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Ah, reality. The sour to the sweet of idealism. The Yan to the Ying of what one wishes would be.

Unless there's an event imaginable only by Steven King, the next White House resident will be Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or John McCain. Republicans choosing Mitt Romney to be their candidate would be, to my way of thinking, such an event.

Either Obama or McCain would be an excellent President.

I'm not so sure about Clinton. She can't manage her man, so how's she going to manage the country? Yes, I know this reads like the title of a, probably, bad Country & Western song. However, what's been going on with Mr. and Mrs. Clinton over the past few weeks concerns me.

Meeting the challenges faced by the nation is not something the government can achieve by legislation alone. Meeting them is going to require Americans making lifestyle changes.

Americans are out of work because of outsourcing. So-called American corporations fire workers here and hire people in other countries to do their jobs. How many of us haven't talked with a customer service representative in India or elsewhere? Are share prices really more important than Americans having more than menial jobs or being out of work?

Americans are out of work because Americans worship "Cheap". How many of us have in our home something, "Made in China", or made somewhere else outside the USA? What are we going to do when products made in Asia are too expense to import and there no longer any places in the country where they can be made.

Americans drive up the price of gasoline when they drive any car, SUV or truck that goes less than 30 miles on a gallon of gas. As the price goes up, so do the prices of everything you buy that must be transported, from a far away place in your state, from another state, or from another country. As prices go up, jobs go down. I paid $8 a gallon for unleaded regular gas during a business trip last year in Europe, where unemployment ranged up to 14.9% in November. Gas will be higher than $8 a gallon here by 2020 if we continue to drive what we drive and if Chinese and Indians keep using the money you and I pay them to buy cars and SUVs.

Americans are eating us into a health crisis. High body fat means un-affordably high health insurance costs, whether they're paid as paid by us as premiums or as taxes. The daily maximum calorie intake for most people is around 2400 calories. A small bowl of Wheaties with 2% milk and sugar is around 300 calories. A Starbuck's tall Caffe Latte is around 204 calories.

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