'Mortgage Moms' May Star in Midterm Vote

[cal04]

With Wages Stagnant and Debt Growing, Democrats See an Opportunity

Life is cramped at the Condit household. Dale and Sharon Condit and their two young sons need more room but can't seem to sell their current home -- on the market now for three months.

In a year when politics is being roiled by angry debates over the Iraq war and immigration, it might seem odd to imagine the midterm elections being waged over square footage and closet space. But these are parts of a lifestyle that Sharon Condit, a deputy clerk of court, describes as dogged by a sense of limits: "We have dreams of this future, but we can't get it right now."

This gap in expectations, a source of anxiety for the Condits, is a source of opportunity for former representative Ken Lucas, a Democrat who is trying to win back Kentucky's 4th Congressional District from incumbent Republican Geoff Davis. Attitudes about the economy -- "People are being pushed up against a ceiling," said Lucas. "They feel trapped" -- are part of the reason the Democrat is in a neck-and-neck race in a district President Bush won by 27 percentage points in 2004.

At first glance, the economy's role in this year's midterm elections is a puzzle. Economic growth and unemployment are at levels that in past years would have been a clear political asset for the party in power.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/04/AR2006090401108.html

[bluestateguy]

1. Must there be a caricature every election year?

1994 is Angry White Men

1996 is Soccer Moms

2000 is Waitress Moms

2004 is Security Moms

and in 2006,... Mortgage Moms?

Talk about Pop Political Science

[rucky]

3. This is how advisors get paid the big bucks.

I think the pregnant teenage crack-whore mom is an under-the-radar group that could swing the election.

[hatrack]

7. It's much, MUCH easier than thinking!

And that's why James Carville lives in Georgetown, and you and I don't!

:eyes:

[bottomofthehill]

13. Ummm.... I think he is in Aleaxndria VA

I understand the point you are trying to make but he and his wife live in Alexandria, on the water , beautiful and EXPENSIVE neighborhood but not Georgetown.

[Teaser]

14. It's all Georgetown

when you're power elite.

[aquart]

19. But he lives there with Mary Matalin.

That's some mess o' pottage.

[Skittles]

12. who the f*** were Watress Moms?

I've never heard that

[wellst0nev0ter]

2. Ya Know What? Fuckem.

But just because the economy is on people's minds does not necessarily mean it will drive votes, as was clear in numerous voter interviews here in Kentucky. Dale Condit, a truck driver, said, like his wife, that he is concerned about the economy and unhappy with the direction of things in Washington. But, like her, he is not sure whether he will vote for Ken Lucas or Geoff Davis.


They can't make up their fuck-in minds about simple things like their pocketbooks, then they deserve the government they get. I'm only sorry that I'm forced along on the ride with these morans.

[OzarkDem]

28. Something to consider

is that the news media and even our own Dem leadership haven't done a very good message of defining the differences between Dems and the failed Bush administration.

Not everyone has the time to forage through the internet for information about Dems or spend months trying to coax a coherent domestic policy out of our Dem leaders in DC.

Give them a break, they've been inundated by media junk food for the last dozen years.

[Anakin Skywalker]

31. Message Moved.

[BlueJazz]

4. So widdle Dale and Sharon Condit arn't happy with the Economy??

They should have thought about that 6 years ago when they voted for
a fucking Moron.

Piss on them...

[Wcross]

5. What can a polititian do about a slowing real estate market?

Just curious how this issue would be played out?

[napi21]

8. Nothing directly, the same as they can't do anything about

the price of gas, or wether you get a raise. What they can do is enact laws that make it a disadvantage to send mfg. to a foreign country, pass laws making the current health care system much more efficient, and increase the taxrates on the top 10% of wage earners so it won't be such a big deal to get $5 million a years om wages.

People don't really think about what can a politician do about their dim view of the future. They just know they're afraid of loosing their job, and they have to pay way too much for health care and gas, and close to an election, the politician gets the blame!

[hatrack]

10. That's simple - DON'T be holding public office when it happens

:evilgrin:

As far as DOING anything about it, fresh out of ideas there, I'm afraid.

[Tesha]

30. By appointing the board of governors of the Federal Reserve Bank...

By appointing the board of governors of the Federal Reserve Bank,
politicians have some indirect control over the housing market by
means of interest rate policies.

Tesha

[eccles12]

15. People need to look behind the curtain and learn what really has caused

this problem. Many things done by the corporate capitalist and bankers are designed to keep people in bondage as cheap labor and cheap votes.

[Wcross]

17. Isn't the federal reserve in charge of interest rate policy?

I believe the run-up of real estate prices is a direct result of artificially low interest rates. The slow market now is a result of rising rates and overpriced properties. The Fed sets rates on its own.

