re: Americans buy things
I paid for my groceries with a credit card last week because I didn't have any cash on me. Not everyone has a debit card.
Do you have any statistics on how many people are one or two paychecks away from disaster? Do you have any evidence that if there are such people, they only suddenly appeared when Bush was elected? Kind of like the homeless? Or maybe they've been around since Washington was president. I was there for the last six months. I got past it. It's called life.
I understand it's essential to paint America as being in the economic toilet between now and November, but don't work so hard at it.