Obama's fork in the road.

Obama clearly looked like a candidate like no other for the early part of his run. He was going to take the high road, regardless of the consequences. Hillary's campaign put him at the crossroads. Jump into the mud or walk your high road with our mud on you and no mud from you on Hillary. It was tempting, no doubt, and looked like he could do it for a while. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Clinton's pounding, Frisco elite moment all put Obama in a place of decision. His handlers wanted him to attack. He could have followed his spoken principals or fling mud with the best of them. He chose to fling mud. His candidacy has taken on the character of all presidential contests. I see no difference. He is no longer a man who came down to help us but is like the previous group of Dem choices for president. I see no way he can bring that back. He is standing on his principals, all right, and they are in the mud under his feet!

Obama being Obama?

Obama states that he will head to Iraq when the primary is over. He's been challenged by McCain to do so and it is to his credit that he allowed McCain to get him to go. Why? Because most politicians would and will do exactly the opposite of what their opponents challenge them to do. I haven't seen the video but the humility that he displayed in the beginning might be making a comeback. Not sure that can last, though. There is going to be whithering fire on both sides and politicians become, well, politicians when getting battered.

Dumb economics

People usually buy things at the wrong time. They now buy stocks that have gone up significantly already. They bought real estate above where the market is today, since it was headed up. As Mr. Rothchilds was quoted he " bought when there was blood in the streets and sold when there was joy in the streets". A large portion of people buy after most of the uptick in the value of something has already happened. Real estate and certain stocks are going to make some money in the next couple of years. Most will be on the sidelines while the best deals will be taken. There will still be some deals, but not the real money making ones.

Along with this advice - get out of debt! If you have a $1300 a month mortgage, you are probably paying about $250 in taxes and insurance per month and maybe $50 to $100 if you have a 30 year mortgage and have had it less than 5 years. So let's say that you are paying $1000 in interest. Nice write off, right? Yes, but you are losing all the rest of the money. What if you were saving that $1000 or better investing it? You start building wealth and fast.

Another thing, why do some people make such good money on real estate investments comparatively? Because, when a property appreciates you often haven't put in near as much and the value but you get the percentage return on the whole of the property.

You have no idea what I'm talking about. Let me tell you one investment I made. I bought a $106K lot in 2005. I put down money that I took out of a home equity loan. I paid payments for 9 months on an interest only loan. I sold it after 9 months for 205K, a $99,000.oo increase, in only 9 months! My investment was just the payments and two sets of closing costs, since I used home equity. I probably made about $90K when it was all said and done (paid uncle sam handsomely, though, 15% or so). OK so I walked with $77K more or less. Total out of pocket? About 22K. Be very careful when trying something like this. You can get burned and many are getting now who bought at the height of the market. Rarely can real estate outrun salaries for very long.

Is our economy living or dying?

There, of course, is trouble in the economy. How bad it is will certainly be debated for some time, however there is some good news. First, we are technically not in recession currently. That means, in this case, that the economy is still growing, but at a very slow pace. In part, because it grew so fast the last couple of years there must be a slowdown sometime. That is the nature of markets. Also, interest rates are very low. Money is very cheap at the moment, as long as you can qualify. On top of those the unemployment numbers are very low historically as we speak. These all are important for economic turn arounds.

One of the bad things is inflation in food and energy. They are off the charts and will not be coming down significantly for some time (though I would argue that oil is nearing a bust phase, judging by the numbers that are floating around).

Significant also is the slow real estate market. There are many on the sidelines looking to see if we've seen the bottom of the market. Since the banking crisis is being sorted though real estate may not be near as bad as some are predicting. After the election we should see improving numbers there. There are some crazy good deals out there. Some people will make killings soon enough.

Recent bad news has kept the stock market down also. There are some very wary people out there.

This has spilled over into the presidential race and clearly helps the Dem at the moment. We'll see in a couple of months what that effect is.

Is our economy living or dying?

A more racially divided nation?

One of the coming debates is whether or not we will see a more, not less, divided nation when this is all over. If Obama loses this will certainly be heard above the din, especially from the lunatic fringe. It is clear when you have 90% of one race supporting one of its own (albeit 1/2 black, 1/2 white) and blue collar whites lining up 2 to 1 for Hillary, or so, after South Carolina when the race thing seemed to start up.

A loss by Obama will be seen by many around the world that the US is still prejudiced. Truly, there is still racism in this nation. It has been curtailed considerably over the last 40 years to the point that a black politician has a legitimate shot at the presidency. There are going to be those that will not vote for him because he is black and there will be many that will do the opposite. Whether one cancels out the other will be, to some degree, seen in exit polls.

More than likely the decision on who our next president will be is going to be decided by the economy, international events, mistakes by the candidates (or any skeletons unearthed) along with motivated voters. It is a mixed bag at the moment.

Note: The ones who have the most to lose in this election are the race baiters. Those who have made a living at exposing any and all prejudices to their race. If Obama wins and is truly able to bridge that gap, he immediately becomes the the most prominent leader of the black movement. This will not go over well in some camps. This may be a reason that Rev. Wright stated that he would be meeting with Obama to go over some things if he wins the presidency. He has an agenda that he wants Obama to follow. This election has been like no other and there will be an interesting election aftermath.