CNN Money reports today that the U.S. economy is the “weakest in 3 years”. This is bad news for the Republicans, who have tried so hard in recent weeks to show us that they are working their butts off, so that we can re-elect them.

GDP, the article said, grew at a pitiful 1.6% in the third quarter—mainly due to slowdowns in the housing market, and a widening trade deficit. (For those of you unfamiliar, the trade deficit measures the amount of US good sold outside of the country, versus the number of foreign goods sold within the US. A deficit means that other countries are buying less of our goods than we buy of theirs.)

And the election is just two weeks away.

An interesting fact is that economists thought that after gas prices fell in the 2nd quarter, consumer spending, which had also taken a dive, would pick up significantly. It didn’t.

As I mentioned in my article, “Ok. Not Again”, it’s not smart to take the American people for stupid. By and large, we are quite intelligent, and we have excellent memories. The current Administration has given us a different spin every day, seemingly just to move the Republican political agenda—whatever it is-- forward.

But, we remember the discrepancies; yes, we do.

We remember the excuses you made as to why gas prices were rising, rising, rising—without a cap in sight…You told us then that gas prices had been artificially deflated, and that they were simply adjusting to where they should have been in the first place. And, it was a great thing for the oil companies—they could explore more North American oil sources with the profits they received (to make us less dependent on the Middle East), and also do more research into alternate energy sources.

We also remember how higher energy prices trickled down to almost everything we purchased, because almost all of goods in this country are moved, at some point, via land. Our real buying power shrunk substantially, because everything cost more.

We remember how crowded our public transportation system was during our daily commute to work, because folks couldn’t afford to fill up their tanks as often.

That’s probably why, when gas prices fell, we didn’t go out in droves like you expected us to. You see, we still didn’t trust that the drops were permanent. After all, we had been told that gas prices were rising to reflect the true cost of bringing it into our neighborhoods…

We also remember when the Defense Department finally admitted that it underestimated the probability of insurgency in Iraq. I don’t think that troubled us nearly as much as learning that, in the same month they admitted fault, October 2006, we found that October had been the deadliest month for U.S. serviceman in Iraq since the conflict began.

So, your announcement earlier this week that the Iraqis have accepted a timetable for governing themselves, over the next 18 months, is bittersweet. Some of our loved ones will be walking onto U.S. soil, tired but well. Others will be in a coffin.

Still, you waited until three weeks prior to the election, and for the polls to show that we were dissatisfied with your current policy in Iraq, to force the Iraqis to accept responsibility for governing themselves.

We also remember the early days, when middle management in corporate America took a devastating blow, because your Administration thought that flattening the U.S. corporate management structure would provide more efficiency, and grow the world economy. Middle managers were let go in droves.

Senior managers were saddled with all types of miniscule duties that they simply weren’t used to handling. To relieve the pressure, we were told that certain types of work could be outsourced, particularly information technology, meaning that we could send it out of the country (especially, to India) and get the same product more cheaply. U.S. corporations would save billions, and it would be good for the world economy.

But you didn’t say where the newly unemployed middle managers in the U.S. would work. They did everything from sell insurance to work as personal bankers. With incomes at half of what they had once made, they opted to pay their mortgages, and forget the other debt. Bankruptcy rates soared.

Within a few months, creditors pushed back because they were losing a fortune. Bankruptcy laws ultimately became more restrictive.

Then you told us that there were jobs out there, but we needed to switch industries. We were behind other countries, e.g., Japan, in our technological knowledge and savvy. So, floods of Americans opted to buckle down, in jobs that paid them much less than they once made, and go back to school. Once they completed training, they demanded higher salaries.

In the meantime, senior managers, still stuck with too few people, and dissatisfied with off-shoring work, started to rehire middle managers. The financially devastated middle class, to whom most of this former middle-management group belonged, finally had the means to rebuild itself.

They’ve still got a long way to go…

But, your story doesn’t end there. Your policies came full circle when we proved that while offshore always meant cheaper; it did not always mean better. IT jobs began to open up again in the U.S.—and guess what? Professionals from those countries that we outsourced to immigrated to the U.S.!

Why? The wages were better.

I think I’ve made my point.

You’ve been all over the place, Bush Administration and Republican Congress. It’s time for a change.

We’ve been educated and miseducated. Through it all, we learned this for sure—you’re not doing a good job.

Two weeks and counting…