This is part of an email I received. I haven't researched any of this to find out if it was true. Some of the things first listed, however, I can clearly remember being true.

That being said, I don't believe President Bush is completely free of blame. The Democratic majority congress isn't either. And I don't believe either majority party presidential candidate/ticket will have an immediate and substantial impact in making things better (though my excitement over the Republican ticket continues to increase, especially since the announcement of Gov. Palin as the vice presidential candidate).

George Bush has been in office for 7 1/2 years. The first six the economy was fine. A little over one year ago:

• Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
• Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
• the unemployment rate was 4.5%;
• the Dow Jones hit a record high—14,000+;
• Americans were buying new cars, taking cruises, vacations overseas, living large!

But Americans wanted change! So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress and we got change all right. In the past year:

• Consumer confidence has plummeted;
• Gasoline is now over $4 a gallon and climbing [NB: actually it's starting to fall a little, but it's still near $4/gallon around us];
• Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
• Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 trillion and prices are still dropping;
• 1% of American homes are in foreclosure;
• as I write, the Dow Jones is probing another low—11,100—$2.5 trillion has evaporated from people's stocks, bonds, and mutal fund investment portfolios [NB: as of this moment, the Dow is down 26 1/2 point and stands at 11,500+, about as "bad" as was stated in the email].

The change people wanted basically boils down to one of two things: 1) distaste over the war on terror and other related conflicts, 2) irrational dislike of President Bush (irrational in that there is no good or legitimate reason). You can hear it in the current presidential campaign. Listen carefully to what the Obama camp is saying (especially how they tout change left and right—makes me agree with the rest of the email: "Just how much more change do you think you can stand?") and how the McCain camp is responding. It all comes down to change for the sake of change—change for the sake of getting rid of someone irrationally unpopular (you just don't like him).