But the rest of us lived steadily better lives. Look it up. By the way, here are the last two lines of the FDR speech I quoted:

"I should like to have it said of my first administration that in it the forces of selfishness and lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second administration that in it these forces met their master." Big shoes to fill, Barack. So go for it. 

Can't recall: Back when the Legislature passed the governor's controversial agenda, a lot of angry folks vowed to recall pretty much the whole lot. Well, not to say I told you so ... but two weeks ago the Recall Rick campaign admitted they had collected nowhere near enough signatures to get a recall on the November ballot. They claimed, however, to have "woken a slumbering giant."

To which MLive blogger Jeff Wattrick sagely observed, "at which point the 'slumbering giant' that is the people yawned, rolled over and fell back asleep." Turns out the recallers also totally failed to get enough signatures to try to oust any state legislators, except possibly one — the seriously loopy Paul Scott, a Grand Blanc Republican who chairs the state House Education Committee. Scott was the guy who tried to get the GOP nomination for secretary of state last year. He had one big issue: Vowing to prevent transsexuals from changing their sex on their drivers' licenses.

Sanity, for once, struck his Republican colleagues, who said, "No thanks." After being foiled in this attempt to guard the public morals, Scott confessed that he had impregnated a former staffer. Did he plan to marry her? Well, no. Despite these shenanigans, my guess is that it was not his nuttiness but the teachers' unions that helped get enough signatures to set up his recall, if that is the case.

If a recall does get on the ballot and Scott is removed, neither of which is yet certain, how will that change the balance of power?

It won't. Not one bit, even if he were to be replaced with a raving liberal Democrat. So before you strap on a clipboard, try recalling instead that there are better outlets for your energy.

> Email Jack Lessenberry