Don't Ignore What Matters

Had an IM conversation with a friend of mine today who after we lamented the poor starts of our fantasy football teams told me the following. For anonymity's sake we'll call him OLM.

OLM : talking about woulda's
OLM: the stock market!!!
OLM: UGH
Me: UGH
Me: i hear ya
OLM: wow man
OLM: im taking a bath on EVERYTHING

It hit me soon after this point of our conversation what this election is really about, real American's well being.

I say this because soon after the above exchange we got into a 20 line discussion about what a joke Sarah Palin is. The Palin pick 9 or 10 days later, is serving as what I feared it would.

She's a smokescreen for what really matters. It even caused McCain campaign manager Rick Davis to say,,,

"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

The focus needs to be on the IM conversation above and not on the soap opera that is the Palin nomination.

I wrote after Bill Clinton's speech that his messaging is always way better than the Democrats and it's time to go back to Clinton basics.

"It's the economy stupid."

I follow stocks from afar, but people are hurting, 401k's are shrinking, everything that is supposed to be up,, is down,, everything that is supposed to be down,,, is up.

This is what matters, this is what the Democrats have to stay focused on like Barack Obama tried to do with Keith Olbermann last night. The answer to every question should be 'McPalin economics are the same as George W. Bush's.'

In this country,, pensions are a thing of the past. We overwhelmingly rely on the stock market and 401k's to accumulate wealth. If not the market, many are invested heavily in real estate, and that market is almost scarier than the stock market.

So the effect this recession is killing all of us in the pocketbooks right now whether we know it or not.

The Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout was probably necessary, but if the housing market gets worse,, the taxpayers will pay the bill as always.

When I first started following politics it was 1992 and Ross Perot was on TV with his charts talking about the national debt. After turning things around in the 1990's under Clinton and the Gingrich congress (that's for you BKA) we made headway in paying down our debt.

Now after 6 years of single party rule, two years of a Democratic controlled chickenshit congress, and above all the 'have your cake and eat it to' Presidency of George W. Bush, we now have to fear what the future of our economy holds and what happens when our debts come due.

Sarah Palin interviews, liberl or conservative media bias, political process stories,,,

In a different year these might be issues of importance, but this year is different, we have to know what these two tickets are going to do to ensure our futures or if we are going to all be learning Mandarin or Hindi because the Chinese and Indians have lapped us in the world.

POST SCRIPT (3:05PM):

OLM just instant messaged me

"down 275 today"

Shit, and Democrats are worried about Palin interviewing with the media. Talk about the economy and take the message of the election back.

Time to hold these candidates feet to the fire on the economy.

Period.