The present election is going to be decided by the candidate that presents a plan that will hit us favorably in the wallet. The present day prices for gas, energy, and food are beyond a lot of our ability to pay. During the past presidencies of Bush1, Clinton, and Bush2 none of them have introduced legislation to foresee the present price situation. I have heard Clinton even vetoed legislation that would have allowed drilling for oil in the ANWAR region of Alaska. It seems to me that during the oil crisis of the 1970's, when I was working for Avis rent a car and trying to keep cars full of gas, the president and the congress all had a chance to make today's mess not so messy. Presently people around the world are protesting over the cost of fuel. The tree huggers aren't going to win this time. The Dems and Repubs haven't addressed or if so haven't followed through on these issues when we had some time. Now things are going so fast the environmentalists are going to be swept away by the people that need inexspensive fuel to get to their jobs and to keep goods flowing at livable prices. I think Newt Gingrich has the best oil/gas battle plan. If we were independently free or almost free of foreign oil this country would be seen as the mightiest on Earth. I'm not the best at figuring things out but it seems to me somebody must have thought of this 10 or 20 years ago. This country has been led by party politics ever since WW2 and future thinking has always taken 2nd place to party politics. During these years the voters have always been led by their respective party. Intelligent forethought and future thinking was only expressed by a few and Independent parties. So the problems seem to stem from partisan wrangling, in other words sheer greediness with no regard to the future. I'm for doing away with the party system. Why not let the people decide what should be voted on and when and how! Why not have general elections on what should be presented for a vote and when to hold elections and how often. Let a plurality of all votes decide all elections. It seems to me we could do away with the fat cat politicos in the senate and congress. We would also do away with those fat salaries and pensions. No more of the same people getting elected over and over again because there would be no jobs for them. Each State would have a few elected Ombudsmen just to see the will of the people was carried out. Then there would no longer be finger pointing, it would be the direct will of the people. I know this country was founded as a republic but that was 200 years ago and the founding fathers also left us ways to change our system if necessary!!!!............................................Fred..............