patrick.net

The truth is no one could get elected telling the truth about the new economy that we have begun.

In today's age of gotcha politics, 24 cable news crap, lobby financed politicians and the wall street inspired tendency to look at the short term. Getting us truly on the right track will take 10 years. So if a miracle happened and the next president (either one) decided to be honest with the country and begin transforming our economy/jobs to the new reality, in 4 years the other party would win by pointing out what a failure it has been. And after 4 years it would look like a failure.

I have a friend who worked in DC for a senator and later as a lobbyist for the high tech industry. When she hears people spout off crap similar to this article, she laughs. She knows the realities of winning elections. Look at Romney backpedaling from the Ryan budget. They speak of making the "hard choices" but they don't dare mention what they are. If they did they'd lose.

Maybe we still haven't hit bottom and that is what we will have to do to correct our system. As Churchill said:

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else. "