Being stunned by the fact that my two favorite professional football teams, the Phoenix Cardinals and the Buffalo Bills, are undefeated with a record of 2 & 0, I decided to bring myself back to reality and analyze what exactly makes up our economy.
From where I sit the three major components of the Barack Obama Administration’s economic recovery is comprised of education, manufacturing and defense. Before you say DUH! we need to go a bit deeper than a one word description.
Education---A great Obama success if you don’t look at grade and high school standard scores compared to the past or international equivalents. An accomplishment if you don’t take into consideration the record debt accumulated by college students in order to bloat academia administrations. Finally, don’t even discuss the out of work graduates and the prospects becoming dimmer every day or they being mired in their parent’s basement.
Manufacturing---A President’s promise to give us a resurgent manufacturing sector has been highly successful if you only focus on a car in every garage.
Defense---Since I started this column talking about football I should remember that championships are won on defense but people pay to see a good offensive show. That is, of course, what Obama, McCain & Kerry are giving their international audience. We have increased our bases around the world to protect our interests. We overtly, in addition to covertly, become involved in the world’s political affairs both friend and foe. Finally, when the other side starts to push back we cry terrorism and write checks for billions more.
Yes, education, manufacturing and defense are the cornerstones of our economy whether you like it or not.
I think I’ll just bask in a 2-0 start and not dig any deeper which is what most Americans including mainstream media tend to do about our economy.