Kristyne McDaniel Opinion Blog

I had been hoping for Barack Obama to do the same thing Ross Perot did when he bought up a half hour of air time to better introduce himself. I’m very pleased to see that he has now gone ahead and done it.

The whole ad was wonderfully done. Of course, I came over to his side several weeks ago so I didn’t really need any convincing. What the process over the last few weeks has actually done is that I became quite solid in my choice of Obama. Steve and I sent in our absentee ballots a week ago, and mine was cast for Barack Obama. At this point, there isn’t anything that can be tossed in to the race by the McCain supporters that could change my mind, so of course that is the time to go ahead and cast my ballot. It is surprising just how much calmer I felt about the whole political race once that was done.

During the prime time ad, I found myself extremely happy with what I was hearing. This proposed change in course feels like exactly what I want to happen. I want good government, headed by a person that believes good government will make a difference. Obama proposes exactly that.

The ad was frosting on a wonderfully tasty cake. Milk chocolate cake in this case.

I’m listening to a John McCain stump speech right now, and listened to a Barack Obama speech earlier. I’m a bit of a politics watcher, in that politics has interested me since I was about 11 years old and the fight was between Humphrey and Nixon. One of the things John McCain keeps talking about is that he won’t spend our tax money and that spending is the root of the problem.

I’m not so sure about that.

All governments spend money. Conservative or liberal, all governments spend money. For me, the issue is how is the money spent, for what purposes, and how is the spending funded?

In the last 30 years since Nixon was first elected, every Republican administration has increased the debt and every Democratic administration has slowed the increase or even reversed it. Republicans got the idea somewhere that taxes were bad and that it was OK for our government to borrow money rather than getting tax revenues.

Borrowing money to spend instead of bringing it in through taxes is insane. Every one of us mere mortals that borrows more than we make and then spends borrowed money eventually winds up bankrupt. Where did we get the idea that government could do something people could not — and get away with it?

John McCain and many other Republicans believe that the current financial crisis came from bad mortgage debt. I disagree. I believe the crisis is simply the natural result of spending money that has to be borrowed.

It does look a lot like Barack Obama is about to win the election. Steve and I voted early because we didn’t want to risk having election day pass without casting our ballot. We are bugging all of our friends to be sure to vote early if at all possible. Vote early! This is a wonderful time to be alive!

I’m nobody when it comes to the stock market. Steve and I have invested money in stocks every so often when it seemed like a good place to park money, and when we had money that needed to be parked. At present, our money is primarily in our home, and some web sites that survive on advertising revenues. The current valuation of our home may be less than the balance due on our mortgage, but we really don’t know and aren’t trying to make any decisions based on our home valuation. We just want to live in our house and weather the storm. Its actual value is almost irrelevant with respect to our desire to live in it.

That said, my review of the news gives me a hope that the stock market is at or near the point where money people will be buying again, and where the valuation of stocks will begin to stabilize. I don’t know anything about whether the fundamentals of the economy are strong or not, but I do know that the real estate, personal possessions, and companies in the United States do have an intrinsic value, and that all is unlikely to be lost.

I’m very concerned that people I know might sell off all of their stock at the lowest point and lose money they don’t have to lose. Yes, a lot of value has been lost. But if a person doesn’t need the money in the market to live on, that perhaps hanging on is a good move. I’m going to keep watching the markets and the news to see what others believe. Anyone with an opinion is surely welcome to share it with me. I’m all ears.

Now that the ‘TrooperGate’ report has been completed and made public, there is a bit of discussion going back and forth about the conclusions. I’m no expert, but as a citizen that has been reading and hearing about the report’s conclusions, I wanted to give a short opinion on the findings for you to put in the hopper and consider.

My understanding is that the Palins’ pressure on subordinates was the ‘unlawful’ act, because it violates Alaska’s ethics laws. It is my understanding that this violation of ethic’s law carries no criminal penalties, as it does not constitute a crime under Alaska law. It is characterized as a violation of trust, rather than a violation of criminal or civil law.

While the firing of Walter Monegan started this whole thing, the conclusion of the panel was that his firing was not illegal. Palin was completely within her rights to hire and fire the department heads in the executive branch for any reason or no reason at all.

This entire issue is something that has been known for a while. The part that I find most interesting was that Todd Palin was using the governor’s office to make calls to the governor’s subordinates. If Sarah were a man letting his wife use the governor’s office to make calls, most state governments would have her head on a plate by now.

Doesn’t anyone remember all the grief Bill and Hillary received over Hillary doing official business on the health care initiative in 1993? That was official business. Imagine if she had been sitting in the oval office making calls urging the firing of her brother-in-law to subordinates?

This entire story is very strange to me. Sarah is the governor of Alaska. Shouldn’t she have more respect for the position than to allow her spouse to use government offices to press a personal issue? There is a line between personal life and government that should be respected. That is the line Sarah Palin crossed when she allowed a private issue to be pressed using government power.

There is a lot of discussion right now about how defaulted homeowners should be treated, and how they do not in fact deserve better treatment than those who have been faithfully paying their mortgages. On one hand, I don’t think the govt should eat the difference in current home value from the purchase price, but then it was government and banking actions that brought it about — not just the homeowner. If we are going to spend the money to bail somebody out… the individuals are probably more deserving than the banks.

I believe that those folks who get a renegotiated loan should be done with the following catches:

1) No debt would actually be forgiven outright
2) Homeowner is required to keep the home for at least 5 years
2) ‘Forgiven’ debt is actually a ’silent 2nd’ that is repaid prior to any profits being transferred to the homeowner when the home is ultimately sold
4) Anyone should be eligible for this conversion of excess debt to a silent 2nd, not just the folks that are in default.

Whatever solution is ultimately devised, it needs to be viewed as being as close to fair and equitable as possible.

Having seen the coverage about the Palin interviews and then seeing clips of her debates in Alaska, I had a feeling that she’d take the approach she wound up taking.

As a candidate that does not have a lot of depth in national issues, there was just no way she could be well-versed on every topic that arose. This time, instead of trying to push out a half-baked answer that showed her ignorance, she went ahead and refused to give thoughtful answers, instead repeating portions of a stump speech and using a charm offensive with a grin, wrinkled nose, or wink of the eye.

Barbs were delivered with a smile. She inferred that as a mom she knew about the struggles in families, and then ignored Joe Biden’s description of himself as a widowed father with two children that hung near death. It looked cold to me. She was interested in her own story, and completely ignored his.

It will be interesting to see what the commentators say about the debate.