Robert Hargrove

I read an interesting column by NYT Columnist Thomas Friedman.

According to conventional wisdom, says Friedman, Barack Obama would need to choose a hard-core national-security type as his vice presidential running mate to compensate for his lack of military experience and John McCain would need a running mate who is young and sprightly to compensate for his age.

Come August, the “World is Flat” author goes on, “I predict both men will be looking for a financial wizard as their running mate to help them steer America out of what could become a serious economic tailspin.”

Friedman says that anyone who plays the “terrorism card” in order to win the next election is seriously deluded. Things have changed. The issue that has people’s attention is not Pentagon policy, but rather high gas prices, high food prices, and falling house prices, all lowering consumer confidence.

There used to be a saying that, as GM goes, so goes the country. If that is the case, America has some real problems ahead of it. General Motors’s stock-market value now stands at just $6.47 billion, compared with Toyota’s $162.6 billion. On top of it, GM shares sank to a 34-year low last week.

I stopped at a gas station last week and, like the woman at the next gas pump, put in a mere $25. “I can’t bear the psychological strain of filling up my gas-sipping Honda,” she said, “and seeing the total go up to $65. I keep putting in only  $25.”

At a local grocery store in Maine, a woman told me, “Well, they have found a tricky way to avoid raising the cost of Tropicana orange juice. They have reduced what used to be a half gallon by six ounces.”

The focus in the next election is not going to be on nation-building in Iraq, but rather nation-building in America, which is in one of its most serious economic lulls in recent decades. Says Freedman, “We are the ones who need a better-functioning democracy — more than the Iraqis and Afghans. We are the ones in need of nation-building.”

It is our political system that is not working. It seems that Congress seems incapable of producing a critical mass to support any kind of serious long-term reform. Compared to the governments of China, India, Singapore and other countries, all of which have performed economic miracles in recent decades, the American government can point at few noteworthy collective achievements.

The leadership challenge the next president of the United States will have to face is transforming our often deadlocked political system so that it can better respond to possibilities and problems. We need nation-building at home, and we cannot wait another year to get started.

Vote for the candidate who you think will do that best.