Here's where I am with this....

I'm really weary of it. I don't hate Bush like so many seem to, even in his own party. He's had one of the wildest rides as President, and had to go places no President ever did. It was the first attack on our own soil in modern history. He entered his presidency with the economy in a downward spiral thanks to the bursting of the internet bubble, saw things get better, and then saw them come crashing down and is taking the brunt of the blame for something that <queue Barney Frank lisp machine here> hath lothts uff plame to gho athrount.

We seemed to be living in econmic prosperit during the Clinton years, but found out a lot of it was built on air when the drugstore.com $25 off any order of $25 or more turned out not to be so hot on the the flipside and more.com couldn't deliver those expensive razors to us for $1... forever. All those capital gains people were paying on high-flying stocks they were selling were a boon to the government coffers until we clued in to the fact that it was all just monopoly money and air. Look at the stock quote history for stocks like Cisco (CSCO) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) and relive the pain of what was going on when Bush took office. We were all feeling it.

Just like we were at the end of the Carter years when Reagan swept in on a magic carpet fueled by unrest and frustration on the part of a populace who were highly displeased with their leader. And since I was but a kid at the time, I really can't wax philosophical about much of that... lol.

Bottom line: There is nothing new under the sun. Well, except Palin, and I'm glad to have been introduced to her this election cycle.

I would love for McCain to win. I will vote for him. He better represents my values than Obama. He would not have been my first choice, but when paired against Obama he is definitely my first choice.

But again, I also know that there is nothing new under the sun.

Whomever is elected President is going to get credit for taking us out of a recession. If you look at the underlying economic indicators right now, you'll see movement that is very positive. Energy prices are coming down. Oil used to be $20 - $40/barrel and we paid $1.70/gallon for gas. It went sky high up to $150/barrel and gas went to over $4. Now oil - at least Brent Spot Sweet Crude - was running in the $50's for a couple of hours today. I see that gas in Oklahoma City is within twelve cents of being back into the $1.XX range. The US dollar has been slowly and quietly gaining ground against the Euro and the Canadian dollar after many months of sliding.

Wall Street is bad right now but - to almost quote John McCain - the fundamentals of our economy are *getting* strong, and in a year or two, things are going to be better regardless of whether we are in a McCain administration or an Obama administration.

I do know that many of Obama's ideas run counter to what I think is best for the country long-term. But I take great comfort in the fact that if he is elected, the Republicans will start to gain power back in the very next election cycle. That's just how it works. Time and again, when someone is elected President and has a majority congress that would seem to compliment them, there are ultimately a lot of disagreements that lead to stalemates that lead to frustrated citizens that lead to the balance of power tipping to the other party. Even if Obama doesn't win, at some point the Republicans will fall out of power, and the sooner it happens, the sooner we get it back.

Whatever happens, I'll probably always see the glass as being half full.