Time for everyone to take stock of our situation.

The price of oil recently finished near $140 a barrel. Gas averages (in most places) $4.00 a gallon, with no end in site to price hike - just look at the price of oil.

The price of groceries continues to skyrocket, along with the cost of crops (see the gas prices) and many Americans have less disposable income.

The value of the dollar is down (again, making oil and gas more expensive) and wages have stagnated. The fed can't decide if the economy has gone into a recession, though common wisdom says we have. Oil companies make record setting profits, and (those houses again) the government has started looking into those subprime mortage driven derivatives that fueled the go-go real estate boom, that has now collapsed sending contractors running and leaving a few banks collapsed.

Millions of Americans have defaulted on their home loans. We're in a war in the middle east with no end in sight, and one of the presidential candidates calls it "not too important" when the troops come home, and has said we could be in Iraq for 100 years.

Our outgoing president says he gave up golf to show his solidarity with the troops overseas. Our outgoing president comes out and tells reporters in Europe that he has a goal of catching Bin Laden before he leaves office. Why didn't he do that in 2001 or anytime earlier?

What about a your country becoming a country surpassed by China and Europe in scientific research, because of the Administration's short-sighted views on science?

What about the Abramoff scandal? What about "the hammer" and his scandal in Texas? What about the millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars funnelled to Iraq, but not accounted for? What about letting Afghanistan slide back into a civil war? What about lying candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court who say one thing during Senate hearings, then take the bench and do something different? What about evangelical Christians used as pawns by an administration with a presidential counselor (Mr. Rove) who says he doesn't even believe in God? What about Rupert Murdoch twisting the message of the media, and spurring media consolidation, buying television and newspapers up as fast as he can, limiting the message and reportage available to the vast American public?

What's the old campaign question we've all heard a million times? Are you better off now than you were 8 years ago? Answer that honestly, because we'd love to hear what you think. Are you more secure now than you were in 2000? Has the Department of Homeland Security really foiled any attempt by any terrorist to attack you, or has the administration exercised a foreign policy that increased the ranks of Al Qaeda? Are you freer than you were 8 years ago? Does the government have you on a no-fly list, do they read your e-mail, do they tap your phones all the while breaking federal law, but still getting away with it?

We don't have the room to count how many times we've heard the Vice President of the United States contradict himself in public on the war, and what we could expect from it, or how much it would cost. Whether he and his colleagues did it with malice aforethought is no longer the question, because the fact remains that the administration sold the American people, and Congress, a bill of goods for the war, and thousands of young people, members of the national guard, reservists, active duty members have died as a result.

All of that makes what's happening now thrilling -- as thrilling as it must have felt for supply-side Republicans when Ronald Reagan won his first election to office.

The promise of "Morning in America" is upon us once again. Barack Obama is that promise. When he speaks, he motivates. When he writes, he makes sense. Those who haven't read his two books should do so. The still angry Hillary supporters considering casting a ballot for John McCain should at least read those books, and get to know the man better.

there's a reason a recent poll of college professors who teach history shows Senator McCain has little to no chance of losing.

We also found it interesting that the Huffingtonpost came to the same conclusion we did -- John McCain is the second coming of Bob Dole. Out of touch, and not ready to assume the nation's top office. Recent reports about his interenet efforts are almost hilarious. His website even promises to list the benefits of joining the McCain effort, but foregetfully leaves off any of those benefits. He'll veto any "beers" that come across his desk. He just took $300,000 from a Texas billionaire who once said that rape is like the weather -- one should just lie back and enjoy it. This is the campaign trying to convince the angry feminists to vote Republican.

Is someone behind the wheel here?

As for the argument about experience vs. inexperience, we don't buy it. We didn't buy it in the primaries, and neither did most of the voters. If Senator McCain was going to do great things for America, wouldn't he have done it by now? How much a role has he played in the things we've mentioned above? It just goes to reason that his "experience" had a lot to do with the problems we have now. Again, better off, or more of the same?

OK, many of you will probably read this as partisan, and that's OK. What's not partisan is the logical exercise of adding up all the things we've listed here and making a comparison. We'd imagine you'll come to the same conclusion we did.

This isn't a tough thing to understand, and without being even overly partisan, it doesn't seem like much of a contest we'll see in November as a result. Argue if you will, but this is the simplest explanation, and it's likely the way the vast majority of voters will see it.

What happens afterward is anyone's guess. Go ahead and be pessimistic, because that's always worked for the media, and quite a few people had high hopes for GW Bush and his "compassionate conservatism" and all that went to hell very quickly.

What we've seen of Obama so far doesn't lead us to believe that'll be the case. The "waters won't recede" like he told supporters on victory night, but we think he'll do a pretty good job.

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