Terminal timidity seems to have overcome the Democrats, and gloom the Republicans.  But both parties, preceeded by the chattering nabobs, are finally getting to the point of the election:  Just like 1992, it’s the economy, stupid. 

Why?  Not this instant recession, though that may yet burgeon into something nasty.  The real reason, which we middle-classers have known all along, has escaped the elite in DC and the media until recently.  And that is that the cost of living and the cost of perceived necessities have gone steadily up during the Bush years, while wages and salaries have flattened or declined.  We live now with iPods and flat screen TVs and HD-DVDs, but it’s busted us to afford all those toys.  And oh yeah, the cost of gas and food and energy and you name it keeps creeping up. 

We’re squeezed, and we’re not happy campers. 

So the question the Democrats need to have the courage to ask, and the one that the Republicans are afraid of confronting, is Reagan’s from three decades ago, which he asked of voters who were struggling under rampant inflation and Jimmy Carter:  Are you better off than you were 4 years ago? 

Are you better off than you were 7+ years ago when President Bush took office? 

Of course not.  And here’s the thing.  The President and his lieutenants distracted us with fear.  They even eked out a win in ’04 because of fear.  They persuaded us that Osama was more important to worry about than our livelihoods. 

Now, it’s 7 years later, no more planes, and we’re waking up.  And we’re realizing that the rich got a whole lot richer while we were watching the threat levels on CNN, thanks to tax cuts and corporate pork and sweetheart deals.  And we got poorer.

Are you better off?  Not likely.  Time for a change.  A real change.