You're assuming that details will be forthcoming. One of the hallmarks of the McCain campaign thus far has been a vague promise ("I know how to capture Bin Laden!") with nothing to back it up.

Is it me or has McAce loaned all of his Flag Lapel Pins to the Witch Doctor VP? He hasn't worn one since the neocons hammered Obama for being unpatriotic for not having one on. She wears about 15 of them.

What a bunch of knuckle-heads.

you think that was a real proposal? it was off-the-cuff BS. Just like the 'spending freeze' and 'campaign suspension' he just makes stuff up extemporaneously and then you never hear about it again.

If Uncle Sam holds your mortgage, do you still get to deduct mortgage interest from the IRS??

I'm not asking sincerely, just pointing out the oddity of the US gov't becoming a landlord. It's especially odd to hear that plan coming from the nominee of the party of "government is the problem."

"there might be something different about the proposal McCain mentioned..."

The difference is we know McCain will do it without raising taxes or increasing the deficit. With Obama it will just be tax and spend, tax and spend.

Am I the only one who thought that near the end, McCain was going to just burst out and scream, "It's my turn damn it!" It sure did seem like he wanted to say that to the crowd when he was waxing on about his past and how he's always served the country. He is seeing himself as being minimized by the "new guy" and he can't stand it. Someone said it best on here the other day when they said he wants to be President just to "be" President so he can outrank his father and grandfather and have something else on his Wikipedia page.

CNN.com's "Quick Vote" results:

Who fared better in Tuesday's presidential debate?
Sen. John McCain 19%
Sen. Barack Obama 73%
No clear winner 7%

Meanwhile, FOXNews.com has this:

Who won the second presidential debate in Nashville?

John McCain 47%
Barack Obama 53%

KaPOW!!! 'Night, John Boy.

Wingnut heads are already exploding over this one. Pop! Pop! I think McCain just stabbed his conservative base in the back.

I would love to hear more about tMcCain's or Obama's plan to directly aid homeowners who are about to lose it all!

Al: The difference is we know McCain will do it without raising taxes or increasing the deficit.

Al, I do believe you're talking out of your ass. That's like saying that, somehow, you could by a new car for $40,000, turn around and sell it used for $26,000 and yet somehow not lose money on it. Welcome to Deficit City, population: you.

Having the federal government enter into a massive purchase program of assets at this time would cause a more massive restructuring two years down the road.

What will happen is a partial purchase program and once the destabilizing effects are seen, the restructuring will occur anyway, we might delay it a year.

The difference is we know McCain will do it without raising taxes or increasing the deficit.

And McCain will do this by nominating a leprechaun to be the Secretary of the Treasury. His pot of gold will come in handy.

I think his plan to "get bin Laden" involves getting the Brits to loan us James Bond and he and John Rambo can go and flush him out. And he's going to "win wars" by sending out Superman and Batman to stop the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Because what the hell - if you're going to live in a fantasyland, you might as well just go all the way. Perhaps he can sail to England and get Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake while he's at it.

What I find most interesting is that McCain's new proposal leads to one of two eventualities in my mind:
- I need to stop paying my mortgage so that I can fall into the category of reviewable mortgages and get a better valuation on my home because otherwise a flood of cheaper properties in my neighborhood are going to hit and I'll still have my higher valuation mortgage. or...
- Every mortgage in America will need to be reviewed and potentially revised

Either way McCain's new offering is one of the most massive and counterintuitive proposals in our history.

McCains proposal is Maximus Screw-us theory, America is in Reagan first gear free fall. Simply put “tax cutting” has left American treasury with no recourse but to barrow using deficit spending. McCain is going to shift into fifth gear adding fuel to go in to a serious economic dive were everyone and anyone is getting out of our market because of this barrowing mentality. Face it when you buy crap that is what you get, there is not much of a market for it. This is a Katrina special that is not just involving Blacks. And a lot of white people don't like the feeling.

The International market moves with a daily trading value in estimates at four trillion dollars a day. America, our Stock market trades at approximately twenty five billion dollars a day. The International market according to these estimates has already wiped out the trillion dollar bail out package.

The world is getting out of the American Bush company market system. It is right in your face and many do not care who runs the country because of this deficit spending in a thirteen trillion dollar hole. I think America owes money in the hundreds of trillions not reported already in default on payments, secret military treasonous accounts. It is not the Republicans the world wants to manage out of this mess, last of all McCain.

