That sinking feeling...

The NY Times reported Sunday on the stagnation of the quality of life in the US.

During last year's presidential election, we heard evidence of this change -- affordable housing for 1st time buyers, gas prices, healthcare costs, stagnant wages, war, & CNN's Nancy Grace -- in that order. But now, they are all coming together for one giant stink pot of a situation.

This is serious news for any incumbent politician. The "average voter" (aka mouthbreather / gastropod) generally votes not on specific issues (as do fringe liberals and fundamentalist conservatives), but on general trends -

• "Are you better off now than 2 / 4 / 6 years before?"
• "Is the country headed in the right direction?"

The answer is becoming consistently "no;" and the "well, we are at war" response is sounding hollow given there is no end in sight for the war on terror (understandably) and Iraq (TBD).

And no amount of debate on fathers who died for flags vs. bought theirs at K-Mart will cloud this coming storm.*

*Previous sarcasm brought to you by Bill Hicks. We miss you, Bill.