— Vandy
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- Oh my goodness, Will. You think politico is the same as Drudge??? That's insane and you know it. Santelli touched a nerve, and the fact that Gibbs felt the need to respond directly to something he should have ignored tells you exactly how truthful and worrisome the concern is.— Vandy
- According to the latest Gallup poll, President Obama's approval rating is now at 63%, which is down five percentage points from his initial rating in January. Also, his disapproval number has doubled from 12% in January to 24% now.— Vandy
- There's a left-leaning Politico, too? I've only read the right-leaning one.— will
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- Will, do you really want to stake whatever reputation you have on this sort of thing? from the left-leaning politico.com... "But if the White House simply dismisses Santelli’s point, it may do so at its peril: A Rasmussen poll released Monday found that 55 percent of those surveyed thought federal mortgage subsidies to those most at risk of losing their homes would be “rewarding bad behavior.”"— Vandy
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If you want to look at a real world poll, take a look at the Dow free-fall since Obama's inauguration. As Will says: "numbers don't lie"— jmc
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