President Obama Has 'Grit'

As I filled my tank the other day for about $80 I overheard another customer dissing our President for high gas prices. 

There are many factors that influence the price of gas including, I think, political factors; albeit, many out of control of the current administration and dictated by the upcoming elections to influence voters and their concerns about our economy.

Also, I don’t often find myself agreeing with Jason Lewis, as in his article in Sunday's Mpls Tribune editorial, but I have to state that he was right on when he stated the DFL has "moved wildly leftward," although much of his reasoning for this statement was wrongheaded. I say this from experience running as a DFL candidate myself in the past.

Sometimes I think the local DFLers, that I consider myself part of growing up in Woodbury, find the pressure of conforming 100% to the party line takes away from our ability to attract people to get involved in politics. What started as a “Big Tent” party has become fractured into small special interest groups that have their own agenda regardless of the greater good for all the people of our community.

It’s sad but true when some say that today’s local DFLers are far from the party of JFK and even President Carter.

Likewise, the Republican Party is far more right today than when President Reagan ran the country. I think the reason may lie in the special interests of each party and the willingness of the leaders to not stand up to the party ideologues. (Which I believe I did and cost me any future chance of candidacy with the DFL, which is OK.)

I think that DFL principles of helping folks out when needed and giving everybody a fair shot at succeeding are great and admirable, and the Republicans have some great principles of integrity, grit, and rewarding hard work, as well.

What I see today though from both major political parties is the further one party moves to the right, the other party finds it acceptable to move to the left to the same degree, which is totally out of character for each party.

So, getting back to my original statement about high gas prices, these fuel costs hurt the most people I our community, the poor more than the rich and all of the middle class folks living on a budget. So, instead of blaming for the high prices we should all be working together to find solutions to lowering the cost of fuel so everybody can prosper and our economy can come out of the funk it is currently in for most Americans.

I also support President Obama, not because he is a Democrat or a Republican, but because I feel that with 4 more years and by not having to worry about getting re-elected, he will look out for the interests of all the people of our communities and not only the special interests of certain groups so we can all succeed in making our country better for everybody, instead of more gridlock into the future.