Yesterday’s stock-market surge was at least a temporary all-clear for millions of Americans to emerge from the shock and awe that has devastated their financial lives. As they look around at the rubble of savings, 401ks and home values, what are they thinking and feeling?
Across the country, there are reports of victims. “In some places,” CNN reports, “mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full.”
In this disordered emotional climate, the wounded will be asked to decide on whom to trust to heal the national economy. Barack Obama and John McCain are offering band-aids, George W. Bush is dispensing bromides, but there is no national figure to “feel their pain.”
In tomorrow night’s debate, the presidential candidates will be under great pressure to posture as economic saviors in a situation ripe for demagoguery. McCain will no doubt promise to fight our way out and Obama to think through the disaster, but what voters will be searching for, more than ever, is empathy and trust.
The financial rescue farce of the past two weeks has made politicians of all stripes look foolish and impotent.