Slick Willy in Soonerland

Former President (and now stumping for Hillary) Bill Clinton was on the University of Oklahoma campus today, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him. Chelsea was with him, too. Hillary, Obama and McCain now are the finalists in the highest honor in the land.
But please, pay attention. This is one of the most crucial moments in our history, especially as the world is growing up. We need someone who is going to make it happen in that Oval Office.
Are we headed for a recession? Will the healthcare issue get addressed? At this point, I don't care if Mickey Mouse is in the White House. Can he make it happen for America?
I have a soft spot for education. I was a poor kid in a trailer in rural Ohio who just happened to have a dream of being a better person, and people helped me. Lots of people helped me, and I was boosted by a system that granted me scholarships and grants, free money when my single mother couldn't help me.
And I want to see other poor kids and middle class kids and anyone else who wants to better themselves get that same chance. I don't necessarily believe that we can eradicate poverty as a societal ill, so I don't really agree with the approach John Edwards is taking, though I appreciate his message.
People have to be shown how to do better for themselves, and more importantly, they've got to want to do better. I do believe that most people want to do better. But they have to have the access to the tools, and they have to be shown how to use those tools. You can hand someone a toolbox, but unless they're instructed on the differences in the tools and how to use each one correctly, they're going to stumble and get frustrated and not really want to do it at all anymore unless they're shown.
It's that silly thing called human nature.
And when more people do better, it's a basic tenet of economics that those rising standards raise standards for more than not.
But something has changed. An undergraduate degree isn't a guarantee of a career anymore; it's merely a start, like kindergarten for adulthood. And somehow, you have to find a way to pay for a master's degree, and I watch everyone around me swim in debt just to make it happen. Mounds and mounds of debt. If you listen to financial pundits, it's supposedly good debt.
And the subprime mess in housing is an even bigger issue that no one really seems to be addressing. Clinton did address it today, which I appreciated.
We can do better for everyone. Afterall, we live in the greatest country on Earth, where a poor kid in a trailer can boost herself up if she so chooses.