This is why it is inscrutable to me when some polls indicate that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is pulling ahead on economic issues.  It was a Democratic president (Jimmy Carter) who got the legislation enacted which created the incentive for banks to lower lending standards.  It was a Democratic president (Bill Clinton) who sent his Justice Department thugs to threaten lenders with discrimination litigation if they did not increase their number of high-risk loans.  And it was the Democratic members of Congress (Barney Frank and Maxine Waters, among others) who dismissed as “alarmist” the warnings of economists and advisors in the early 2000s that allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy and sell these worthless securities would lead to a financial collapse of monumental proportions when the housing bubble burst.

They didn’t listen then, and they aren’t listening now.

This should be a home run issue for Republicans.  They, too, have spent like drunken sailors.  But at least Republicans have a wagon to get back on; the Democrats’ solution for bloated government and profligate spending is more government and more spending.  And Obama would “raise the red standard,” as Spender-in-Chief.  A Democratic President, aided by a Democrat-controlled Congress, would be a fiscal disaster for the United States of unprecedented proportions.

As Thomas Sowell points out so elegantly, politicians tend to think only of the short term - what will get them through the next election.  But the rest of us MUST think about the long term, because we’re the ones who are going to be stuck with it.  If we allow ourselves to be distracted by yesterday’s problem and deluded by today’s promises, we will be blindsided by tomorrow’s crisis.  And tomorrow’s crisis will be catastrophic.

This may not be a pleasant message, but it is a simple one to understand.  If Republicans can communicate these realities to the voters, they have a decent chance of winning the election.  And if they cannot, then what?

God help us.