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In fact, their health care is probably the very best there is, and they don’t even pay for it. .

* In large numbers, many Hillary Clinton supporters say they will not vote for Barack Obama. The fact is that Obama and Clinton had a very close race precisely because their positions were almost identical on nearly every issue.

On the other hand, their positions were diametrically opposed to those of John McCain. If the former Clinton supporters refrain from voting, or vote for John McCain out of spite, it would seem their support for Clinton was more about gender or personality than about the direction in which they want the country to move.

* Most Clinton supporters are probably also Pro Choice. If they help McCain to get elected out of spite, they need to remember that McCain will likely make several appointments to the US Supreme Court. In turn a Supreme Court packed with McCain appointees would influence the direction of this country for the next half century or longer and almost guarantee that Roe v. Wade would be overturned and abortions would become illegal.

That decision about abortion would be good or bad depending on how you feel about a woman’s right to choose, but in fact, although the margins have fluctuated only slightly, the pro-choice position has remained dominant since 1996, with very little change.

* On a very personal note, the idea that Clinton supporters would ultimately do anything to assist McCain in winning the presidency is particularly extraordinary when you remember the tasteless joke McCain made about Chelsea Clinton back in the late 1990s.

McCain was reported in most major newspapers to have cracked at a speaking engagement to a family values audience that "the reason Chelsea Clinton was so ugly was because Janet Reno was her father," thereby humiliating a helpless little girl of about 10 by joking about her appearance, as well as implying that the First Lady of the United States was involved in a lesbian affair with our Attorney General.

Boy, that's one fun loving wacky sense of humor.

* Ronald Reagan is much-revered by the Republican Party, but his embrace of Supply-Side "Trickle Down" economics was actually dubbed "Voodoo Economics" by the first George Bush until George was tapped as a running mate. Supply-Siders believe that if you give wealthy people and big corporations large tax breaks and subsidies, they will in turn expand their facilities and hire more people.

That would imply that if the local pizza shop was given huge financial incentives, the store would expand and hire more people, which would stimulate the local economy. But how would that happen if local patrons don’t have enough extra income to buy more pizza or buy it more often?

If, however, the people who frequented the pizza shop were the recipients of more financial incentives, wouldn’t they have more money to buy more pizza more often, driving up demand, bringing in more business to the pizza shop, and thereby creating more jobs there? That is an illustration of "Demand-Side" economics.

* We tried Supply-side Economics under 8 years of Reagan’s presidency and the national debt tripled during that time. We tried again under the current Bush presidency, but added a twist – not only did we make the wealthiest people and big corporations the major recipients of huge tax breaks and subsidies, at the same time we got involved in two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, at an estimate final cost of Three Trillion Dollars, which has lead to quadrupling the national debt.

* No administration in our history has cut taxes while going to war. Keep in mind that prior to the current administration taking office, the country was actually running at a surplus and we were projecting completely retiring the national debt by 2012. Today, the 2nd largest item in our national budget is the interest on the national debt.

* Some people think the huge national debt is not a problem – it is. It leads the government to print more dollars to pay it’s bills. That is called inflation. Inflation causes interest rates to climb, and higher interest rates cause people to buy, consume and manufacture less. It makes it more difficult for businesses and farmers to borrow money.

* One specific problem is that oil trades on the world markets in dollars. When the dollar gets weak and is worth less, the price of oil goes up. This is not the only reason gas prices are going through the roof, but it is certainly one of the causes.

* One phrase which really needs to disappear from the poliical lexicon is "tax and spend liberals." Instead, we should substitute "borrow and spend Republicans." Under the current Bush administration, the size of government has grown enormously, and so has the national debt. It now stands at approximately $35,000 for every man, woman and child in this country.

But has government become more efficient? How about one word which should answer that question: FEMA.

* Most of us are disgusted with the level of discourse in national politics, and have been for a long time. We have long ago quit waging campaigns based on which candidate have the best position on important issues, and instead now subscribe to the politics of slander, innuendo, out-and-out lies and character assassination.

* As much as she is loved by her many supporters, no first lady has been attacked more viciously by her detractors than Hillary Clinton. She was the first public figure to raise the issue of the problems with health care in the nation, an issue which now, sixteen years, later is recognized as one of the top problems we face.

When she was the subject of international embarrassment and humiliation because of her husband’s sexual peccadillos, she kept her chin up, her marriage together, preserved her family and protected her daughter. She did all the things that the "family values" conservatives claimed they believe in, but it only seemed to make them hate her more. Go figure.

* Speaking of wives and first ladies, there is a rumor going around on the Internet that there will be a video which will appear soon showing Michelle Obama, supposedly of her delivering a fiery speech at the pulpit of her of her former church, denouncing America.

Most responsible journalists doubt that there is such a video, and that if there were it would have surfaced by now, but unfortunately, the rumor has taken on a life of its own leading many people to believe that it really does exist.

