America is hurting. But you'd never know it from listening to Wall Street touts and White House spin doctors. The Dow is up. Unemployment is down. Trade deficits are high. Corporate taxes are low. All's right with the world.

Yeah, right!

To those who peddle such political pablum, I have three words of advice: Read the Map.

Spread across the covers of the print version of the  IAM Journal, that map proves that the JOBS! crisis is pervasive. Ironically, the Bush Administration made this map . . . and made it worse by its own indifference to the plight of the unemployed. Forget about red and blue states. Pay attention to those black, bruised and bleeding counties. They hold the key to this election.

And so do you. If you believe as I do, that Our Jobs Are Worth Fighting For, then this is one fight we cannot back down from. And it is one fight we can ― no ― we have to win.