To Debate, or Not To Debate...

While on a recent trip to DC - home of the terminally self-absorbed - I passed through a gift shop with a sense of humor. Among the offerings was a coffee mug: one side was a drawing of a shadowy figure in obvious disguise, and the other contained this message:
WHEN CONFRONTED
1. ADMIT NOTHING
2. DENY EVERYTHING
3. DEMAND PROOF
4. MAKE COUNTER-ALLEGATIONS
5. ACCUSE SOMEONE ELSE

The shadowy figure could easily be replaced by caricatures of candidates for President of the United States. And this year, the candidate with the most "experience" has the most need of this strategy.

From his refusal to release his complete medical history ("Admit nothing") to his self-proclaimed status as a maverick ("Deny everything" - apparently voting with Bush only 90% of the time means voting against Bush 10 % of the time - woo! - some maverick!), John McCain has nothing to gain and everything to lose in a debate that may or may not happen this evening.

Unfortunately for me, I won't know until late in the evening whether or not there was a debate. During its time slot, I will be working at $8.50 and hour, selling dowdy clothing to middle-aged, middle class women in Macomb County, Michigan - birthplace of Reagan Democrats.

I do this for a variety of reasons. My most recent paycheck was sent it its entirety to an unemployed friend in Florida, to give her another week or so to find a (non-existent) job and not be put out on the street or under a freeway bridge. You see, unemployment isn't just an issue in the Rust Belt. There are no jobs. Anywhere.

During the Bush Administration, a conservative estimate is that 400,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the State of Michigan. If you are reading this in another state and/or driving a car produced by a manufacturer whose corporate offices are somewhere other than the United States, let me explain to you what that means:

400,000 lost manufacturing jobs means that 1.6 million people who once had health insurance no longer do.

The health implications are, of course, enormous. That means that necessary treatment is not happening. And don't even think about preventative health measures.

Above and beyond those 400,000 now-jobless people and their covered dependants, are millions of others who are affected by their joblessness. For instance, no health insurance means no patients in medical or dental practices. No patients in these practices means layoffs of health-care staff, fewer supplies purchased, diminished disposable income. Diminished disposable income for health-care professionals means fewer haircuts, restaurant meals, new sneakers for the kids.

Have I hit something in your home state yet?

Right now, my $8.50/hour seems like a godsend. The fact that I have a job at all, like a true miracle.

Of course, I am not allowed to express my political opinions while on the job. But nothing prevents me from listening to what is said by customers - predominantly white women. And it isn't pretty.

I will readily admit that people in Michigan might well be tougher...harder...more cynical...than people in many other places in the country. The weather, the grind of working on the line, the mocking from pretty people from places like California and Colorado tends to thicken the skin. Maybe even dull the senses. But know this: just because I live within 1000 feet of a foreign country does not delude me into thinking I am an expert on foreign policy - as McCain's VP Candidate seems to feel her geographic proximity to Russia does.

And the tough, hard, cynical white women of Macomb County - former Reagan Democrats - both know and understand this.

The polls might now show it. Yet. But if McCain is smart (notice I said "if"), he will skip the debate, and quickly grab the shadowy disguise on the front of the DC coffee mug and disappear into the night...because the strategy on the back won't work. Not this time.