[fabsroman]

Billy,

There is a lot of things wrong with America, and Bush might be part of it, but I put most of the blame on Americans themselves.

The cost of food and gas isn't what really has the economy at a standstill. It has a lot more to do with Americans in general. Very few Americans are Ants. Instead, they are Grasshoppers. Even worse, along came a Cockroach that offered these Grasshoppers fun in the sun on credit. The Grasshoppers took advantage of this wonderful offer, thinking that money would always be flowing in to pay the bills.

Guess what, winter came along and we now have a huge mess. It is kind of like a snow ball causing an avalanche, and I see it in plenty of my clients. They are driving around in Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, etc. and they have debt coming out of their ears. I have one couple that own a townhouse and a single family home, with interest expense of $70,000 a year and they make $180,000 a year. I know they aren't saving a dime. On top of that, they now owe more on the two pieces of property than the properties are worth because they took out home equity loans on them while the market was hot. One owns a Lexus RX330 and the other just bought a new Impala. They both buy new cars every two years, and they just back from a pretty good vacation. I have plenty more clients like that, and have been approached by several clients about declaring bankruptcy, all of whom are driving $30,000+ cars, and some are driving $50,000 cars.

The problem with Americans is that they cannot look into the mirror and blame themselves. Instead, we need to blame the President or somebody else. However, while you are blaming the President, how about blaming the Democrat controlled Congress. The President couldn't pass a single bill without Congress presenting it to him. Plus, if the Democrat controlled Congress could come up with some great new laws, and even if the President vetoed them, Congress could still pass them with a 2/3 vote on them without the President's approval if they are just that great.

As far as I am concerned, the mess we currently have is not just the President's fault. It goes much deeper than that.

I could tell that these 5/1 ARM's were a bad thing and refused to get one even though they were being pushed on me. Thought about refinancing a couple of months ago, and the mortgage broker was still pushing a 5/1 ARM. Honestly, what are people thinking getting themselves into one of those products after everything that has been on the news about them. It is almost like getting into a Ford Pinto and hoping you are never involved in an accident that causes the gas tank to explode.

The problem with America is that Americans haven't been through a tough time in quite a while, especially my generation (i.e., I was only 9 years old when we had the mess with Carter), so they think things will always be rosey. Well, we finally have a tough time on our hands, and I honestly think this goes all the way back to when the stock market was red hot. When that crashed, that was the snow ball that caused this avalanche.

When the stock market was doing great, people were buying on credit because their paper profits looked great. Greenspan even warned people about this. Did they listen? NOPE.

After the market tanked, professional investors were looking for a place to put their money, so they put it into real estate. What is sad is that the average American has been following the trends of the professional investors, but always slightly behind them. I have a client that lost $30,000 in the stock market, then she decided to get into real estate in Miami at the end of 2005 and she is now looking at selling that property at a $40,000 loss, and she has now started trading in foreign currencies. If she had just put her money in the bank she would be $70,000 ahead of the game. She isn't the only client that I have seen with this problem, and some of my friends have been hit with it too. It seems like everybody wants to hit it rich quick. Problem is, they don't know when to get out.

Anyway, after the real estate market tanked, investors moved to oil and oil is now $130 a barrel. Eventually, this will fall too. JUST DON'T INVEST IN OIL RIGHT NOW. One of my clients just dropped $25,000 in an energy mutual fund that is heavily invested in oil. We'll see how that works out.

So, blame the President if it makes you feel better, but he isn't completely to blame. There is enough blame to go around to almost every American.

By the way, when the housing market was going through the roof, my wife and I decided not to extend ourselves to buy the single family house, but we settled on a townhouse. I knew the real estate market was headed for disaster, I just didn't know how bad it would be or how long it would last. Four years later, we are looking pretty good.

I also saw a sign at a church one day that said "Live happier by wanting less." So many people are miserable right now because they want way too much. If every American had made food, shelter, and health their main priority, with saving a set amount as a second priority, then we wouldn't be in the pickle we are in. Instead, Americans spend tons and tons of money to entertain themselves and on possessions that they really don't NEED (e.g., luxury cars, huge homes, vacation homes, entertainment centers).

Do you honestly think McCain, Obama, or Clinton would be the smartest people in the room? Maybe if the room is full of clowns. I just hope that whoever gets elected is smart enough to appoint some really smart people to advise them. I don't even think Bill Clinton is all that smart. Look at the stupid comments he has made recently.

Last but not least, I will agree with you that you shouldn't vote solely on the 2nd Amendment issue, but it should be one of your criteria in evaluating a candidate. If I honestly thought a candidate was going to ruin America, you can bet that I wouldn't vote for him/her just because they were pro 2nd Amendment. The 2nd Amendment isn't going to mean much if we are speaking Chinese or Russian.

Okay, I'm done.