Forget Iraq, US Is in Need of Nation-Building

The key issue in the presidential election won’t be national security or Iraq, as many once believed—it will be how to fix our ailing nation at home, writes Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. “We are a country in debt and in decline—not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline,” Friedman notes. What we need is a president who can restore a broken political system.

Though we’re facing serious issues—bank bailouts, surging fuel and food prices, and climbing unemployment—Washington seems incapable of moving to fix them. Friedman cites Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib, who noted last week, “America and its political leaders, after two decades of failing to come together to solve big problems, seem to have lost faith in their ability to do so.” “We need nation-building at home,” Friedman writes. “Vote for the candidate who will do that best. Nothing else matters.” (More economy stories.)