Everyone is going to answer that question differently based on their own personal situation. But what I can tell you as a business person trying to look at the big picture, I don’t remember 4 years ago as being a good time for business. As a starting point of reference, here is a reminder of what the stock market was going through in the fall of 2008

Out of the top 10 point declines in the Dow Industrials, 5 of them occurred in the fall of 2008

Oct 22nd 2008 514 pts 5.7pct

Oct 9th 2008 679 pts 7.3pct

Dec 1 2008 680pts 7.7pct

Oct 15th 2008 733 7.9pct

Sept 29th 2008 778 7pct

Is that what we liked better ?

I bring this up because I’m sick of slogan marketing of candidates. Four years ago we were worried about whether or not our financial system would fail. We were worried about whether the auto industry would fail. We were worried about whether or not housing would drop to zero and we were concerned with whether or not it would ever come back. We were concerned with what the bottom in job losses would be and whether or not there even was a bottom.

Four years ago we were looking around and describing our situation as “The Great Recession”. Just the fact that we are no longer saying “We are in the midst of a Great Recession” by definition means that as a country we are better off financially and psychologically than we were 4 years ago. Can we please put that slogan to bed already ?

All that said. Can we please change the discussion to – What comes next ? What specifically can be done to create jobs ? I want to know the details of what both candidates plan to do. And please don’t tell me that you are going to “Create 12 million jobs” . That just costs you credibility. Tell me how you are going to create jobs. Specifically.

This administration has failed us in terms of transparency. Transparency , IMHO was a key feature of what I hoped for when I voted for Obama in 2008. He hasn’t lived up to what I hoped for. With transparency we would have a better understanding of what was working and what wasn’t working. We as citizens could participate in the process of understanding the true State of the Union. Not only did I want transparency from the last 4 years, I want transparency, not hype in what I hear from the candidates leading up to the election.

I only wish that candidates were held to the same standards of fact that CEO’s of public companies are. If CEOs were as vague, fast and loose with the facts as our candidates are, they would be in big trouble. How sad is it that our Presidential candidates are not required to hold the same levels of fact as our corporate leaders are.

Can we get a Grover Norquist type out there to get candidates to sign a George Washington Petition saying “I will not tell a lie, not even a white lie, not even a “if you look at it this way, its not a lie, lie,””

I would be the first to salute the person that gets the Presidential candidates to sign that petition !

I am just so sick of “You suck, no you suck more” politics that both sides are playing.