Shhh! The Crashing Economy is Really a Secret

A Tom Edsall column on Politico caught my eye this morning (hat tip Mike Allen's Playbook). It questions whether Barack Obama's campaign will be hurt more if he starts changing his upbeat tone to "prepare the electorate for tough times" or fails "to prepare voters for what's coming."

Do these guys really think voters don't know what's coming? And for those who haven't known for oh, say the last year that the economy is sinking faster than a Tim Wakefield knuckle ball, the last 7 to 10 days have made it pretty damn clear. Whether it's via the Internet, the TV news, the newspapers or the big lightboards in Times Square, we been inundated with the image of the U.S. and global economies as gigantic flushing toilets giving all of us one helluva big financial swirly.

We drive less because we have to choose whether to put gas in the car or food on the table. The one thing we do buy is a couple of extra sweaters or sweatshirts because we sure aren't going to put the heat up this winter. Just about everybody is worried about losing his or her job, knowing that golden parachutes are only for those who created this mess in the first place.

Do the pundits and the experts and the candidates themselves really think the people voting for them aren't aware of how bad it's going to get?

Maybe it's because I live in a Blue State and we're better informed. Maybe it's because I live in Taxachusetts, so talk of tax cuts just elicit a knowing nod, the kind you give to the elderly aunt in the nursing home you won't be able to afford next who tells you she once slept with Elvis or the 2-year-old who says she just caught a leprechaun in the back yard. That's a nice story, hon.

The truth is, we're not voting to change the tide, we're voting to stem it. We're voting for the lesser of two evils, for who won't make it worse. Neither man is going to make it better, at least not in the next four years.

And most of us already know that.

Random GOP thoughts

To those of you who have been checking for new posts, thanks for reading. It's been awhile. Many reasons, none valid other than sheer laziness.

Nothing jump starts the creative juices quite like a total and mindbogglingly unbelievable meltdown like that of the Republican party. File under truth is stranger than fiction, not to mention a helluva lot more entertaining. Hour by hour it gets more bizarre, almost to the point where it's hard to find the words ... by I'll try.

• There are not truth to the rumors that the GOP is changing the convention slogan to "What Happens in St. Paul, stays in St. Paul.
• There are some hilarious, satirical (and yes, probably highly offensive) photos here. I wish Time or Newsweek ran a column similar to Sports Illustrated's "Signs the Apocalypse is Upon Us." The winner would have to be the report that Bristol Palin's Baby Daddy was joining the Palins at the convention.
• Is it me or does Palin look like Agent 99 (my apologies to Barbara Feldon)? And you know, it's really no stretch to picture John McCain as Maxwell Smart.
• And hey, if Gov. Palin can be vice president, do ya think there's a Cabinet position for Lynne Spears? Department of Labor? How about Health and Human Services?

The Women's Vote

Ladies, in case you didn't know, when the Republicans announced that the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, would be the vice presidential candidate, they pretty much locked up the women's vote. Game over for Obama. He shoulda picked Hillary.

At least that's what the cashier in my local Stop & Shop was saying late Friday afternoon ... "Well, he's got the women's vote now ..."

Not quite sure what he said after that because, true to my X chromosome, everything above my shoulders just stopped working. Good thing too, because the readers who know me well can't believe that I didn't say anything to the guy ... smiling sweetly and mentioning that I heard one of the southern contingents would be wearing bright orange Virginia for Vaginas T-shirts at the convention this week.

Judging from the words and self-assured ignorant smile of the 40-something white male running the 12-items-or-less lane around 5 p.m. on Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend, we vote with our tits, not with our brains.

We will vote for McCain/Palin because we share issues like motherhood and PMS and do-these-pants-make-me-look-fat. It doesn't matter if we agree on issues like the economy, health care, education, the war in Iraq. We will unite because we understand bad hair days and bloating and that creepy soft handshake men give us so we won't be intimidated or hurt ...

And that's really OK because when I use my brain these days, it starts to hurt. It has to process information like there probably being a lot more men out there with the same thoughts and perceptions of that cashier (and I was in a blue state Stop & Shop, not a Piggly Wiggly or Winn Dixie!).

So unite ladies. The election has been decided for us. We can get back to our knitting circles and sip our cosmopolitans and talk about the stuff that really matters. Like that brownie recipe.