He's talking about my little town and its run by clowns. I don't live in the city limits and I wonder if this goes for the millions of cars that go through this area every yr. I'll have to look into this later, don't just love little tommy? His wife’s shopping center here is still open but did lose a major player in 09. Tracy spent millions on a culture center, new city hall, and transit hub all the while the tax base was going away fast, Rome was burning but no one was home. This only the tip of the iceberg but then not much different than a lot of small towns with high growth that no one thought would end. I expect a lot of empty store fronts this yr.

They thought that Mr. Obama, despite his liberal credentials, had the unique skills, temperament, voice and values to pull the country together for this new Apollo program — not to take us to the moon, but into the 21st century.

No mention how we should have been transitioning into the 21st century during the last decade of the 20th? Especially given that our "existential threat" gave up the ghost and provided an incredible opportunity to do so?

Friedman is always flat wrong. This is the 21st century that we purposefully transitioned into. The neo-liberal century that he was so eagerly championing. Now he wants to take it back because the straitjacket pinches our flabby girth? But it's gold, Tom, it's gold. Who needs olive trees when there are Lexuses to be had...oh yeah, right, you can't eat a fucking Lexus. Why didn't anyone think of that?