NOT just another debate

I got back SF just in time to watch the Democratic Debate, and have been watching the spin since.

Before any other opinions, I want to give a shout out to former Senator John Edwards. He could have continued to campaign and collect delegates, but he saw the writing on the wall. I think he dropped out when he did because he knew the party needed to see Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama one-on-one at least once before Super Tuesday. I also think he may endorse Obama, but didn't want that to color the debate. Thanks, John.

I'm hoping Obama will get his endorsement this weekend, to help him for Feb. 5.

I'm looking at this debate as about round 6 in a 12 (or more) round title bout, and I give the round to Sen. Clinton. There was a lot of posturing, a lot posing, but not too many punches thrown. I counted Sen. Clinton with a few more jabs: I think she won health care (for now), maybe experience, and had a great line about needing another Clinton to clean up after a Bush.

Sen. Obama definitely survived the round without a knockdown, and had a couple of hits of his own. Like body blows, we may not see their effects until the later rounds. Bringing the war back to the front of the debate was a great move, and the (paraphrase) "not only ready, but right, on day one" was great. His strong stance in support of driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, combined with the support of Sen. Kennedy and the service union, may also bring him a much needed boost in the Latino community. He'll probably get a good number of delegates in California, but actually beating Sen. Clinton there would be a huge coup. I'm sending in my ballot to help make it happen.

It's Official!

Come on in!


As of Tuesday afternoon, escrow is closed, and the change in title has been recorded, making it all mine. By which I mean Bank of America's.

The pic's were taken with my camera phone, and Dad didn't realize how easily it shakes, so some are a little blurry.

Here's a wider view of the front, with the driveway on the left.


And from the side:


Had to have a fireplace. Mine is in the living room -- there's also a dining room.


The kitchen has an island and a built in wine rack, as well as me next to a nice mirror left by the previous owner and a bunch of shelves for my wine glasses.



The master bedroom has a big mirrored closet and french doors that open onto the patio.


The patio with the hottub. The previous owner did a lot of landscaping. Come see it in the daytime!


Master Bath - in the mirror you can see the swank towel warmer.

The guest bath ain't bad either.

The guest room, which will probably be the den again.

The previous owner turned the third bedroom into a gym, complete with water cooler and rubber floor. I'll probably keep it that way.

That's all for now. Book your visit soon :)

A Debate With 3 Winners

I know you are anxiously awaiting my take on the Democratic Presidential Debate, so here it is. Oddly, I think all of the candidates accomplished most of what they wanted, and were effective in different ways.

John Edwards - Frequently looked like the only adult on stage, and was quickest on his feet and probably scored the most points. Pressing Obama on ALL of his "present" votes, was far more effective than Clinton's laundry list. Even if there is a good reason for all of them, he couldn't explain them all away, or the issue. If it were November, or his opponents weren't celebrites, this might really be a three way race.

Barack Obama - Showed he can take it and hit back, though I thought he was a little winey in some of the exchanges. Put to rest the Reagan/ideas story, which was sadly necessary. Did manage to bring things around to his change theme, but not often enough, especially for MLK day, and seemed less inspiring than usual. But the crowd seemed to like him, and I think he may have played it well enough to solidify a victory in South Carolina.

Hillary Clinton - I agree with some of the CNN pundits -- whether she meant to concede South Carolina or not, she was definitely playing to a national audience. I think some of her shots were a little too harsh, and Barack may benefit in South Carolina from the "don't mess with our guy/gal" votes that she got in New Hampshire. Time will tell if any of the points she raised will help her later, but they might.
Missed Opportunities

I wish Edwards would prep my guy, because I think he missed some great chances to score.

Immigration/Health Care: I think Obama could have used Edwards' admissions that none of their plans covered undocumented immigrants to point out that none of the plans were "Universal", tied it briefly to a need for immigration reform, and spun it back to the need to change the playing field, not just the game. A little dangerous, because he would have had to duck promising it himself (not a good sound bite for the general election), but he would have scored points with Latinos. It also might have shut down the issue, because Clinton would NOT want to have to take a stand on that point.

