(The YouTube title for this vid is NYC Wall St. Bailout Protest 25 September 2008. Did you see it on the teebee? Me neither. But it strongly suggests that the consensus on TARP outside the Village is at least as strong as the consensus inside - just in the opposite direction.

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Democratic Presidents have always had lower deficits except for Bill Clinton who produced a surplus

The stock market does better under Democrats

life is better under Democrats.

vote like your job depends upon it.

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Image of Grandpa's FDR pipe by mjs

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But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him and his a proper security, a reasonable leisure, and a decent living throughout life, is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1935 State of the Union Address.

Unfortunately, during the ensuing 72 years since that speech and the enactment of FDR's New Deal, Social Security has become a "Third Rail" in presidential politics. Candidates for the presidency from both parties continuously avoid stating specifics on the issue. Everyone has ideas but no one is willing to commit. While the candidates are eager to say what they are against (i.e. tax increases, decreasing benefits, increasing the retirement age), most fail or are afraid to state an affirmative plan. Thus the favorite phrase candidates use to avoid the Third Rail of Social Security has become: "everything is on the table."

Everything may be on the table, but it seems that few are willing to take a seat.   Read more…