The Amtrak sleeping car passenger lounge: All is not well here in the U.S.A.

2 comments September 25th, 2008

It’s 4 p.m., and I’m ensconced in the spacious, nicely appointed Union Station sleeping car passenger lounge. A group of 20 or so are sitting in the comfortable couches and chairs, eating free munchies and watching Wolf Blitzer and the CNN pundits try to describe what’s going on with the $700 billion scheme to bail out the Wall Street investment banks that made a mess of the economy.

Amtrak passengers shake their heads and laugh in disgust as Wolf explains that the president and Congress can’t agree on what the bailout should look like, and indeed, whether there should even be one. Wolf announces a poll that says by 53 percent to 42 percent, Americans believe John McCain should fly to Ole Miss and debate Barack Obama.

I strike up a conversation with  Leo Kennedy of Perrysburg, Ohio. He’s going home with his wife on Train # 30, The Capitol Limited. Now retired, he was  plant manager at a factory in Michigan that makes plastic packaging. “See that Coke bottle,” he says, pointing to a nearby table. “I designed that.”

So, what does Leo make of the economic situation the country’s in?

“It’s an absolute disaster,” Kennedy says. “There’s been no regulations, and you have the fox guarding the hen house. People bought homes they could not afford, cars they couldn’t afford. My 401(k) is almost gone. What the hell am I going to live on? President Bush pops up on the TV screen, which prompts Leo to call him an “idiot, a moron” and other words that you know but which I shall not repeat.

“I’m tired of getting screwed. If I were 19, I would start a revolution. The two-party system sucks; you’ve got crooks on both sides. Take that $700 billion and cancel all the foreclosures, just cancel ‘em out. Help the little guy.”

“Bill Clinton may have been an (deleted) but at least we had a surplus, I could afford a gallon of gas and a T bone steak once in a while.”

So, who will Kennedy vote for on Nov. 4?

“Bugs Bunny,” he says. “Obama has pie in the sky; McCain has nothing in the sky, including brains.”