Nine months

There are nine months left until the 2010 elections in November. It is hard to imagine that it so long until then since the campaign seems now to be in full swing, especially since Obama's highly political state of the union speech. Certainly the fund raisers are hard at work. My phone is ringing every day with calls from both the Democrats and the Republicans. Since I am not a big contributor to political campaigns, I can only imagine the push going forward towards those who have given big bucks in the past. The search for candidates continues apace. Every day there are new surprises. Beau Biden will not run. Three quarters of the Arkansas delegation is retiring. Mike Pence will not run, etc.

By September we will have actual campaigns moving forward. Right now, it appears that the Democrats will still try to blame Bush for everything that is bad. This will not work. The Republicans will point to all the bad that the Dems have wrought and claim the right to victory. This too will not work. Hopefully by the time September rolls around we will see candidates who respect the voters enough to put forward an actual reasoned set of principles and plans for action to deal with our problems. That will let the voters decide how they wish to move forward.

My hope is that we will see a sizeable group of candidates who pledge to cut spending -- not just reduce the rate of growth but actually to cut spending.