[NVMojo]

18. and this is the sector of the country that needs to hang ...unethical

mortgage loan pushers ...but NO, they won't be punished by the new bankrutcy laws like the average citizen is ...

[aquart]

20. Ever wonder about the proliferation of banks?

A Washington Mutual on every corner......and that corner prime real estate? Ever wonder how they pay those rents? When I see a bank metastasize that way...I don't want one damn thing to do with it.

[AnneD]

29. Metastisize...

boy is that ever a well chosen word.

[fasttense]

22. They can lower interest rates.

It is as simple as that. The lower the interest rate, the more people buy up houses they can't afford and the bigger the bubble. But of course lowering the interest rate fuels inflation and the dollar devaluation. That is why the fed stopped hiking interest rates. We were getting too close to the congressional primaries.

[AlCzervik]

6. i printed it out and read the whole thing is this part bothers me

and tell me if i'm wrong here but i read this part --

For all this, traditional class-based appeals to economic grievance would probably not play well in Kentucky's 4th. At lunch at a Panera Bread restaurant in Crestview Hills, a Cincinnati suburb, Angela McNickle was enjoying a "girls' day" with her daughter, Hope, 4. McNickle, a former flight attendant who is married to a salesman, has concerns -- a 7-year-old son has Down syndrome and high medical bills -- but she said her financial situation does not affect her vote. "We're comfortable," she said. "If I was in a different economic class or a single mom, it might be different."

as-

I got mine and thats all i care about, if i was poor like you maybe i'd vote for a democrat. That really bugs the shit out of me, god forbid we try and give "Single moms or lower ecenomic class folks" a hand up.

[rodeodance]

11. yes, her comments do come across that way.

[aquart]

21. Wait till her HMO drops her.

Wait till hubby finds himself unemployed at fifty. Of course, where I come from, "comfortable" is a euphemism for serious trust fundage.

[WhiteTara]

24. having spoken with some repuke women

that seems to be their thinking. Somehow they think their air is different and the roads they drive on aren't falling apart.

[rodeodance]

9. says these swing voters unhappy about their economy.

This year, by some lights, could mark the emergence of what might be called mortgage moms -- voters whose sense of well-being is freighted with anxiety about their families' financial squeeze. Democrats are betting that this factor is strong enough to trump security or cultural values issues.

Kentucky's 4th District, stretching across nearly 200 miles of the state's northern tier, offers a useful window into whether the strategy can work. It includes coal-mining precincts with an Appalachian character, affluent Cincinnati suburbs along the Ohio River, and rural farmland that looks and feels more like the Midwest than the South. Unemployment in 2005 was 6.9 percent. The current national average is 4.7 percent.

Democrats here typically do not stress liberalism. Lucas, for instance, opposes abortion rights and gun-control measures. But in Kentucky and elsewhere, Democrats have some reason for optimism about the traction they might gain from the economy.

Polls show that swing voters -- the category that candidates most want to attract -- are unhappier than the rest of the population about their economic circumstances. According to a recent survey by Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Times, six in 10 self-described independents said the economy is doing badly, and seven in 10 said the country was on the wrong track. A Fox News poll, taken at the end of last month, showed that 23 percent of Americans consider the economy the most important factor they will weigh when they cast their ballots in November -- more than those who cited Iraq (14 percent) or terrorism (12 percent).

[belab13]

16. Are the zombies waking up???

I guess the precipitous rise in home equity was the equivalent of throwing depakote in the nations water supply and now that process is reversing.

[tanyev]

23. How about the Foreclosure Moms?

Do they still loooooove George Bush?

[BigDDem]

25. Not to mention the "Refi Moms"

[Malikshah]

26. To tell you the truth...I'm sick of _____-Moms. It's clear in the past

that these types couldn't make a valid decision if their kids' lives depended on it...and they haven't and they do.

Soccer Moms...Security Moms... How about Mothers who value their children's future? What about Dads? What about others?

In other words.. Moms don't have a monopoly on caring.

BTW-- I love and honor my mom-- so back off. :)

[ryanus]

27. To tell you the truth...I'm sick of "_____-Moms"

Those terms are always used as if Moms make uninformed and emotionally-rooted decisions on single issues. First it was "Soccer Moms" as if all they did and cared about was something as banal as carting their kids to games. Now it's "Mortgage Moms" as if all they care about is their house payments. It's an arrogant demeaning of women.

[Anakin Skywalker]

32. What about Meth-Lab Moms and Pimp Dads?

Who do those vote for?

I'm so sick of these terms.

[genieroze]

33. You forgot the repo moms. You know the ones who got screwed by the

draconian bankruptcy laws, exported jobs, imported cheap labor, rising gas prices, drug and medical costs etc.... They get their stuff repossessed.