* The problem for John McCain, of course, is that if he in any way countenances attacks on Barack Obama’s wife as acceptable politics, how about his own marital history? McCain divorced his first wife who had waited for him those 5 long years as a prisoner of war.

During the time of his captivity she was involved in a terrible auto accident which caused her to fly through the windshield. The accident left her disfigured and 4 inches shorter, but she refused to allow the army to notify McCain, fearing it would add to his burden as a war prisoner. When he returned stateside, his repeated infidelities lead to their eventual divorce. So much for that family values concept of "for better or worse, ‘til death do you part."

Senator McCain went on to marry his current wife, Cindy, an extremely wealthy heiress to a large Budweiser beer distributorship. During the marriage, Cindy McCain became addicted to prescription pay medication because of a back injury, and began stealing pills from a charitable organization she headed. It is certainly admirable that she was able to enter rehab and ultimately overcome such an addiction, but in fairness, there are probably millions of poor people who also steal drugs, or money to procure drugs, in order to overcome their own pains and suffering, and when they get caught, they simply go to jail as a result, not rehab.

* Rush Limbaugh and all his radio talking heads wannabees for years have said that Global Warming is a myth created by the liberal media. However, the Bush administration has more recently acknowledged that Global Warming is real and that we need to take steps to address it, now that the administration is about to expire. Poor Rush, they sort of left him slowly twisting in the Global-warmed wind.

* It is hilarious to see Reverend Pat Robertson, sitting on a couch with Reverend Al Sharpton, together pontificating about the need for us to address environmental issues. Previously, Pat Robertson has had a history of blaming weather phenomenon as being evidence of the Wrath of the Almighty because of America’s toleration of Homosexuals and the Gay lifestyle.

Of course, Reverend Sharpton harkens my memory back to when he first became famous with his involvement in the Tawana Brawley incident. If you don’t remember the details, just Google it.

Speaking of "Reverends," lets close with a few thoughts on Religion in Politics:

* During the Reagan years, the Republican party in an effort to expand their voter base beyond big business and farmers, began to court the Evangelical vote. Many of these people were long-time conservative Southern Democrats, and the strategy was successful because today, the evangelicals make up about 30% of the Republican party.

The GOP accomplished this expansion of their base by adopting a social platform pushing school prayer and outlawing abortion. (Just as an aside, some statistics show that something like 70% of Republican women support a woman’s right to choose.) The first George Bush was a staunch supporter of abortion rights until he was tapped to serve as VP under Reagan. His wife, Martha, has never changed her position, and continues to be a quiet supporter for Free Choice.

* The US Constitution says: "...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States," but under Reagan, and particularly under Bush II, religion has continued to grow as a major factor in US Politics, to the extent that every candidate now has to prove that he or she is "religious," and more specifically, "Christian."

The result is that it affects our Global politics, particularly with the Muslim world and their perception of us. Don’t forget, many people of the Muslim faith still haven’t gotten over The Crusades, as George Bush learned when he ill-advisedly used that label when we invaded Iraq.

* Did you know that it was another "George," – George Washington, during the time our nation was negotiating the Treaty of Tripoli, who told his Ambassador to reassure his Muslim counterparts that "The United States is in no sense a Christian nation."

* When it comes to religion mixing in with politics, consider the long history Europe, such as the wonderful institution of the Inquisitions as evidence that they don’t serve each other very well.

We can certainly look at Barack Obama’s unfortunate political experiences with his own Pastor , The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, as well special guest rant Father Michael Phleger, at what can happen to a candidate when personal religious belief and worship turn political. These two men of the cloth could very well have tegether torpedoed the election of the first Black President.

Or consider John McCain, who for six months courted the endorsement of Rev. Hagee, and then when he finally had gotten it, publicly remarked that he and wife Cindy felt the Reverend was one of the finest people they knew.

But then it came out that Reverend Hagee had been preaching that the Catholic Church was "The Great Whore of Babylon" – not helpful for a political candidate in a nation where Catholics are the single largest religious group. Reverend Hagee also infuriated Jews when he preached from his pulpit that Hitler was simply following God’s plan to get the Jews back to Israel.

* Senator McCain was on his way to similar problem with another well-known Fundamentalist Preacher whose endorsement he had sought – a Reverend Paisley, until he discovered that the Reverend has been preaching that America is at war, not with Muslim Extremists, but with the Muslim religion.

If Barack Obama had never picked up on the offensive things Reverend Wright had been saying all those years from the pulpit, McCain had been just as lapse in not knowing what the Reverends Wright and Paisley have been preaching before he began working so hard to seek their endorsement and then commenting on the high caliber of their characters.

* Even if you don’t entirely believe in the principal of the separation of the Church and State, the absurdities of the religiosity in the current campaign should at least help everyone support a separation of the Church and Politics, so let’s close with a few quotes about politics from the bible, spoke by Jesus, Himself:

John 18:36 "My Kingdom is not of this world . . . ."

Matthew 22:21 ""Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.