...the hutzpah to pull it off.

The more I learn about what's going on in the U.S., the more discouraged I get. This nation is going to hell, folks. Our politicians from both parties, with a big assist from greedy and unethical free enterprise capitalists, have muddled the economy. We've started an unnecessary and costly war. Failed to provide adequate health care for many, many of our citizens. Widened the gap between the rich and poor. Put the middle class on the road to ruin. Allowed our infrastructure to deteriorate. And we've been discredited around the world. My gawd. The list goes on and on. Now we even have the secretary of treasury wanting to spend $700 billion of taxpayers money to bail out Wall Street from a financial crisis. And he even wants to do this without congressional or judicial oversight. Yes, he wants a free rein. Because he thinks the economy is on the verge of collapse. Little wonder. Our national debt is skyrocketing. Beyond the stratosphere. And we've got two presidential candidates degrading each other. Conducting slimy campaigns. Albeit Republican John McCain has by far outslimed Barack Obama. Can't blame Obama for occasionally tossing back some of the crap. It ain't a pretty picture. I think Obama and the Democrats are more likely than McCain and the Republicans to get us out of this fix. And to think, McCain wants another Republican Administration to be allowed to clean up this mess. George Bush and the Republicans created it in the first place. With deregulation. Virtually no oversight for money-grubbing capitalists. Remarkable. Meanwhile, Bush keeps unabashedly defending 'democratic capitalism.' At the same time that he's calling for socialism to come to the rescue. Funny, isn't it? The Republicans have told us all these years that socialism is the enemy, the scourge we're all supposed to fear and fight. But now it's socialism that's supposed to bail us out. Only a Republican could have the hutzpah to pull it off. --Jim Broede