So here we were at our editorial meeting and my editors were telling me that I couldn't get away with a one paragraph editorial about how we should elect the guy because of his Palm device. They suggested that I might show some awareness of the issues or at least act like I'm a concerned citizen. Ok, fine. I'll write something that's not the "Casper movie" of editorials (I like what my friend calls "Casper movies", fun movies with little substance and lots of explosions, rather than deep, moving, content-filled movies that'll put you to sleep even with a fist-full of Vivarin in you).

Oh, yeah, I was also prohibited from mentioning cigars, anyone named Monica, or even thinking about how fun it'd be to see Hillary in the same room with Strom Thurmond. So, since this is an election issue and I'm supposed to do a "concerned citizen" editorial, here we go. Let me know if I seem concerned enough for you. I think I can sneak it by my editors.

What if 2002 were like 1992? What if we were in the deep hurt of another massive recession? Eight years ago, in case you forgot, our economy was in deep trouble. Ten million people were out of work. Interest rates were skyrocketing, and the budget deficit was $290 billion and rising. Things pretty much sucked.

When we, as a nation of citizens, choose a president, we're choosing the direction the country will take for the next four to eight years.

I, for one, don't want to go back to 1992.

There are other what-if questions that come to mind when choosing the right person for the job.

Here's a tough one: what if women lost the right to choose? Regardless of how you feel about the abortion issue, what would our country be like if generations of women, raised with the constitutional right to own their own bodies, suddenly discovered their bodily functions were regulated by government fiat?

What about the environment? On one hand, you've got a guy who claims to be an environmental guru, and on the other, you've got two guys who grew up in oil companies. Can we really let oil cartels drill in the middle of our few remaining wildlife preserves?

And what about the Internet? Fortunately, at least in this area, both candidates have the right general idea. Gore wants to make the Internet a permanent "duty free" zone, and Bush wants to keep the 'Net free of taxes for at least five years (though one wonders what the sixth year might bring).