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"May I?....

High oil prices cause hard time for America’s middle class "

You most certainly may, and I am glad you do. Sharply rising food prices in the USA absolutely will become a prime political theme for the November elections if the trends persist.

While pollsters point to the economy as the number one issue among voters presently, that is an extremely broad area of concern. Food and water are the most fundamental of human needs, even transcending shelter and fuel. Only oxygen laden air in the atmosphere that is not an economic commodity is the equal of food and water in importance to survival.

Food is an item of immediacy. I certainly don't know how, or if this will play out in the fall elections, but if it did come into play, I do know how it would play out. Because of the immediacy of food requirements, McCain's position to make permanent the Bush tax cuts will not play well to voters that could be facing foods problems at the time of the elections. Those voters won't be thinking of what they might get to eat a year or more down the road, but what they need to eat in the present. These same voters will not be thinking of universal health care and college tuition plan packages promoted by Clinton or Obama either. People cannot consume somewhere-in-the-future tax cuts, universal health plans, or future college degrees.

The last time inflationary food prices played a role in presidential politics was 1980 when Ronald Reagan asked the question, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" Then inflation was hitting more broadly on all items.

The USDA is projecting a large increase in farm lands used for wheat production in the USA this year, which would in-turn drive food prices down in 2009. That would be too late to have an impact at the voting booths if inflationary food prices are an immediate issue in November.