Election Fever

I'll be voting in my 10th President election on Tuesday. If I count the wins and losses, I guess its 6 winners and 3 losers. In 1992 I didn't think George HW Bush really wanted to be president any more and I voted for Ross Perot. This split the vote and Clinton won. Many people think Clinton was the best president in the 20th century. What he did was come to the center, politically, because the Republicans came into power in 1994 (Remember the contract with america?) That is why there was a balanced budget, and welfare reform by the end of his term. The best president in my lifetime (1972 and beyond) was undoubtedly Ronald Reagan. He changed Washington before Washington changed him. He brought the country out of the doldrums of Jimmy Carter. People believed in the American dream again. He stood up to the Soviets and caused them to collapse. He lowered taxes, removed regulations so that the market forces could moved foreward. He started the economy on an almost 20 year expansion that has been slowed, almost stopped by the housing mortgage debacle.

My concern is that the politics in this country has gotten so devisive that it is hard to distinguish who really has American interests at heart. There is a dearth of politcal leadership that makes a mockery of the American intelligence. Smoke and mirrors has been used to test the patience of the American people and I think on Tuesday, there may be a surprise.

My biggest hope is that good American people will vote for the right person and America can put their differences aside and we can move foreward.

Fred Newcomer