But is John McCain missing the boat on high speed railways? He needs to go along for the ride with Barack Obama . Mr. Obama may be a socialist, paint-by-the-numbers liberal wonk, but he sees above the horizon with his infrastructure proposals.

One of the few good uses of massive government spending, besides defense, is infrastructure. But defense spending raises inflation; it pumps huge money into the economy, but the products and services it creates can't be purchased. So more money in the economy chasing the same amount of goods and services, weakens the dollar.

But the amount of money Obama is proposing to spend on infrastructure would lend a vastly beneficial impetus to the economy. Infrastructure spending generates huge job growth, and the results are semi- permanent...the benefits are there until the concrete and steel begins to crumble.

Everyone's heard Obama's boilerplate standard stump speech..."Hey North Carolina"...or "How are we doing today Milwaukee "...ugh.  He begins them all the same way, and delivers them with the same vacuous blather about hope and change; free college tuition, etc.

But lately Obama has brightened up the blandness with a new tack..."Connecting cities by economic corridors of high speed rail networks." Bingo Barack!...a home run idea from the man with no other plan, other than the re-hashed robin hood proposals of more government and higher taxes.

But at least Obama has one thing right. If we don't update the infrastructure soon, our overripe roads, sewers and bridges will be rotten in less than a decade. So give the man credit for something no other candidate has mentioned in any of the primaries...the railroads.

High speed rail would have made sense for the  U.S. twenty, thirty, or even fifty years ago. If we had placed high speed rail right-of-ways parallel to all the interstate highways built in the 50's and 60's, this nation would never have had an energy crisis. But the original intention of the interstates was for national defense- rapid military transport during wartime. No one ever assumed the highways would become so vital to travelers, commuters, and interstate commerce. If that had been assumed back then, they would've made the roadways 20 inches thick with concrete, and built the bridges with rust-resistant steel alloys.

But ever since, we have an orange-barrel/construction zone season in the summer, and pothole/corrosion season in the winter. When one area is patched , the next must be dealt with. Not only is this a huge annual tax drain, there's no permanence to it; sort of like renting an apartment vs. buying  one's own home. The government gets nothing in return for its money, other than a mild boost to the local economies who do the repairs that year.

Now if John McCain were to climb on the high speed rail bandwagon, he could play upon the one, massive weakness in the Obama plan: government ownership. If McCain's plan would be based on privatization of the new rail networks, people could buy tax free construction bonds in Burlington Northern, Chessie, B&O, and Norfolk Western.This worked well 150 years ago when the government granted Union pacific and Central Pacific the cheap land for the transcontinental railroad's right of ways back then, and it would work again.

Face it, anything owned or run by the government never succeeds, because no one has any incentive to perform above mediocrity. Amtrak is always in the red for this reason. Could the transcontinental railroad of the 1860's been finished by 1869 if the government owned it? The two private companies worked at a maniacal pace to finish it because they were motivated by the profits that would begin immediately. The nation grew rapidly after the completion of the railroad, because regional markets became national ones almost overnight.

This same boost would be realized nowadays, only in the form of efficiency, and providing an alternative to the current horrific state of air travel. It would save Americans time and gasoline, and jet fuel would be conserved.

The benefits of high speed rail construction would be permanent. There'd be high-paying, skilled employment creation. We'd have steel and manufacturing jobs, railroad and construction jobs, engineering and technology employment. America would see a steel industry revival.

And in this pricey energy era, what's more practical than high-speed FREIGHT TRAIN corridors spanning the nation? The benefits in time and diesel fuel saved, and the reduced damage to the interstate highway system from 40-ton trucks would be enormous- possibly eliminating the need for the federal gas tax. Picture inter-modal, 100-car high speed freight trains, piggy-backing 200 semi trailers across the country at  90 MPH ...how energy-efficient would that be? Speedy just-in-time deliveries would boost the nation's GDP, and reduce OPEC imports by a huge percentage.

So are ya listening out there Mr. McCain ? Aren't you tired of the pro-democrat pundits that say you're the next George Bush ? Well then show 'em...you  ARE the maverick when it comes to the economy. Praise Obama for his idea of high speed rail corridors, and then nail him to the wall about how the government would bungle the thing up, just like they always do. The best strategy is always to take the strong point of your opponent, and turn it against them.

And for God sakes, once you're elected, then see to it that your administration actually gets it off the ground and moving forward. Call it whatever you want...the next Apollo moon shot, or the next Manhattan project. Just co-opt the Nike slogan for your motto...just do it!