For the pointy-headed -- those out of touch because they reside in Washington or on Wall Street -- let explain why "Main Street" is so pessimistic.
If someone owns a house, they are likely seeing its value continue to plunge. They're wondering if they have sunk their life savings into a money pit that will leave them tied down until they die.
If someone owns or works for a small business, they are wondering how the bailouts and financial reform helped them. They can't get a loan from their local bank. Cash flow and profit margins are tough because larger companies with whom they do business are squeezing them to death with slower payment terms and tighter budgets of their own.
All of this is taking a huge toll on President Obama and the Democrats in Congress. In the Wall Street Journal poll, for the first time, more Americans disapproved of this president's job performance than approved. And among those most interested in the upcoming November elections, 56 percent favored Republican control of Congress.
Between the handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the "drama" over Gen. McChrystal's alleged "out-of-line" comments in an article in Rolling Stone, this White House exudes anything but confidence. Too many Americans are starting to view the Obama administration as an incubator of ideology rather than an implementer of pragmatic solutions.
Unless the goal is to truly destroy capitalism as we know it -- to bring our nation into a new era in which the status quo is personal economic failure for most of us -- then the White House had better get focused, and quick. This is no longer George Bush's economy. It belongs to President Obama, and it looks bleak.
Matt Towery
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Matt Towery is a former National Republican legislator of the year and author of Powerchicks: How Women Will Dominate America.
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