Wanted: Someone Oblivious To What's Going On Around Them

Can you imagine taking on a job in which most of your customers either hate you or distrust you, your budget is totally screwed, and those who support your endeavor are in such bad shape that they may not survive? Welcome to the next President of the United States nightmare.

There are so many places to begin, but I will pick a few:

1) The economy. Oil prices will be back up as the Xmas price cut goes away(got to help the retailers lure the lemmings into the stores one last time), and the resurgence of the Chinese demand comes back on line. There will be the end of the availability to borrow from the Fed, and the housing crisis will be entering the FOURTH INNING.

2) The budget. $481 billion dollars? Ha!!! That does not include the war, rising Medicare costs, decrease tax revenues, and increased demands from states and retirees. Will we be able to get out of Iraq, or will we be going into Afghanistan/Iran? Oh yeah, in order to borrow more money, interest rates will be so high, that Tony Soprano would blush at the vig.

3) Inflation, also known as they want what we got. There are more Indian school kids than there are American citizens. DC should be called flan city as opposed to chocolate city. And 60,000 cars a month come on line in China every month means the demand for goods goes way up. Good for Cisco; bad for the rest of us.

4) Energy. This one is tough, because I see little old ladies freezing to death, and families dying in fires because they cannot afford heating oil or to pay their gas and electric bills. Gasoline will be back up, and no significant change in energy policy is forthcoming from the current Congress. While everyone will be talking a good game, we will still be lusting after Alaskan oil, clean coal, spent nuclear fuel storage, and unicorn based biofuels. Oh yeah, ethanol actually decreases fuel economy while increasing food costs. That's supply side economics for you.

I am surprised that any sane person would want to be POTUS. Then again, how many of the previous POTUSes did not have something a little off kilter? An actor, a redneck, and a C student who thinks he is a cowboy? Maybe it is us who are a little off kilter...