Reply #18: I'm picking up a "funk" bordering on "depression" in my state....

[KoKo]

Around the malls this weekend there were few shoppers. People seem to be eating out less and folks I see don't look happy.

I compare this to the "rah rah" times just after "9/11" when every car had a flag somewhere, and many had two flags flying from their car windows using those stick on things folks use for their favorite Ball Team. It seems to me that after "Selection '04" that lots of those yellow "support our troops" and flags decals disappeared. While I saw many W'04 decals still around then..it seems that even those have been removed within the last year, so that it's now rare that I see one.

There's a quietness that seems sort of a "funk" or "depression." The Dems I know are even quiet, holding their breath hoping that THIS TIME we can MAKE IT.

Some of this might have to do with the economy and that Bush's war isn't turning out to be the picnic folks here thought it would be. I'm in a boom area that benefitted from the "Dot Com" and the Bush War Hype and the "Housing Bubble." Bush can say the economy is great all he wants but fewer shoppers, fewer folks dining out and folks ditching even "Support our Troops" magnets ...just isn't good for him. Gas prices hurt our Service Industry folks and even though prices are down it doesn't make up for that jump that really hurt folks this Summer. That money isn't coming back into their pockets.

I'm also near the RW Fundie Center of Baptist Theology and I don't really know what those folks are going to do (because I don't know any) but I wonder if they won't just go and robotically vote Bush/Repug Straight ticket because it's programmed in. But, they aren't going to do it with much enthusiasm because I see few Repug Candidate signs...mostly Dems.

That's the view from where I am in NC.