What Will the Future Bring?

This time tomorrow evening, it will be about over for the campaigning. I, for one, will be glad that I won't have to hear anyone promising to lower taxes, promote job creation; (s)he's lying, no (s)he's lying, (s)he misspoke, he's too old, (s)he's unqualified; put a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot. Okay, that last is from another, long-ago campaign, but you get what I mean. The promises and the negativity will be over. At least for this campaign.

We're promised everything but the moon, but can either candidate deliver? One will have a better shot that the other. One will be moving into the White House; the other returning to his seat on Capitol Hill.

If you listen to one report, Obama will win in a landslide (didn't we hear that about Kerry four years ago?). Some reports say McCain will squeak by. I have no idea who will win, I suspect it will be Obama, but McCain could pull it out. No matter what the outcome, let's leave the negativity on the curb for the garbage men to collect. 

I can't say what the future holds, my crystal ball is in the shop. It may not change much on the face of things, or it might change significantly. I just don't know. I do know that life will go on. 

I hope that the supporters of the one who returns to Capitol Hill will be supportive of the President. He may not be your choice, but he is the President elect. I think one thing we can agree on is that a lot is at stake and that we must pull together as a nation. 

We have a bad economic situation going on right now. It's affecting some of us more than others, and most of us will feel the pinch sooner or later. We've been through worse. I hope it doesn't get as bad as it could. 

We're in a war that has at least three fronts: Iraq, Afghanistan, and here at home. Thanks to the surge, we're seeing the war in Iraq beginning to wind down. Schools and hospitals have been built. Electricity is in more homes and businesses than before the war started. Will bin Laden be captured? I don't know, that front apparently will come to the front burner as Iraq goes to the back. 

I'm more concerned with the war at home. It's not just because of the Mideast fronts. We're fighting a war here that is economically based. Gas prices skyrocketed, but have come down. Wall street melted, but shows signs of eventually coming back and settling down. Wall Street is what it is. It will eventually come back; it'll just take awhile. 

Same for the housing market. My house isn't worth what it was a year ago, but it's worth more than when I bought it. I didn't buy because it would go up in value, although I hoped it would. I bought to have a roof I could afford over my head.

Taxes are high, and no matter what either candidate says, have a possibility of going higher. I'll wait to see what happens on that front. I don't trust politicians to really do what they promise during an election campaign. When they get into office and find out just what really goes on in the Oval Office, things could be quite different from what they thought they could do.

The question both candidates want us to ask is: am I better off now, than four years ago. When I look my life, I have to say in the ways they are talking about, yes I am. My job is secure, I'm making more money than four years ago, my house is worth more than it was four years ago. It's true many of my expenses are higher (such as gas and food), but my pay is higher. I have more money in the bank than I did four years ago. I have some investments that I didn't have four years ago, but there's no way I could live off them. My pension is secure, and I have a retirement fund that is worth more than it was four years ago, but less than just six months ago.

Where I am worse off is that my money on paper is down, expenses are up, I need to buy a new (to me) car, and something the government had nothing to do with is that my husband died. Luckily, I was raised to be my own person, not an extension of a husband. Although I miss my husband, I will go on. 

I may be better off than a lot of people, but I'm not as well off as others. I'm middle class; the demographic that the candidates talk about, but actually pander to another. 

The bottom line is what I said before. We have to pull together as a nation. As Lincoln said, "a house divided against itself cannot stand." 

We have to stand together or we will certainly fall together as a nation.