Election Math

Seems like there are two major discussion threads helping decide who will run for President in the Fall.

The first thread is the rush to outrage and judgement about campaign surrogates who in their zealous support of their preferred candidate, firmly insert their feet into their respective mouths (Geraldine Ferraro from Hillary's camp, and several different religious leaders supporting McCain and Obama.)

The second major discussion, on the Democratic side, is all about math. Mostly delegate count, super-delegate counts and popular vote. To the media's glee, the numbers change daily, presenting yet another news cycle of speculation, parsing candidate comments, body language analysis and a review of what the Late Night Talk Shows are saying about each candidate.

Of course, there's very little discussion of the actual issues. Frankly I'd be surprised if most Democrats could cite the differences between Clinton's and Obama's policy plans. We are all guilty of letting the candidates get away without enough policy specificity.

And we completely let them off the hook when it comes to "election math".

Like how are you planning to pay for all of this?

Last I heard, Social Security was in trouble. Medicare and Medicaid will run out of funding. National Guard troops located at the Mexican border, will begin to be withdrawn as a result of dwindling budgets. There's that war in Afghanistan and Iraq (and soon coming to Iran?) that is draining the life out of future generations of Americans (both literally and figuratively). There's the required infrastructure investments in America's roads, bridges, energy infrastructure and the required investment to address Global Climate change. We're going to require substantial investment in our military simply to rebuild and re-equip our soldiers, sailors, air force and marines.

For our National security sake, we're also going to have to find a way to become energy independent (no oil imports) and that will require significant investment.

And, if we are considering universal healthcare, we will need fat wallets.

So Barack, Hillary, John.... how are you going to pay for all this? Let's have you put on a class in "Election Math".

And may I remind you that the cost of oil is now around $110 a barrel and the number of employed Americans is going DOWN each day.

Let me remind you of the current economic realities, shown at this site, In the past 8 years, our National Debt has grown from $5.7 Trillion dollars to a whopping $9.4 Trillion dollars. Every year we purchase more than we export, currently at a rate in excess of $700 Billion dollars per year!

If you had a family member in these financial straits, you'd recommend credit counselling.

But no one is talking about it.

Because for the Democrats, getting elected is about keeping people focused on change, on hope and dreams and a wish list of social initiatives. For the Republicans it's about trying to scare people into believing you're the only people who can protect America from the bad guys.

In case the past eight years haven't taught you the lesson, let me spell it out for you. Getting elected and governing are two very different skill sets. It's one thing to make it to the Oval Office.

It's quite another to be "Ready on Day 1" with a maxed-out credit card.

Hillary? Barack? John? Your responses?