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To the President, all GOP Candidates — solutions needed now!

The Labor Day weekend is dubbed the “marathon” of presidential campaigning. For four days, Republicans of all stripes head to New Hampshire and other primary states to spread their rhetoric, to glad-hand and wave at the new forces of American politics, as in the Tea Party is no longer “them,” it has become “us.”

And while President Obama practices his upcoming September 8 not-quite-prime-time jobs speech to a joint session of Congress – just before kick-off for the first NFL game of the season – and House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH) puts together his version of U.S. economics 101 for delivery to the DC Economics Club on September, 15, it’s abundantly clear neither party takes this nation’s economic woes seriously as an immediate problem. Instead, this is all stage dressing for November, 2012.

Is Rep. Michelle Bachman (R, MN) the next Margaret Thatcher as she implied this week? Is Mitt Romney going to become the darling of the Tea Party? Is Texas Gov. Rick Perry George Bush-lite? Why doesn’t anyone want to hear from former Utah Gov. John Huntsman? Where’s Rudy Giuliani? And is Sarah Palin running for president and should we care?

The answers to these questions is obvious to me. Who really cares? These folks must think the American public is so dense as to not get what’s going on. We want action now! We’re not getting answers, we’re getting the politics of personality and character assassination. The rhetoric of this campaign is white noise to most of us because no candidate is offering pragmatic, “here’s-how-it’s-going-to-work” solutions for an ailing economy, plagued by a housing industry still on its knees, employment floundering, and corporations bemoaning the second highest corporate tax rate in the world while sitting on $2 trillion in unspent cash.

The GOP talks about cutting regulatory burdens and helping out small business. Swell, how are they going to do that? I don’t want to hear another word from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R, VA) on the broad strokes of how his party wants to make things right, I want to see the specifics. The President talks about taxing the rich (I call that pandering and a bit condescending) and infrastructure spending – that’s construction jobs mainly – knowing he’s about to offer a plan September 8, two-thirds of which will be dead on arrival on Capitol Hill with the GOP and a good number of his own party brothers and sisters, according to White House reporters “with knowledge of what the President’s speech contains.”

I’m tired of hearing about what the other guy hasn’t done; I want to hear from each and every candidate his or her detailed plan for digging us out of this economic hole now. I want to hear from a candidate of any political stripe – Whig, Libertarian, GOP, Democrat, monarchist, flat-earther, whatever – a plan incorporating good ideas, solutions with track records of success no matter where they come from – that’s called being honest – and I want someone with the guts to confront the 800-lb. gorilla in the room as in revenue increases. It’s one thing to cut spending, but over time people suffer if the cash isn’t there to care of what needs taking care of.

I hear no one talking about the reality of running this country. I want truth spoken in the context of what’s good for America, not what’s good for someone’s political future. I, like most Americans, don’t care who “controls” Congress or the White House if they’re smart, practical people willing to make tough decisions. I want someone to acknowledge it’s not the size of government that’s scary, it’s a government of any size that can’t find it’s back end with both hands. Efficiencies are needed, waste must be eliminated, archaic tax loopholes offering no benefit other than a back-slapping payback to a big constituency need to disappear, and the tax system must be reinvented fairly so individuals and companies have an incentive to innovate, invest and grow.

And, I’m tired of excuses, no matter who’s offering them.

I just shared this with a buddy. His response? “Is that all?,” he said, then chuckled, adding, “Remember, people in hell want ice water, too.”