Folks, I am absolutely exhausted.  I got a new job, and have been working non-stop for the last seven days and every bone in my body is screaming.  But it is all good.  I'm learning new things, and new doors are opening.  Even in the current miserable economic times, there are things to be positive about, right?

I was reading an article somewhere (I'm too tired to remember where) that wanted to know about the 10-15% of Americans who think that this country is actually headed in the right direction.  Who are these people?  Billionaires?  Relatives of the president?  So the reporter went out on the street and found some folks and just talked to them.  Turns out, there are people that believe that no matter how dark things get, that things will get better because we live in the best country in the world.  It just may take time.  Believe it or not, I guess I feel that way too.  I still think we need to apply some basic common sense to way government is run (see previous entries) and I'm not sure that our representatives have the courage to do it.  But this current economic crisis may just be the kick in their pants to make it happen.  We'll see.

I got an interesting email from a friend regarding how race is playing a part in this election in terms of our perception of the candidates.  It gave me some perspective.  I'll repeat a few of the points here:

• What if the Obamas had displayed five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
• What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
• What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
• What if McCain had only married once and Obama was a divorcee?
• What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
• What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?  (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
• What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
• What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?
• What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes? 
• What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?
• What if the Obama’s had adopted a white child?

It makes you think, huh?  I wonder how different the poll numbers would be if these "what if" scenarios where true.  Makes me wonder if Obama would have made it past the primaries.