Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

McCain’s problem

If the Obama camp can remember the Clinton mantra — “It’s the economy, stupid” — and find a way to connect on it, John McCain is going to have some problems.

To date, however, Obama has been difficulty getting through to the people who need to be gotten through to.

McCain, though, is doing its best to help the Illinois Democrat a helping hand:

With economic conditions worsening over the course of this year and voter anxiety on the rise, Mr. McCain has had to labor to get past the impression — fostered by his own admissions as recently as last year that the subject is not his strongest suit — that he lacks the experience and understanding to address the nation’s economic woes.

Wait, there’s more:

For much of this year, Mr. McCain has seemed to struggle to strike a balance between conveying the optimism that many voters want in their leaders, and the I-feel-your-pain empathy that they crave during hard times. His task is complicated by the tension between his plans to continue many of the economic policies of the unpopular incumbent Republican president he hopes to succeed, and his pledges to improve the American economy and shake up Washington.

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Fundamentally convoluted

Here are the headlines on the economy from the last couple of days:

And this is what Sen. John McCain has to say:

“You know that there’s been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street. People are frightened by these events,” McCain said. “Our economy — I think still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong — but these are very, very difficult times. And I promise you we will never put America in this position again.”

Um…. Huh? I’m having difficulty parsing this statement. The fundamentals are strong, but times are tough, which would seem to mean that the economy is not all that strong. So how can the fundamentals remain strong?

My head hurts.

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No we didn’t win

There was a story over the weekend in The New York Times about lottery sales being up around the country as Americans seek to get ahead in a bad economy by dropping some cash on a ticket.

We play periodically and, if we’re lucky, we make back what we spent. But let’s face it, the lottery is fool’s errand — especially when you’re stretched economically.

But that’s the game states use to get us in.

In any case, there is something odd about states using this sort of gimmick to fund their budgets, rather than asking people who can afford it (read that to mean the higher-income folks). There are those who call the lotter a “poor-people’s tax” and, given the demographics of the players, I can’t argue.

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