Are you better off than you were 8 years ago?

Unless you are CEO of Exxon/Mobil, Shell Oil or Halliburton, the answer is almost certainly a resounding "no!"

America is worse off than 8 years ago. We have the worst deficit in American history. We are experiencing inflation and stagnation. Prices are through the roof. Oil is at an all time high. Wheat is at an all time high. Don't know about you, but where I live even things like tomato sauce and cheese are sharply more expensive than I have ever seen them. In my neighborhood stores and restaurants close every day, hit by a double whammy of high real estate prices and sagging business. Hate crimes are up. Incomes are down. Job growth has been flat. Bankruptcies and defaults are becoming epidemic. Our infrastructure is failing.

America is worse off than it was 8 years ago. It is dramatically worse off.

Meanwhile, oil companies are raking in record profits, even as every year poor and elderly Americans freeze during winter because they can't afford heating oil. CEOs are making record salaries, even as middle class Americans are laid off, seeing decreasing salaries and face defaulting on out of control mortgages. Taxes on the wealthiest 1% of Americans have been sharply reduced while our national deficit skyrockets and our government can't (or chooses not to?) afford to fix our levees and bridges.

We are worse off than we were 8 years ago. This is the Republican legacy. From 2000 to 2006 Republican policies dominated. Since then the brakes have been put on their excesses, but they have not been reversed. We have had nearly 8 years of Republican domination. And we are all worse off than we were by a lot.

What have Republicans done? They ignored warnings of terrorist attacks. So Americans died. They ignored warnings of bridge collapses and levees breaking, so Americans died. They have failed to stop al-Qaeda, so al-Qaeda is now stronger than ever. They blundered miserably in Iraq, so now we have a desert version of the Vietnam failure where our soldiers and citizens pay the price of government failure. Republicans even added to the pain faced by our soldiers by cutting veterans benefits and health care for our soldiers even as they sent more and more Americans into the Iraq quagmire. And yes...Osama bin Laden is still free. Republicans have engaged in the sleaziest era of greed and corruption since Harding. Yes, there are some corrupt Democrats as well (google mole333 and "Vito Lopez" and you will see my rants about Democratic corruption in my area). But if you look at the numbers, it is clear that the corruption on the Republican side is way beyond anything on the Dem side. From Alaska to Kentucky, from California to Ohio and Missouri, Republican corruption is rampant.

Irresponsibility, intolerance, greed, corruption and failure. This is the Republican legacy 8 years after they took over. They have become the epitome of poor government. They have become the epitome of behavior that every religion on earth tells you is wrong and that each of our mothers told us not to do. Irresponsibility, intolerance, greed, corruption and failure.

Will you be better off 8 years from now?

We are offered three choices in November. The choice among them is critical.

John McCain has told us he will continue the Bush policies. He will continue the deficit, the failed economy, the failed Iraq quagmire. He is promising more irresponsibility, intolerance, greed, corruption and failure. Is this what you want?

Hillary Clinton offers us a return to the Bill Clinton years. Now, I for one remember those years fondly. Inflation and uneployment remained at amazing lows. Contrast that with clear inflation and stagnation under Bush. During Bill Clinton's presidency, for the first time in American history, our debt SHRANK. He generated enough of a surplus that he could pay off some of our debt. And that was a further boon to the economy since less of America's income had to go to interest on the debt. We WERE far better off 8 years ago than now, and that does make another Clinton presidency tempting.

But the Clinton years, like the Bush years before and after, did have a certain excessively corporate feel and did seem to have too much sacrificed to partisanship. The Clintons triangulate too much for many people's taste. At its best this can produce effective compromises. At its worst it can, and has, produced capitulation to the Republican agenda...and we have already seen that the Republican agenda leads to irresponsibility, intolerance, greed, corruption and failure. We were better off 8 years ago, so a return to Clinton policies is tempting. But there is some uncertainty that it leaves too much room for a continued Iraq quagmire and insufficient restraint on the Republican/corporate greed that is ruining working class and middle class America.

Barack Obama is offering something new, he promises. Clinton looks back to the good years of the 1990's, but that is still 20th century thinking. Obama offers us 21st century thinking that can hopefully address 21st century problems of terrorism and global warming. What's more, he is brining together an amazing coalition of youth, minorities, independents, progressives and moderates that he might be able to give us something that neither the Clinton years nor he Bush years before or after offered: unity. A united United States. Clinton and McCain are only going to exacerbate the disunity. Can Obama build on the amazing coalition that has brought him such spectacular wins in South Carolina, Iowa, Idaho, Alaska, Nebraska, Virginia...the list goes on. Obama is offering us unity and optimism. After 8 years of pessimism and fear, and some 20 years of sharp disunity, this is very, very tempting.

Of course there are doubts that he can deliver. I think he can because he has delivered far more than people ever imagined. He went from being a poor speaker to a gifted orator. He learned how to raise money. He learned how to overcome racial barriers. He has become a winner. McCain is tied to the losing policies of Bush and Clinton has not proven herself to be the winner people thought she was. Obama exudes "winner" and people are responding. This inspiration can go a long way to restoring confidence and unity in America.

Three choices:

McCain offers continued despair and disunity. He explicitly offers to stay the Republican course of irresponsibility, intolerance, greed, corruption and failure.

Hillary Clinton offers a return to the Bill Clinton years, a time we really were better off.

Barack Obama offers to lead us into the new century with optimism and unity, and he so far seems capable of delivering.

One really, really bad choice. And two very tempting choices.

Are you better off than you were 8 years ago? Will you be better off in 8 years? We know the answer to the first question is "no." The choice you make in November will determine the answer to the second question.