Where Did We Go Wrong?

George Bush is bad - he has screwed everything up. It's all George Bush's fault.

Wah, wah.

I am so tired of hearing that.

What has happened in the last few years? Housing foreclosures have gone up, home values have declined, oil prices have skyrocketed, China's economy has taken off while ours has gone into the toilet, we're set to retire our shuttle fleet and leave our astronauts at the mercy of a nation that is trending back towards communism... the list goes on.

Where did we go wrong?

Who's to blame? You may say Bush, I say Congress. Politics 101 - Congress is who puts legislation in place. The power is really in their hands to fix what we've allowed to get broken. Who has been the majority party in Congress for the last two years? The Democrats.

Who else is to blame? Now let's look at the chief executive.

You may say Bush is to blame. Ok. So he's not real smart and he can't pronounce "nuclear," but he had the largest terrorist attack on the United States to deal with along with political and economic fallout that resulted directly from those attacks. His record of intelligent decisions may not be stellar, and some blame can be put on him, his cabinet, and his advisors. But look what he's had to deal with.

I say a large part of the blame is on Clinton. He should have surgically taken care of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban when he had the chance, but he chose not to. Then we wouldn't (hopefully) have had a major terrorist attack on our country, have to deal with being in a multiple-front war right now, and be spending the billions upon billions of dollars to fight that war.

Then we can look at it from a "trickle-back" standpoint, and lay some blame on the Democratic congress under George H. Bush, go back and put some blame on Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon ... and while we're at it, let's put some of the blame on all of us for taking the daring and brave move in creating Isreal following World War II. Most of the middle east has had us in their crosshairs since then.

(Okay, so going back and changing or stopping any of the things that have even in the smallest way contributed to the current state of our economy and our reputation around the world opens up the whole issue of screwing up the space-time continuum and creating innumerable paradoxes)

Fast forward back to 2008 - and we've got McCain blaming Obama and the Democrats. And Obama blaming McCain and the Republicans.

We should just go ahead and portion out the blame so everyone in Congress has some laid on them. And we can continue the blame game all we want. Really, though, it's time for all of these clowns in Washington to stop being politicians and start acting like leaders.

Lead us into a safe and prosperous future. Don't just take a backseat with the nation on autopilot.

After watching the presidential debate the other night, I came to the conclusion that this election for me is really about who is the lesser of two evils and who has less potential to screw this country up even further.

I really don't know. I would like to think McCain. But here he goes off on a $300 billion mortgage buyout. This after a $700 billion bailout, recovery package, whatever you want to call it. Granted, he says, oh yeah most of the money to do the mortgage buyout is already in the recovery package.

You know what, we will all still end up picking up the tab for these predatory lenders, for greedy Wall Street executives, for corporations with no real care in the world for the Average Joe Sixpack (thanks Sarah for the catch-phrase). We are all going to be footing the bill for this for a long time.

And it's time we put an end to coprorate greed, its lobbyists, and the pork they receive. Again, as with everything in the political world, easier said than done.

Both McCain and Obama can say "tax-breaks" all they want, but the sad reality is that with our economy on the track it is and our ability to cover this bailout, get our nation out of debt, and put additional corrective measures into place to fix our economy, it's going to take money out of all of our pockets and I would venture to guess we'll not see any tax breaks, and instead have tax increases under either candidate.

I really have a half-mind to write Fred Thompson in on the ballot because both Obama and McCain grate my last nerves.

I'm sick of this election. And I can believe I'm saying this, but I'm sick of arguing with people over why I am more inclined to vote for McCain over Obama.

Most of it is philosphical and goes back to smart and limited government, and core Republican beliefs of family values and a strong national defense.

Call me a reluctant Republican this go round all you want. I really am.

I'm just ready to get this over with, deal with what we have to deal with for the next four years, hope whomever is elected doesn't screw things up even worse, and hope for better choices in 2012.