Elections and economy

Quick note on the democrats and then on to the republicans. If you haven't read them, you should look at the comments on the last post. I think Cindy has some very relevant points. However:
(1) in my viewing of the debates, I saw Barack being provoked and rising to the bait (note: Clinton's campaign even said that they though that Bill was was taking Barack "off message").
(2) I did not find Obama's wife's email compelling. I saw it being mentioned on the news in snippets and thought it would be informative for people to see the whole thing.
(3) I don't believe that Hillary stayed in the Senate because she made a commitment to the people of New York. I believe that she saw an unassailable lead by George Bush and decided to wait until the water was warmer (knowing that Chaney wouldn't be a contender for President.)
(4) The criticism of Barack's absenteeism is fair, but New York is falling apart as well (it's a national problem at this stage) and they've been left with one Senator as well.

As for Conor's comment. Will an idealist get eaten up by Washington? Actually, if he wins, I think it will send shockwaves through the Congress. If Hillary wins, it tells them that the voters can be convinced by means that they're familiar with. If Obama wins, it will scare the bejesus out of them, because 1 there are more people voting and 2 they're not voting out of fear or for name recognition.

Finally, I want to say this: one of the president's toughest jobs will be to restore America's place in the world. The mere election of Obama will go a long way to shaking some fundamentally held assumptions about America in the world. (And no, the election of Hillary will not.) It will fight the idea of a racist, fearful, inward people. The election of a woman is fairly well precedented event. The election of a minority is less so.

Now I've kind of been ignoring the republicans, because I am hoping they're unelectable. However, I just want to say: I find it funny that Romney is touting his economic knowledge after he told the people of Michigan that their automotive jobs will come back if he's president. If that's true, I guess we'll be moving back to Europe sooner than we thought.

I did want to go back to talking about something other than the elections, but that I think will have to wait for the next post.