Hard Truths Behind Presidential Promises

As the election season heats up the buzzwords are flying on the campaign trail. Each party has a economic policy that prevents recession, a fiscal policy that strengthens social security, a foreign policy that keeps us safe, and a health care policy that improves care. Here are just a few of the obstacles in the face of whatever party moves into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:

War:
-We spend about $16 billion a month on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
-The annual U.S. budget for autism research ($108 million) is spent every four hours in Iraq.
-A month in Iraq and Afghanistan could provide the yearly salary for 240,000 additional public school teachers or give 640,000 students 4 year scholarships to public universities.
-In December of 2007 the Boston Globe stated that according to World Bank estimates the cost of the Iraqi war could have fed and educated the world's poor for seven years.

Energy:
-America is just 5% of the world's population, yet we burn over 25% of the oil.
-By 2050 the planet's population will have grown from 6.6 billion today to 9.6 billion.
-The International Energy Agency predicts that the world's demand for energy will grow by over 50 percent from now until 2030.

Retirement:
-Over 70 million baby boomers will retire over the next two decades.
-Beginning in 2015 the Social Security program will begin to spend more in benefits than it collects in taxes.
-Between 2037 and 2075, the Social Security program is projected to run annual deficits totaling 30 trillion dollars.

Health Care:
-45 million Americans are uninsured.
-In 2007 premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 6.1 percent, while wages went up by 3.7 percent.
-Premiums for family coverage have surged by 78 percent since 2001, while wages have gone up 19 percent.
-Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security which consume about 18% of GDP today, will consume over 28% of GDP by 2050.

There are a host of other issues, both positive and negative, that will impact the way the next administration handles the challenges that lay ahead. For a glimpse at the presidential candidates position on the issues visit: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/news/0806/gallery.election_issues/index.html

Election Videos

A collection of the election videos I have been e-mailed over the past couple of days. Enjoy.

• Real McCain of Genius

• Obama Lion King

• Daily Show Republican Convention

• Barack Roll

• McCain vs. Madonna

Acceptance Speeches: Obama vs. McCain

The website wordle.net allows you to take a collection of text and turn it into a "world cloud". The website uses a computer algorithim which gives greater prominence to the words that appear the most in the text. Below are the word clouds I created from the acceptance speeches given by John McCain and Barack Obama at their respective conventions. Wordle.net is truly a revolutionary website allowing you to create word clouds from any text imaginable. (Click each cloud for a larger picture.)

Obama:

McCain:

One of the starkest differences between the two speeches is highlighted by Obama's word cloud. Obama decided to use McCain's name 21 times in his speech, a style not employed by McCain who mentioned Obama only 6 times. McCain instead referred most often to "his opponent" and "the democrats". Both speeches set viewing records for political conventions. McCain's speech was seen by 38.9 million households and Obama's was seen by 38.4 million. It truly will be an amazing 2 months on the campaign trail leading up to this historic election.