Fear itself: "And no one seemed to be in charge."

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN: October 1, 2008
Fear itself
From CNN Contributor Bob Greene
ABOARD THE ELECTION EXPRESS



ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN)

....Heightened expectations? Unless the candidates on those stages can magically transform themselves into Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the people viewing are likely to feel let down and a little frightened.

Frightened as in “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” For that is where the country finds itself now. The just-a-game aspects of the presidential campaign – the Tina Fey/YouTube diversions, and all they symbolize – may be an amusing and pleasant time-killer. But when the candidates step onto the stage– Biden and Palin this week in their only debate before the election, McCain and Obama next week in the second of their three debates– few in their unseen and vast audience are going to be in the mood for lightheartedness.

Fear itself? When the stock market fell by more than 700 points on Monday, and then rose by almost 500 points on Tuesday, both sessions– the rise as well as the plunge– should have been enough to send a nauseating chill through anyone who worries that things are beyond anyone’s command. If a person, and not a financial market, were to exhibit that kind of erratic swing– plummeting to the most cavernous depths and then soaring wildly like seldom before– that person’s friends and loved ones would not be comforted by the day-after rise. They would conclude that the person might have a personality disorder, an illness– that something was terrifyingly wrong.

And they would look as hard as they could for someone who might know how to cure it.

Which is where the pressure on Biden and Palin, on McCain and Obama, comes in. Regardless of what else the candidates are asked to talk about in these next debates, the country is going to be interested in one thing above all others:

Who, if anyone, can lead us out of this?

The nation is going to be looking for a real president, and a real vice president.

The lights on those stages are going to be very bright. Unforgiving.

In the bar where sports fans gather, there were, in the middle of the day, intakes of breath around the room every few minutes, and involuntary vocal bursts of emotion. It wasn’t about a game. The numbers next to the stock charts on the TV screens were crazy, as in insane. And no one seemed to be in charge.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/01/greene-fear-itself/#more-21730