Solzhenitsyn, writing in "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" wrote something to the effect that so long as people have possessions, and are still attached to them, you have some hold over them.  But if you take away everything they have, they are free again, because their is nothing more that you can take.

I hear you when you say that people have too much to lose and still have an often diminishing vested interest in the system.  If your pension is dependent on your investments you are much more invested in the success of the system than (say) a French civil servant, who has a state pension as of right, and doesn't have to care whether the economy goes down the tubes or not....  (What do I have to say to get Jerome's dander up these days?)

But if its the economy you're worried about, why support McCain?  He has almost no economic or administrative record to speak of, and at least Bill Clinton had some track record on that front.  Why trust the neo-cons when they no longer trust each other and refuse to lend to each other?

Believe me, this diary has nothing to do with any egotistical "I told you so" pleasures.   I won too many arguments and lost too many wars to fight that sort of caper.  What happens in America effects us all, and yes, Sarkozy/Blair show we too can get things wrong.  We have our own neo-con tendencies to resist, and it doesn't help one bit if another one wins in the US.  The EU simply isn't designed to fill the leadership vacuum that now exists in world affairs.

But we need a completely new kind of leaderhip, and part of that has to be a recognition that the currently dominant neo-con ideology has failed.  And yes, we need Americans to live up to at least a small part of their idealistic self image and stop acting like the big bully on the block.

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."