As the golden sunlight of a late Michigan afternoon poured into Bob's neat but modest home in one of the oldest residential sections of Detroit, he smugly sank back in his leather recliner. Life had never been so good.

Oh, the Michigan-Toledo game this afternoon had been a little boring. When would those Mid-America Conference schools realize they could never defeat a Big 10 powerhouse like the Wolverines? If anything, Michigan football was better than the years when Bo Schembechler coached. It seemed impossible, but there it was.

Bob's wife Mary was in the kitchen making dinner. She had much more time to cook now that she didn't need to work outside the home, but steak for the third time this week? With lobster, again? He'd have to talk to her about introducing more variety into their meals. Steak and lobster, like most foods, were so cheap.

No doubt about it - despite Bob's skepticism following George W Bush's overwhelming 2000 election win, the compassionately conservative Republican had delivered during the past 8 years like no administration had before.

The economy was booming. Bob's job as a janitor at the auto plant was secure and well-paid ever since US automakers had leapfrogged the Japanese, Koreans, and Germans with their clean, cheap electric car technology. And the government's investment in generating the electricity for those cars, as well as homes, schools and industry, from clean, renewable technologies had paid off handsomely too. Only the oil companies hadn't fully participated in the profits from the booming economy, due in part to Vice-President Cheney's masterful energy plan. But that was a small price to pay to remove the threat of a worldwide climate crisis, although eventually something would need to be done about the burgeoning polar bear population.

Bob's retirement security was looking good too ever since he switched his Social Security account from a government trust fund to investments he could control. The market was soaring, and Bob had taken his broker's advice to move a large part of his nest egg into derivitives, which were guaranteed to climb because of their highly leveraged nature. Many people now opposed the cap on the Social Security tax on earnings - they wanted it raised so they could contribute more to their private plans.

Bob's income wasn't quite at that level yet, although even a janitor's pay was quite handsome, since real, non-supervisory wages were growing by leaps and bounds and the income gap was shrinking. Even without the generous government subsidy, Bob would have had no trouble sending little Susie to Princeton, and lttile Johnny would soon be heading to MIT. Bob sometimes thought he should be paying more in taxes in return for all of the services and the safety net his government provided, but then tax collections now continually produced a surplus because tax rates had been cut even further, and even the National Debt was rapidly disappearing.

Bob had been worried that his income and job security might disqualify him for a home loan, especially since he only had a few hundred dollars for the downpayment on a half-million dollar property. But the relaxed regulations for subprime loans got him into his dream house, and the skillful Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve had cut interest rates just before his adjustable rate mortgage adjusted - his payments actually went down! Bob was several payments ahead now. And housing prices continued to rise - like the mortgage broker told him: they aren't making any more land. That mortgage which had looked a little shaky was really a good investment!

Even Bob's marital relations had improved over the past 8 years - Mary was so pleased that that Enzyte product really did for Bob what it said it would, and she reciprocated by using an herbal breast enhancer that had added several inches and a full cup size. Because of their Bowflex, they were in terrific shape and had lots of extra energy. Their teeth were brilliantly white.

Bob was a little concerned because his health insurance plan would no longer cover little Susie once she graduated from Princeton. She might not land one of those high-paying dot-com jobs right away. Bob's was a typically excellent insurance plan - the expensive experimental treatments that cured Mary's recent illness were entirely covered, just as you'd expect. Still, the Universal Health Care plan implemented by Congress would ensure little Susie wouldn't have to worry about the cost of medical or dental problems during the week or so it would take to nail down that programming job.

But Bob was still undecided about the upcoming election. The Republicans had been good, it's true, but it didn't seem McCain would continue the same policies that had made Bush so successful - it wouldn't be as if Bush had a third term. Still, his Vice-Presidential pick was intelligent, articulate and ethical.

Bob reached over to the coffee table and picked up the thick booklet from the Obama campaign. It laid out all of Obama's positions on nearly every issue in crystal clear detail - no need to even visit Obama's website. If Obama were elected, there would certainly be no question about the course he would follow, it would be extremely progressive, and it was all guaranteed in writing. Bob was pleased that he could vote for Senator Obama in the Michigan Primary because Democrats believed that every vote should be counted, but wasn't sold on his candidacy in the general election. Obama's firm stands in favor of gay marriage and his strong pro-choice position, combined with his support of Constitutional rights, like the 4th Amendment, made him an attractive candidate.

Whatever choice Bob finally made, he was sure the future was bright given the foundation laid by America's wise and forward-thinking politicians and businessmen. That's why they call it the American Dream.