The View From San Diego-Obama's Or Palin's America This November

As with my impressions of New Rochelle and New York City my subjective impression is of a subdued San Diego. The last time I was here, a decade ago, the city had a vibrancy which transmitted a feeling of a generally happy populous amidst apparent prosperity.

This time the vibrancy and prosperity seem deeply subdued. With the deep financial problems California is experiencing I expected to see visible aspects of this decline in poor road upkeep, shabby buildings and other obvious signs of cutbacks. At this point in time such decline was not apparent-at least in areas I went to.

However in speaking to locals the complaints were directed at reductions in services such as schools. It takes a while for buildings etc to show neglect but educational  facility problems show up quickly.

As in New York I saw little signs of abject poverty-no beggars in the streets and no obvious crowds of the homeless.What I did see however were the very real signs of decline in the housing market.

I stayed in an upper middle class suburban area and in my street of quality houses overlooking a reserve,  which houses I would estimate ran between $800k to $1.2 million dollars, there were 5 for sale (I was advised that a number had been on sale for some time. I heard stories of spotter planes being used by the local authorities to look for swimming pools which were badly congested with slime mould-they being neglected as the owners had simply walked away from the property.This is anecdotal but was an indication of how people viewed their own and others circumstances.

I was shown a beautiful house on a clifftop which, according to records, was sold for $1.2 million dollars on a $900k mortgage. According to records the  owner was over $50k behind on mortgage payments and the future is not too difficult to discern for that property. What sort of insane system gives a $900k mortgage in this case and gives loans to people who have little chance of repaying them if there is the slightest drop in the general economy?

This again, the economic situation, has created  the choice in November-between the failed liberal policies of the past, the Obama administration, and the back to basics, back to an honest market vision of Sarah Palin