Consuming Less (Finally), Dooming G.O.P.?

U.S. Commerce Department reports retail sales for August 2007 rose just 0.3 percent, short of economists' forecasts for 0.5 percent rise. If you leave out auto sales, total retail sales DROPPED 0.4 percent versus a forecast 0.2 percent increase. It may be that consumers' collective purses have finally emptied enough so that discretionary purchases are postponed or avoided altogether. I have been predicting this since the Fed first raised interest rates and set the stage for debtor defaults. I blame the Feds, the Republicans, and the greedy banking elite. Oh, yes, and the oil companies that rob us every time we fill up. The big loser (besides the hard-working American family) has got to be the Republican Party. As if they needed another albatross like Iraq. If voters "vote with their pocketbooks" in 2008, the G.O.P. is doomed.