I was an honor student. I graduated college WITH a good job, and I was good at it. I got promoted a bunch of times, and started making money. I was about 29, 30 years old and my credit score made the first car dealer I met stammer. I could have driven away with anything.

My credit score was still in the mid-700s when Bush came to town. I heard the world economic gears grind to a stop, rubbing the dirt from their eyes in disbelief as the US of A had its first contested election. A few months later, the 'tech bubble burst'.

I sell technological doodads for life science research. Over half my market should be academic research labs. I've been in the lab a long time, and I wanted to dedicate myself to helping them, since most of their staff is green. But for the past decade, Republicans have made war on public research. So there's no federal budget, there's no grants until five months late, and there's less money in it.

When I started my business, I refinanced my house to get the mortgage payments down. It worked, AND I got a better rate. But in order to qualify, I had to take a lot of equity out of my house- borrow extra. Still, my business was looking good and I would be okay to pay that back soon.

Two years later, the rates available were a little bit better, and the business wasn't thriving yet. So we refinanced, and to get the loan we had to borrow extra again, giving up more of the equity in our house.

Now we're out of money again, our credit is strapped to the back of a mule sent into the desert a few weeks ago with blinders on... and the business tanked again. This time, when we usually get annual end-of-year budget money from government labs delaying purchases until the last minute, none came. None.

Our loan(s) are at pretty good rates, but they're set to adjust soon. If we'd only refinanced the loan balances, we'd be fat. When making money, we make it pretty well. I paid a few thousand extra every year. Instead, with the cash-out provision we never could pay back down, we only have about 10% equity in the house. Should be about 40%.

My friend is the broker who did the deals, and we needed them at the time to get past some jams. But the rates skyrocketed when we tried to hold our equity. This was an industry set up, like Enron, to suck the money out of everywhere, deregulated aggressively by the Republicans bankrolled by the financial industry.

He's right. There's some video here. There is a real campaign there, and a real media investment in presenting Obama as a symbol for change. But what exactly would he be able to change? Check the legislative calendar- what's up for change in the coming year?

Presidents don't write laws. They break them. As a senator, I love the guy. Obama is a great progressive legislator. I'm a little less in love with Clinton on the hill, who I think is too focused on executivity. She's clearly a leader, and I think it makes her pretty effective as a fighter on the hill. But she's able to lead politicians and legislators, who write laws. Obama has not shown that capacity.

Obama is also technically a black guy, and as the next president might do harm to the notion of color blindness at the polls. We have no idea what's hidden in the White House- how big is the hole in the national boat? I expect it's a set-up, the past seven years of deliberate and effective incompetence. Whoever walks into that office will end up with a bucket of something falling on their head. I think his lack of season would show up there, and Bush's bender would be egg on his face.

Hillary is a better choice to deal with that. I think she'd pretty effectively kick someone's ass. Decisively. Richardson might stumble. Biden would figure it out, as would Dodd. Kucinich wouldn't make it through the gauntlet. And that's what it is, a gauntlet.

On television. And there's another legislative election 2 years after the coming one. I'm voting for Biden (I registered Democrat) because he knows what to do, how to do it, and I believe he'd be pragmatically progressive. When the Decider stuff comes up. And when Hillary wins, I'll support her.