I had about finished my coffee when Freddy showed up looking a bit worse for wear.
"You're in pain," I said.
"I'm fine, my wallet's not," Freddy said. "Dental appointment."
"Going to or coming from?" I asked.
"Pain both ways," Freddy said. "What was left of a broken tooth going, and what was left in my wallet coming."
"No insurance?" I asked.
"That, and no assurance it'll last," Freddy said. "At our age, you never know. The cap's new — what's under it was new back when Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover."
"The New Deal," I said. "Those were the days. Talk about desperation? No federal cushion back then."
"And no hope springing internal, either," Freddy said. "It took our war to turn things around."
"Springing eternal, not internal," I said.
"I said what I meant to say," Freddy said. "When there's not enough food on the table to go around, that's internal."
"Well, we're not there yet," I said.
"Not for the likes of us," Freddy said, "but it's not just whether there's food on the table. It's whether there's enough gas in the tank to get from here to wherever. It's about millions living on part-time income. It's about not heating the house. It's about kids going into long-term debt to pay for college, and scraping the barrel to find jobs, and it's about those on Social Security trying to stretch checks month to month."
"Well, Congress just lengthened unemployment compensation," I said.
"With dollars that won't buy as much as they did last year because prices keep rising, and not just at the gas pump," Freddy said.
"Enough already," I said. "What's your point?"
"Insecurity up and down the income ladder," Freddy said. "It's what voters are going to take to the polls come November. Doesn't matter how well off they are, which party or no party."
"And you're basing that on what?" I asked.
"On too many not finding any signs of stability," Freddy said. " Doesn't matter where you look. The rich are a target for tax hikes, the poor are getting less for what they're getting because prices are going up. Those in college have run the total tab up to a trillion dollars and no one has a clue about what the future looks like."
"And it's been on Obama's watch," I said.
"While Democrats ruled everything in both houses until the Republicans took over the House and gave him the target he needs to win four more years," Freddy said.
"Well, Republican targets have a lot of holes in them from self-inflicted wounds," I said. "Whoever has been up one week has been down the next. They all had a shot at it, but now it's really between Rick Santorum and Romney."
"Because the circular firing squad left bodies everywhere," Freddy said. "They're down the two of them, but Newt's out there scratching for more campaign money. Ron Paul's got as much as he's going to get, and Democrats don't have much to do but stay out of the lines of fire."
"Romney's spending money like there's no tomorrow," I said.
"For three reasons," Freddy said. "First he has to. Second, he can, but if he runs short the movers and shakers in the business world will see that he gets it because they see four more years of Obama as a disaster. As for thirdly, Santorum's support comes from those making under $100,000 a year and there are lot more of them than there are those making more."
• • •
Bill Plante is a Newbury resident and a staff columnist.
Raw Video: Man Saved After Niagara Falls Plunge
Tiger's Ex-Wife Bares Her Bod
Raw Video: Private Rocket Blasts Off
'Part of Me' Details 'Bumpy' Marriage, Says Katy
Swingers: Hooking Up With Strangers
Donald Driver Goes Country
Man ties himself to trees to get anonymous sex
Bar Takes It Off For Maxim
4 Arrested After Man's Beating at Dodger Stadium
Kardashian Sisters Pose in Lingerie
'Too Hot' to work
Raw Video: Dramatic 270-Foot Waterfall Rescue
Gosselin Wants New Reality Show
Manning on Target at First Practice
Best of 2012 Billboard Music Awards
Wedding photos interrupted by protest march
Michael Jackson's lost concert footage
Kelly Clarkson Flaunts Figure
NATO agrees on 2013 handover to Afghans
Skydiver to parachute from space
