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Holding Out For More Than Chump Change

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By STEVE OTTO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 26, 2007

Change is in the air.

Not this week. This week we're wrapped up in the holidays. We still have a few days before we sit down and try to figure out what happened to 2007 and how come nothing seemed to go right while plenty of things went wrong.

They went wrong everywhere. But Florida, with its forced dependence on growth and a booming real estate market, along with its insurance crisis, suffered more than its share. We need some changes.

And the beginnings of change, so to speak, are around the corner with the Iowa caucus in less than two weeks and everyone else piling up right behind. Unfortunately by the time the primary circus rolls in to Florida several, of the wannabes will be long gone. I hope none were your favorites.
Floridians aren't privy to seeing the candidates up close and personal this time around. That's because we are being penalized for wanting to be a part of the selection process instead of letting it happen in the snow and ice storms of Iowa and New Hampshire, where the great swamp of complex issues facing Floridians don't come into play.

From what I've been able to pick up on the tube, you haven't missed much. Apparently they are all preaching more or less the same message - change.

When things are as sour as they have been in recent times, preaching change is pretty sound policy.

Count On Confusion

The thing about change is you don't always know exactly what you're getting.

When I was a kid, one of the first things I learned in my odd jobs at the grocery store and elsewhere was how to make change. When I think back to the things I learned in school, about the only two of any practical value were typing and how to make change. I can't remember the teacher's name, but I do remember that class where she handed out the play money, including coins, and we practiced until we got it right.

Today when you go through the drive-through to pay cash for your burgers, you'll also get a handful of change because they don't know how to count it out. It's the same thing at the department store if you are one of those rare birds who still use cash to make a purchase. They stare at you as if you were handing them some weird foreign currency.

In Antsy Times

It's not that much different in politics. Every election the candidates promise change and the voters all say they want change, but nobody seems to know what they are looking for or how to get it.

These are antsy times. The economy is in trouble - so much so that even the horrific fighting in the Middle East is no longer Topic One in political speechmaking. It has been fascinating watching the candidates on the tube shift their priorities from the war and then illegal immigration to the credit crunch and people's ability to keep their homes.

With no incumbent running for the presidency, it's obvious there is going to be some change, at least if you believe any of the rhetoric. Even the familiar faces of past campaigns claim they are the instruments to bring about change.

You can only hope that as 2007 slips mercifully way, some of these people will be able to convince us that they can indeed make change and not just promise to give us back a fistful of money without knowing what it is or where it came from.

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