Presidential candidates need to level with Americans

With the final presidential debate of the 2008 election being held tonight, there’s only one thing on my mind: As long as John McCain and Barack Obama refuse to treat Americans like adults, nobody has my vote.

I’m referring to their statements about our troubled economy. I was so disappointed that I didn’t even finish watching the last debate after both candidates refused to level with the American people about the situation.

Specifically, they were asked by a 78-year-old woman from Chicago — a child of the depression — what sacrifices they would ask individuals to make “to help restore the American dream and to get out of the economic morass that we’re now in.”

McCain talked about cutting government programs, so he didn’t even answer the question. Obama said the government needs to work toward energy independence but said “effort” will be required from each of us. He then suggested that Americans need to weatherize their homes and buy fuel-efficient vehicles.

New West’s Rebecca Powell captured the problem with their answers:

“See, we think the times are pretty serious, that the problems are pretty big, bigger than slashing a few budgets and skipping a trip or two for ice cream. We think the problems will require the effort and sacrifice of the individual, not just the maneuverings of government,” she wrote. “When you had a chance to cast a grand vision, a vision that strikes at what it means to be in a democracy, of what it means to value the contributions of the individual, you both balked, as if you are not sure our individual actions matter in the face of large problems.”

The candidates gave similarly bad answers when asked whether the economy will get worse before it gets better. Both essentially said their own proposals would ensure that the economy doesn’t get worse.

The truth

Americans aren’t stupid. We understand that the economy is going to get worse before it gets better, regardless of who wins the election. U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman said recently that he believes the United States is already in a recession. The real question, he said, is “how deep is that recession and how long it will continue.” The recently approved bailout bill, Bingaman said days before it was passed, will “help us to make it a shorter and a less-severe recession,” but he believes the economic growth of the country is going to continue to slow.

Bingaman gets it. Economists get it. Six in 10 Americans believe a depression is likely. Americans understand the gravity of the situation. McCain and Obama are intelligent, so I have to believe they also understand.

Then why won’t they level with us? Do they think we can’t handle the truth?

How much worse will things get? At the very least, Americans are going to have to significantly cut personal spending and focus on reducing their debt, which will require a lifestyle change many of us have never before had to make. Governments — local, state and federal — are going to have to do the same. Obama can talk about universal health care and McCain can talk about tax cuts, but we can’t afford either right now.

That’s the best-case scenario. There are much worse possibilities. Our gluttonous society needs to go on a diet. We refuse, so the economy is forcing it.

We’re up to the challenge

Americans were up to the challenge in 1942 when the times demanded sacrifice and FDR told my grandparents that they had “the privilege of making whatever self-denial is necessary, not only to supply our fighting men, but to keep the economic structure of our country fortified and secure during the war and after the war.”

My grandparents’ generation, the Greatest Generation, rationed food, gas, scrap metal, paper and other items. They planted Victory Gardens. Women went to work in the factories to keep the economy going while the men went off to battle.

I’m not sure what level of sacrifice is required in 2008, but I know it’s more than McCain and Obama have admitted. I believe Americans are up to the challenge in 2008 like we were in 1942. But we need genuine leadership to inspire us and to help us understand what’s required of us in these troubled times. Right now, neither candidate is showing it.

Our economy remains on the brink. We’re fighting two wars and chasing an enemy across the globe. Attaining energy independence, improving health care, fixing Social Security, reforming the immigration system and dealing with inadequate and crumbling infrastructure are all major problems that are piling up on Washington’s to-do list.

It’s time for another Greatest Generation. I believe mine is up to the task, but we need leadership from someone who will level with us and challenge us to step up. Is there an FDR in this race?