Actually, if McCain or Obama did anything that would help the electorate it could be easily is done just as the communications industry is converting to high definition television with the use of coupons. The electorate simply gets a government coupon to bridge this serious time to work out the economics. This helping “We the people” that really drive the economy. The reason is there is so much fraud and cover up in Bush period literally thousands of loyal Neo-Con’s will be prosecuted for fraud and corruption, the money returned, but will need time. Please the media is helping the Neo-Con right wing to hand out the crap that the electorate is at fault. Diverging from the real truth this is a hardened scam built into the system years ago. Even to blame it on the Democrats is wrong. It smells of the Newt Gingrich contract with America stuff all Republican’s want to avoid talking about.

With that said and Obama taking that action in a coupon direction as temporary for John Doe electorate to stay in their homes would likely would be opposed by Republicans, they can't make money on that. the Republicans need the maximus screw us amount, in good cash. Nothing like the guarenteed Bush theory "You with me or against me" likely this is what was Bush was talking about all the time. Stick with him and you will get you money out of this deal.

Here, Obama will be our next President, all he has to do from this point forward is say he will address this for the American people. Dig in and get that money from those off shore Canary Island accounts. All that exposing the real thugs of the Congressional Culture of Corruption.

McCain wants to buy up all the bad mortgages, fix health care, energy, and SS, win all the wars ... and cut taxes. It's magic!

His wife has been buying him whatever he wants for too long.

I hope at some point McCain attaches some details to this program so that some economist can figure out how many trillions of dollars he is talking about. It sounds like he's saying that if you paid more for your house than it is worth, then the government will make up the difference.

This has the makings for a great television commercial for Obama. This one proposal probably would cost more than every proposal Obama has ever made.

Here's another thing. Why are those mortgages bad? Isn't it because the owners have already defaulted on them? And if they've already defaulted, isn't the house most likely empty (like the ten or so within a half-mile radius of my house)? And if the owner is gone, with whom exactly is the treasury going to negotiate this new mortgage?

In fact, the McCain campaign's press release last night stated that it would be an exercise of existing authority authortized in the last housing bill and the bailout bill.

So it really was old news; he just stole a lick from Obama.

It's not just the mortgages that have gone bad (defaulted or in arrears) but the ones still to come as their rates unlock/balloon payments hit/interest only turns to interest and principal. There is a lot of bad news still to come.

Now add to that high energy costs, increases in food prices, and job losses and there's a lot more regular (not alt-A or sub-prime) mortgages that are likely to go under as well and take the ratings of the CDOs and banks holding them down too.

Repossession doesn't help the mortgage/CDO holder if the house has lost a lot of value either.

That would be interesting.

See Brad DeLong at John McCain's New Mortgage Plan Is Worse than I Had Imagined Possible, Even Given What I Know About John McCain.

According to DeLong, quoting Ben Smith and Victoria McGrane at Politico: "Details provided to reporters by [McCain] senior adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin Wednesday morning make one thing clear: Taxpayers would directly pick up the tab for the difference in cost between a homeowner’s old, too-expensive mortgage and the cheaper one provided by the government."

DeLong's takeway: "John McCain wants to give $100 billion of taxpayers' money to America's worst-behaving mortgage financiers ... Democrats want to prevent depression and support the financial markets by investing taxpayer money in banks with troubled assets. Republicans want to give taxpayers money away to the shareholders and managers of banks with troubled assets."

My concern is more basic - I don't think most of the still undecided voters or the weakly decided / leaning voters are really looking at the proposal in as much detail as we are here. My concern is that things are so bad and so scary in the economy that voters want more specificity on what the candidates propose to do to "fix" the problem. In both debates - McCain - I think - gave at least one more concrete proposal than Obama in answering a specific question - in the first debate - McCain said that (with some high priority exceptions) he would freeze spending (don't need to come up with extra money to fund that idea) - this is a v. easy idea to understand - in the second debate, he proposed refinancing mortgages downward to current market values in order to help people stay in their houses - again a v. simple and appealing idea - now I know things are more complicated and this is a v. costly proposal - but it is a specific idea (its also not so important at this point to say who first had this idea - McCain was the first and only one to propose this in a presidential debate)- so he gets credit with many of the viewers as the originator of the idea). I think Obama in the next debate needs to focus on offering some specific proposals that answer a given question - simply blaming Bush, McCain and other Republicans for putting us in a position that we need such answers is not good enough any more - voters want ideas for a way out. As Senator Sam used to say - ...specificity, specificity - be specific." The voters are more hungry than ever for exactitude. Obama needs to lead.

I hate to be a party pooper, but the US already has about $100 trillion of unfunded liabilities. Do we want this mortgage plan, or Social Security? Can we pay the interest much longer on the national debt?

Of course the McCain proposal is attractive, as free money always is; but there are questions of fiscal responsibility and fairness to those who pay mortgages off in a responsible manner. McCain could propose free mansions and a million dollars for everyone, and of course this is attractive to those who think of the government as Santa Claus.