John McCain likes to start his speeches with "My friends..." It's folksy, it's got charm and, for a minute, it might even have you thinking that John McCain IS your friend, someone who understands your pain and knows how to help.

Well, here's what I'd like to tell my friend John McCain:

1. We need tax cuts for middle-class Americans, not tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations;
2. We need to cut our dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels as soon as possible so that a) gas prices won't be at the whim of OPEC and b) we might actually be able to save the planet.
3. We need pay equity among men and women.
4. We need to end the war in Iraq and redeploy the $10 billion a month we're spending over there over HERE so that we can rebuild our country's infrastructure.
5. We need to retrain workers who have lost their jobs in struggling industries.
6. We need to support unions and farmers.
7. We need universal health care so that catastrophic illness won't destroy families.
8. We need tighter regulations in the financial sector so that Wall Street bankers won't treat mortgage money like monopoly money.
9. We need alternative energy to be the NORM, not the alternative.
10. We need a leader who understands the economy.

Looks to me like my friend in November is gonna be Barack Obama.