Changing Stances and the 2 Clintons: Voters seem willing to accept that somehow Hillary's service as First Lady in Little Rock and Washington, D.C. counts as "experience", so it's probably time to stop fighting it directly. Instead, use it. Tie her to every decision her husband made, and every time he flip-flopped. For obvious reasons, I'd start with Don't Ask Don't Tell and DOMA. NAFTA works, too, since she's not really for it any more. Ask her where her strength and experience were when those things didn't get done. If she says she wasn't a politician then, you can go right back to the question of what her experience was during those years, and the unreleased notes from the library. Plus, he could then bash both Clinton's with one strike instead of having to pivot from one to the other.

Most Electable

I don't think there is a "Most Electable" candidate this year. We've gotten used to having an established candidate or opponent, which isn't true this year. It depends a lot on the winner of the Republican primary, which we won't know. My thoughts:

Huckabee - If this one's close with any of the three democratic candidates, something went horribly awry.

Romney - Similar to the above. He probably loses some of his base due to his religion (sadly) and any of the 3 can remind voters how we did with an MBA-in-chief.

Guiliani - Hillary Clinton. It's hard to imagine a Democrat winning the White House without NY, and he might put it in play. If a Democrat can win without New York, though, it might be Obama vs. Guiliani, because more Southern and Western states will be in play.

McCain - Obama. Hands down. Even if you grant that Hillary has the most foreign policy experience, she will not best McCain on the point. It will be about cross-over appeal and winning independents. The only person in the democratic field who can best McCain with independents is Obama.

Disappointments
Political - I didn't really like Obama's answer to the question about whether President Bill Clinton was the first black president. It worked OK for him, but if John Edwards had similarly equated dancing ability with "blackness", especially in a political realm, he would have been vilified as the second coming of David Duke. I would have liked a better answer from Obama

Apolitical-
The Chargers
The Packers
The cute boys added to Prison Break tonight -- they died at the end of the episode. With the exception of Sucre, hot Latin men on Prison Break have the life span of someone with a red shirt on Star Trek.

Excitement - I am allegedly getting the keys to my house tomorrow. Again. What's 2 levels below cautiously optimistic?

"My" House: The saga continues

Any one remember "The Empire Strikes Back", because this is FAR from "A New Hope".

"I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it further."
-- Darth Vader

That's about how I feel about the house.

As you may remember from 2 posts ago, our hero had been told he would get the keys to his new house last week, only to find out that the evil Seller had not paid off their debts.

January 17, 2008 -- My agent texts me to say that I have to resign all of my loan documents, and asks when I would have time on Friday. Turns out Seller took too long, and B of A couldn't use the same ones.
Given I would be post call, with a lot of new patients, I told him Friday probably wouldn't work. He said that if I didn't sign Friday, we couldn't close until Tuesday at the earliest, when my Dad is supposed to arrive for our vacation. He assured me (because Escrow had assured him) that Seller had done all of their stuff, and this would be the last thing. So I asked why we couldn't do it that night.
After talking to escrow, skipping the gym, and breaking a date, I was at my house waiting for a Notary to arrive from Irvine. It was the same guy as before, I signed the papers again, and he left. My agent called to make sure everything had gone OK, and told me that I would have the keys today.

January 18, 2008. I was more or less getting through my first 8 hours of work by thinking about having my friends over to my house when my agent texted me. Apparently the escrow company (about as useful as the Imperial Senate) couldn't confirm some of Sellers payments. So we couldn't close, and I couldn't get my keys. I called Escrow myself, and no one could explain how this was possible, given that I had been told that "everything else was done". So I skipped a date and the gym (and thereby more dates) for NOTHING. I resisted the temptation to let my overly optimistic agent have it, until he said "Escrow is upset as you are. We're all upset". That was it. I explained to him that we could all get in a room in see who was the most upset. He shut up.
So now I won't have my house until Tuesday, if ever. You think I'd have learned my lesson about getting excited -- but I never do (probably why I'm supporting Obama). I did learn something though -- I called my guy at B of A to make sure I won't have to sign documents again if they drag it out until next Thursday.
And, for the record, my banker, and Bank of America, have been the most stalwart, honest, and professional part of this whole thing. A pleasant surprise from a big company.

