The State Of The Union: Foreclosures, Bush, Wal-Mart and Hard Math

Foreclosures are up 75% in 2007.

President Bush's approval ratings are in the low 30's.

Wal-Mart is dropping its prices 10-30%.

"Yet Mr. Bush devoted relatively little of his 53 minute speech to the economy, the issue that is the top concern of voters during this election year. He spent far more time talking about the issue that has been his own primary concern, Iraq."

Mr. Bush made the case that his troop buildup had “achieved results few of us could have imagined just one year ago” (NYT)

When the man is right, he's right. Few of us could have imagined losing our homes, or resigning ourselves to the reality that there will be permanent bases and troops in Iraq for the next 20 years or so, or that people in Kenya would be getting hacked to death and not a peep about it is heard out of the White House since they don't even have enough money to order pizza, let alone send some military manpower to help out, or....

Nothing seems to add up anymore.

On the bright side, President Bush did say he will give $300 million dollars for scholarship money to low-income children in struggling schools.

A whole $300 million. Wow. The current running tab of the war is at $489,852, 420, 319. Yes, that's in billions. Bush's dedication to education in America is the equivalent of you going out and buying a kick-ass $20,000 stereo system while being responsible enough to set aside a whole nickel for your child to eat.

Let's hope the mathematics of the next election make a little more sense.