One Brick Short

As Jerry Garcia once bemoaned, what a long, strange trip it’s been.

Our two candidates for the country’s top job are doing a better job of fighting and getting along than the rest of the Congress at a time when their political futures are about to clash in a cacophony of ads and ballots.

According to the Associated Press, both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are supporting raising the federal deposit insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000 as part of a renewed approach to shoring up the U.S. economy. Both are supporting getting those other elected officials to pass the bailout bill, which both want to call a rescue bill and which both agree will support Main Street America and Wall Street America.

I don’t know about Wall Street. I don’t understand entirely how we got to where we’re at. I do understand that my bank, Wachovia, which became bank after it bought up Jefferson National Bank back in the 1990s, has been bought by CitiCorp to protect it from going belly-up like an aged goldfish. I understand that Congress’s failure to pass the bailout-rescue bill tanked what little savings I had left in my 401K.

And, while I hear Republicans and Democrats call each other names and do the nanny-nanny-boo-boo thing with wagging fingers and blame throwers, I hear McCain-Obama say ‘let’s get it together.‘

Mr. McCain said he recommended to President Bush on Tuesday morning that the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund of $250 billion be used to shore up institutions, that the limit on federally insured deposits be raised to $250,000 and that the Treasury exercise its ability to buy up $1 trillion in mortgages.

“Let’s not call it a bailout. Let’s call it a rescue. Because it is a rescue. It’s a rescue of Main Street America,“ said Mr. McCain.

Raising the limit to $250,000 “would boost small businesses, make our banking system more secure and help restore public confidence in our financial system,“ Mr. Obama said.

So, while our elected representatives backbite and snarl, the two men running for the top office are working to the same goal. That’s no surprise. When was the last time two presidential candidates congratulated each other on their nominations? When was the last time two candidates met together, dropping campaign attacks to honor America’s fallen on Sept. 11, as did Obama-McCain?

So, let’s drop Biden and Palin and see if we can negotiate an Obama-McCain or McCain-Obama ticket. Sure, they don’t agree. Yes, they come from different backgrounds and political ideologies. OK, they argue a lot, but at least they can cooperate and they seem to have the best interests of the country at heart.

That’s a heck of a lot better than Congress.