The saga continues...

Snap Judgments

Thought I'd share quick thoughts about recent political events. Remember, I am officially NOT unbiased.

Hillary on Meet the Press: Count me unimpressed. She took every dig she could at Obama, rarely mentioning his name so there wouldn't be any mean sounding clips. Probably politically smart, and very Clintonian, but it didn't impress me.

The Truce on Racism: Why wouldn't Hillary work for a truce this week? She got all her digs in Sunday. I won't say Barack never left the high road, but he spent more time on it than Hillary did.

The Nevada Lawsuit: It may not be fair that Casino/Restaurant/Hotel workers have a special way to caucus that other people don't. If it were really about equality, though, they would have filed suit BEFORE the unions endorsed Obama. I'm sure Hillary's name isn't attached to anything, but it's her people. Effective politics, but save it for the general election. It's partisan, it's old school, and it makes Obama's road look even higher.

Nevada Debate: They might as well have sung Kumbaya. Seems like after the truce, we all ran against Bush/Republicans tonight; even Edwards was in muted attack mode. To me, Obama clearly had the "vision thing", but overall I call it a draw. I liked the fact that the candidates got to ask each other questions, but Hillary's request for co-sponsorship was cheap theatre. Obama accidentally burning his question was stupid.

Don't Ask Don't Tell: All 3 candidates got a fat pitch on this, and they all watched it got by. Brian Williams asked the candidates if they would enforce the law that colleges would lose federal funding if they don't allow an ROTC chapter. They all said yes. But none of them mentioned that top schools don't reject ROTC as an anti-military or anti-war stance, but because ROTC violates campus policies against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Since all 3 are on record as planning to end "Don't Ask Don't Tell", it seems like one of them might have mentioned that the problem would largely go away in their administration. Makes me wonder, as Melissa Etheridge (Logo forum) and The Who did, if we "won't be fooled again".

Chris Matthews: I've been a Hardball fan, and I like the guy. But I think he has a crush on Hillary that is only now being requited. Before the NH primary, all he did was scream about how (Bill) Clinton had been ahead by 20 points, lost, and declared himself the "come-back kid". He seemed to have taken the spin as a personal affront, and his ire hadn't waned over 16 years. On the night of the NH primary, you could hear him laughing and talking off camera during interviews -- I thought he was drunk. But since that cheek pinch (or whatever), Hillary can do no wrong. Sorry, Chris, I don't think she crushed everyone tonight, nor do I think she restored her inevitability by running against Bush instead of Barack and John.

The Experience Question: Turns out it doesn't matter much to me. Hillary probably has shown us what she would do in more circumstances than Barack. But the defining moments of history and presidencies are about what you do in the situations you CAN'T predict. President Bush, in my opinion, is one for three. He handled 9/11 well with the megaphone and the attack on Afghanistan and the Taliban. Then he blew Katrina and Iraq.

I know Senator Clinton can respond to polls, read the tea leaves, and win elections. But I think Senator Obama has the vision to make the right choices in the tough situations. In short, he's a leader. I'm not sure she is. Look no further than her chief campaign strategist -- it's Mark Penn, her pollster. Heisenberg teaches us that you can't measure an event without affecting it. But I don't think you can't affect a situation much if you spend all your time measuring it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, but no more anonymous endorsements. If you want me to publish your support for a candidate, put your name on it.

