A strong pick-off move

   You know the idea of a shellacking is a bit of an understatement of what happened on Tuesday.
   No matter what your political stripe, Nov. 2, 2010, was more of a step up of the Realists who said, "Fix this mess or you're gone. You've spent a ton of money and we see nothing for it."
   This mind-set shall remain until the recovery is complete {that is, until people have jobs — which could be some time}.
   You could tell from the media coverage that even though the Republicans reaped a heap of gains, they know in the front of their heads that if they don't deliver 'jobs, jobs, jobs', that they won't have jobs in 2012 either.
  The word from the ballot box reflects a tough road for Washington.
   There's a frustration deepening in the country with fears of the future and it seems China holds all the cards.
   The unspoken social contract that existed in the United States between company and worker has been obliterated.
   Hard work does not seem to pay off: you are expendable, preferably before you become to "too expensive" to keep.
   The Democrats got clobbered because they got so off base on standing up for Joe Six-pack that the Republicans picked them off like fish in a barrel. The government count of the jobless remains at 9.6%, but everybody knows the actual number is closer to 20%. Believe it.
   Perhaps the Tea Party will morph into a viable third party, or some other organization will rise as an option before 2012. Remember Ross Perot and the impact he had in 1992? The man was a lunatic: dropped out of the race in July, got back in October and still got nearly 20% of the vote!
   The country is ripe: there are more people who proclaim themselves to be independents than those who claim to belong to the GOP or Democratic Party.
   But who knows what's ahead.
   Because one other demon we deal with is the necessity for patience. Americans don't like to be told 'no' or 'you'll have to wait.' We just can't do it — we want what we want and we want it now!
   And it looks like a recovery — an actual recovery — is going to take a long time and a lot of patience.