Last night John Edwards asked his audience a question that I believe he intended to be rhetorical. (Click here for the text of the speech.) Here’s the question:
John Kerry and I believe that we shouldn’t have two different economies in this country: one for people who are set for life, they know their kids and their grandkids are going to be just fine, and then one for most Americans, people who live paycheck to paycheck. You don’t need me to explain this to you, do you?
You know exactly what I’m talking about Can’t save any money, can you? Takes every dime you make just to pay your bills. And you know what happens if something goes wrong, if you have a child that gets sick, a financial problem, a layoff in the family, you go right off the cliff. And when that happens, what’s the first thing that goes?
I heard the convention audience trying to answer the question; I tried to answer it myself. In case you missed the speech, here’s the answer:
I have a couple questions of my own. Can there be a single person in the audience who correctly answered that question? Or who wasn’t thinking about the top of the ticket and his spouse with respect to “the first economy”? Or who didn’t contemplate that the Democrats’ program is to put us all in “the second economy”?
HINDROCKET adds: This “two Americas” thing puzzles me a bit. I can understand how it could be a winning approach with Democratic primary voters, who represent only a small slice of the population and are driven mostly by resentment. But it strikes me as an odd theme for a general election. While virtually everyone–maybe even Kerry and Edwards–has financial worries at some level, the number of people who perceive themselves as downtrodden, hopeless and unable to save a dime can’t possibly approach a majority. An odd approach, I think.