Late update: I just looked at the Michigan results. Remember that the Democratic Party stripped Michigan of it's delegates for having their primary too soon. Noone really campaigned there, but Senator Clinton was the only major candidate not to take her name off the ballot. She "won" with 55%, but only beat "uncommitted" (40%) by 15%. And apparently most of the African American voters said they would have voted for Senator Obama if he had been on the ballot. If Sen. Obama wins Nevada and South Carolina, I think the momentum will be with him. Again.

gO-bama!

This Old House

A long day at work, a new Prison Break, and the Sarah Connor Chronicles mean I'm going to stay in tonight. While I sit with my wine, I thought I'd finally share the drama of buying what I hope will be my house. Sadly, I still don't have the keys. I think we'll do this by timeline.

Early November 2007 I've found that the best way to apartment hunt is to walk around the neighborhoods you like. You'll see everything in the paper and on Craigslist and then some. So I was out trolling University Heights -- still a gayborhood, but not Hillcrest (the Castro of San diego) -- when I saw a cute little house on the corner with a "For Sale" sign. It also said "SPA". I wrote down the address, but assumed it was well out of my price range.

When I started working with my agent, he showed me houses I wanted to see, as well as places he thought might help my perspective. Which I think is code for "get me to spend more money". He told me his brokerage was selling a house in the area, and took me to the very one I had seen. I was right on two counts -- it was cute, even on the inside. And it was out of my price range. I pretty much dismissed it.

Late November 2007 I saw my house advertised on Craigslist for my loan pre-approval limit. It was more than I wanted to spend, but it was getting in range, and I had given up on the one other house that I liked. So we worked out a bid that was below the asking price, but not outside the realm of reason (usually 90% of the asking price).

Oddly, they "countered" at an even HIGHER price. Apparently Craigslist means nothing official, and they had listed it with a "value price range" of about $40,000 -- the Craigslist offer being the low end. I was ready to bag, but he found out they were just using their offer to make their real price they wanted right in the middle. I countered a little below that, and they accepted. It was more than I had planned to spend, but I was suddenly in Escrow on a house I really liked.

It turned out the owner of the house worked for Countrywide, and wanted him to take a job in a new city. So the house was being sold through a relocation company. We worked with them, but were getting info from the original owner. More later.

Early December 2007 When we agreed on a price, the "seller" requested I only take 7 days to complete my inspections, instead of the usual 14. My agent thought this was odd, but we just guessed they wanted to close before the end of the year for tax purposes. There was an odd line on the listing...garage conversion done by prior owner. No known permits, buyer to verify. Seemed simple enough, but after bouncing between the City permit office and the County Tax Assessors office for 2 days, I found out that the garage and a good chunk of the driveway had been turned into the master bedroom and two baths. With NO permits.

Armed with this infomation, I countered that they could: (1) get the permits; (2) give me more time to research the possibility of permits; or (3) drop the price significantly. They said no, and I started signing papers to close escrow.

December 21, 2007 This was the day I would have closed on the house, had the permit thing not come up. I thought I was done when my agent called to say there was one more form. "But before you sign it, let me ask you something." He told me that he and the other agent were willing to drop their commissions, and the sellers were willing to move a little. Would I take the house for $25K less -- not as low as I had asked, but not bad. I took a night, called Dad and some friends, and said "Yes!"

Unfortunately, they couldn't get the wording for the money right, and everyone went on vacation.

January 3, 2007 Everyone was back, but I still didn't have an official offer at the agreed price. Then my banker called to say that my loan rate lock was going to expire. It turns out the the person originally running the show at the relocation company didn't have her shit together, and had never gotten the offer approved by Countrywide, who had assumed the deed to the property when they moved their employee. It also turned out that there was a second mortgage on the property, so Coutrywide was going to take a bath on my property. Fortunately, my banker got me a 7 day lock extension.

January 9, 2007 Countrywide approved the sale at the agreed price, presumably figuring that taking a bath now would be better than drowning later, given the state of the housing market. They finally got the wording (though not the numbering) of the counter offer correct, and we were back on. They required that closing occur "on or before January 24." We picked before, like ASAP, since the rate lock on my loan was running out. Again. The escrow company sent a notary to my house to sign away my life on the loan papers, and I thought we were done. I even did a final walk through with my agent, and the previous owner had cleaned out the place and left a nice note. Hence the last blog.

