What I learned from candidates at the endorsement rap sessions:

•This is no time for taxes. Budgets need axes. Line by line. Like you do all the time. That being said, vital services need protectin’. Corruption’s an infection. Need a leadership injection.

•This election is not about them; it’s about you. Especially if you’re like them.

•The Washington Assessment of Student Learning is so over. Liberals and conservatives alike have affixed a dunce cap and kicked it into the hallway. Oh, we’ll still have some form of standardized testing, but it will be cheaper and less onerous. You know, the kind we had before reform.

•Guess that immigration issue got solved.

•To repeat, just a terrible time to raise taxes. So what’s a good time? Never.

•Before “at the end of the day,” what did candidates say?

Plumber leaks news. Did Americans really not know we have a progressive income tax system before Joe the Plumber broke the story? Did they think they shouldered the same tax burden as the rich? Here’s a fun fact from factcheck.org:

“The share now borne by the top 1 percent is the highest it has been since 1979, the earliest year for which CBO has figures. And surprisingly, it is larger than in 2000, the last year of President Bill Clinton’s administration, before President Bush signed a series of tax cuts that benefited upper-income taxpayers by cutting the top rate on federal income taxes, cutting the rate on capital gains taxes and reducing the estate tax.”

So if that’s an indication of socialism, then the Bush administration has led a quiet revolution. So how is it that wealthy people’s taxes can be slashed while increasing their tax burden? Because the top 1 percent has a greater share of national wealth. The last time so much money was concentrated at the top was 1928. We know what happened the next year.

In 2005, the income of the top 10 percent of earners rose 14 percent. The other 90 percent saw a 0.6 percent drop. The lower classes would love to pay more taxes if it meant they were making more money. Instead, they keep falling further behind.

So, yeah, let’s pass the hat for the beleaguered rich.

Closet elitist. One of the supposedly endearing qualities of Sarah Palin was that she was a hockey mom with five kids and the everyday challenges Americans could relate to. So what to make of the news that the Republican Party spent $150,000 on her for clothes, hair styling and makeup at elite boutiques, such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue? That’s three years’ worth of income for the median American household … on shopping sprees.

Can we really trust a woman who doesn’t shop the sales? In any event, it looks Paris Hilton has just found her new Best Friend Forever.