At a popular cafe in Sweetwater, Texas, a lunchtime crowd gathered for a home-style spread of chicken, brisket, beans, corn and cobbler. A group of men passed the time talking about their children, the oil business, and big-government liberals: how, exactly, were they planning to pay for their stimulus package? The men had reason to complain: oil is trading at less than $50 a barrel. Still, they were sanguine. A man from Coahoma even had a sympathetic word for Barack Obama: he himself had been on the city council for 12 years, and it was nothing but a headache.rnTheir calm is not so surprising. Times are tough in Texas, and things will get worse before they get better. But compared with what has happened in other states, Texas's wounds are scratches.
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