January 10, 2007 I get a frantic call from my bank. Apparently, the sellers hadn't signed the papers. Turned out that they hadn't paid off the debt on the property, so I couldn't get the deed. Fortunately, my agent and banker worked out that my lock was good until at least...

January 11, 2007 Happy Birthday, Mom! In an oddly related event, Bank of America (my bank) is buying Countrywide (who owns my house). Which means that if we wait long enough, B of A can just sell itself the house through me. In the mean time, Countrywide has decided they're not going to get their shit done until the 18th. I was LIVID. I was ready to close out, go home, and start over. Until I talked to my banker. He thinks they're wishing they hadn't chosen the bath, and they're HOPING I will back out (they can't break the escrow). He told me to hang in if I like the house, because he thinks I'm getting a sweet deal.

January 14, 2007 I'm here waiting, hoping to get my keys Friday, but knowing they may drag this out until the 24th, when Dad and I are supposed to be in wine country. As we know, patience is not one of the angels of my personality -- it hardly qualifies as a "better demon". But I'll make it -- especially since my agent got me a 30 day rate lock extension, so I really have nothing more to worry about. I'm just Villanova, running out the clock (trivia buffs, name the year and the opponent for blog bonus points). I hope some of you will come down and see the trophy if I make it.

More pictures still to follow, God-willing. I would give the address to google, but sadly I have an A4A stalker, so I'm a little careful these days. I'll probably take the outside pic down shortly, but I'm all giddy right now.

The American Dream

After signing my name to a mind numbing stack of documents containing mind boggling numbers...

I OWN A HOUSE!!!

I should get the keys tomorrow or Friday. Looks like I'll be here in sunny San Diego for a while now, so y'all better come visit. Chad and Dan, this means you!

Anyone remember the old Jack Frost Christmas special? He needed a horse, a castle, and a wife to be truly human. Already had the Mustang, now I've got a castle (3 bed, 2 bath is pretty good in SD). Just got to find some applicants for the partner position.

Pics to follow.

gO-bama

If you didn't know it by know, I'm a political wonk, and you can bet I watched the Iowa Caucus/Straw Poll results tonight. In fact, I watched it with some friends from an certain LGBT activist organization. I wanted to share a few thoughts.

1) I was a John Edwards guy 6 months ago. Then I got unimpressed -- I liked what he said, but he didn't move me. Obama did. Turns out I wanted to be inspired, not sold. I'm was watching the O-bandwagon until tonight. Now, I'm officially on it.

2) On the Republican side, I tend to like what Gov. Huckabee says -- he almost sounds like the compassionate conservative W claimed to be. If only he didn't want to quarantine the gay men and forsake evolution. Hopefully, he will at some point say that he won't force his religious views on people (I LIKE evolution). Regardless, his line that (paraphrase) "people want to vote for the guy who looks like them, not the guy who fired them" is awesome (Edwards should have used it).

3) I'll go on record now for the Republican nomination. McCain will beat Romney in NH, effectively ending Romney's bid. South Carolina will be a showdown between McCain and Huckabee. I prefer McCain, but I may root for Huckabee -- because he can't win a general election (and you can put me on record for that).

4) Edwards is over, but he could be big. I think he will try to play until South Carolina, and he won't win. If he got out now and endorsed someone, that person would win.

5) Unless Edwards endorses Hillary, the dominoes are lining up for Sen. Obama. He was nearly tied in NH before his Iowa victory -- I think his bounce will put him over the top. I think his destruction of Hillary's "inevitability" claim will win him the African American vote in South Carolina. If he goes 3/3 in the sanctioned primaries, I think he'll be hard to stop.

And I'll go work for him with the zeal I did Bill Clinton.

Happy Caucus Day!