By the time you read this, the 2008 presidential election will be over. Presumably, Barack Obama is now president-elect, but maybe not.

The U.S. president is our most distant, inaccessible political leader, yet Americans take the presidential election very personally. Such is the power of mass media.

I don’t pay much attention to presidential politics until the final few days. That’s when the rubber meets the road.

Not surprisingly, it gets down to money. The Democrat is going to give you money. The Republican is going to let you keep your money. Nice and simple.

If you pay taxes, the Republican promise sounds good. If you receive benefits, the Democratic promise sounds good. It worked the same way back in Roman times when mass elections first began.

Obama has taken over-promising to a whole new level. He promises to increase your benefits and lower your taxes. That sounds too good to be true.

Over the years, I have learned - the hard way - that it’s far better to under promise and over deliver. Unfortunately, that’s no way to win an election.

This reminds me of when Ray Mabus ran for governor, promising that Mississippi would never be last again. Apparently, many Mississippi took him literally and were promptly disgusted when things didn’t change a bit.

Obama is going to have to do some major league back pedaling. His supporters aren’t going to like it one bit. The money has to come from somewhere. The “rich” are experts at tax avoidance. Usually, it’s the middle class that gets hammered.

A popular quote, supposedly originating from 18th century American political writer Alexander Tytler, has recently been making the rounds.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”

I beg to differ. The loose fiscal policy, rather than lapsing into dictatorship, results in the defeat of the incumbent party.

To win a majority, you must get half the votes. So the Democrats have to make sure at least half the voters don’t pay income taxes. This is where America is today.

The problem becomes paying the bill. When the super rich hire accountants to figure out tax avoidance schemes, the Democrats are forced to tax more and more people to pay for the promised benefits to keep their majority.

At some point, the balance tips. The Democrats end up having to tax more than half the people. Then they lose that narrow majority that won them the election.

You end up with a perfectly balanced, self-correcting, stable political system. That’s the great beauty of the two-party system.

There are variations to this theme. Rather than raise taxes, the Democrats can go into debt. The effect is the same. This causes inflation. Voters get mad and vote Republican.

This over promising works both ways. Republicans promise to lower everybody’s taxes. Combined with huge defense expenditures, this can also cause insolvency. The economy declines, voters get mad, and in come the Democrats.

This is all natural, predictable and ultimately healthy. What amazes me is how many people actually believe all the rhetoric that accompanies the political posturing.

Life is harsh, even in the U.S. Imagine what it’s like elsewhere. Globalism has beaten down some of the gates surrounding our privileged paradise.

It bugs me that so many Americans look to the president as some sort of personal savior. Obama grated on my nerves when he would say, “I will do this” or “I will do that.” As though he would personally wave a magic wand and make all our hardships go away.

It’s not like the world hasn’t tried out socialism. Western Europe is still struggling with the low-growth and high unemployment caused by excessive government economic intrusion. The countries with freest markets are thriving. This is indisputable. Big government goes hand in hand with low growth.

I support candidates who don’t over promise. Freedom, liberty, inalienable rights, independence . . . these are my watch words. The founders of this great country got it right.

This country was founded on equality before the law. Equality of results is a much trickier equation. Think of the millions massacred in the name of communism.

Any first grade teacher knows there’s inequality in the world. No amount of grade inflation can make it go away. The key is to have a society in which talent and genius can flourish, thereby benefitting us all.