This time, it really is....

I find myself spending more time watching what the Green Party Candidates are doing, listening to what they say, reading their press releases. I spend too much time reading the sometimes brilliant writing, oft time petty pickering that takes place on internal email lists.

Some observations:
Progressive Greens may not even begin to have a finger on the pulse of what will motivate voters this year. The number 1 issue is coming as a surprise to many: Here is a list of issues that are NOT number One.

Iraq War: For all the duplicity of Cheney / Rumsfeld, this misguided, arrogant attempt at changing the nature of politics in the Middle East has failed in every way except militarily, and that was pretty much a shambles too.

Health Care: Any race with Hillary Clinton in it will always be, to some extent about Health Care and whether she can really get it right this time.

Immigration: The Republicans make sure that we hear a lot about this one. We even have Republican Tom Tancredo getting riled at Mike Huckabee because Huckabee has "stolen" the endorsement of the Minutemen.

The Tarrance Group released the bi-partisan Battleground Poll today and the conclusion is "This time, it really is the economy." Funny thing about that, this is exactly what Steve Loebs was saying in his post at Green Commons earlier this week.

BTW: Iraq War was #2,. Health Care #3 (Cost + Insurance + Medicare) , Immigration #4.

I believe that all our candidates need to start factoring in the effects of the credit crisis, the sub-prime loan scandal, and more importantly, what are the impacts of being a consumer driven economy. What are the ramifications of the fact that this country is "capital poor" and needs in a daily major influx of foreign capital just to sustain what we do. Such was the action today as a Chinese Government owned investment fund poured $5 Billion into Morgan-Stanley.

My real question is this: What is this party doing to talk to the number one issue on voters minds right. now? What message do we have? It is not even on the long range radar in most discussion. And we wonder why people are not listening. Maybe we need to ask our candidates to sign up for a seminar with Steve.