The Economy and Hilary Clinton

Despite the headline this discussion is really two separate, but related topics. One is the economy and the other is the Hilary write-off crowd predicting her doom on Tuesday. By my modest counting skills Clinton and Obama are separated by a mere 100 delegates depending on who's doing the counting. There are just under 2,000 additional delegates to garner, and with the Democrat's proportional voting rules the delegate count is not likely to swing big in one direction or the other unless the margins of victory are huge on Super Tuesday II. That makes a showdown at the convention unavoidable unless Clinton or Obama bow out. I have predicted, of course, that if that takes place Obama will take the hit. On the economy. We have not had a negative growth rate for the entire seven years of the Bush Presidency and there are no indicators that our economy will meet the definition of recession by the time he leaves office. So what then is this talk of recession? Yea, we're mad about the rising gas and food prices, but we've been so busy spending like hell, we didn't notice the change until it was too late. Well, consider this: We refuse to exploit and use our own supplies of oil. We take the most useful vegetable we grow and convert it into an ersatz replacement for fuel, and then complain the food and fuel prices are raising. We take our two most important survival items and make both more expensive at their own expense. We let some junk science and good public relations send us down the primrose path, while our greatest source of energy is orphaned for a second-rate, more expensive alternative, which results in driving up the prices of many types of the food and fuel required for a modern society, and is perhaps more harmful to the atmosphere than oil. Without getting into a long-winded discussion of why corn will not replace oil for at least another 50 years, our willingness to convert corn into fuel while people are starving doesn't seem like the policy of an enlightened people. It will be a lot easier for people to pick a President in November than it will be to solve our food and fuel inflation problem.